Was it not Meatloaf who once sang, "Objects in the rear-view mirror, they appear closer than they are?" I don't think that's etched on my side-view mirrors on my car, or maybe it's just another one of those things I casually dismiss since I generally know how much space I need to cut in front of other drivers. At any rate, a discussion thattook place earlier today has me thinking about various perceptions and how my perspective changes as I pick and choose which perceptions to apply (or something like that. What follows is just one example. I feel there are several things I can discuss, possibly on some other slow day).
However, the primary example that comes to mind centers on the one(s) you love. Since I'm currently unattached, I think far more consideration goes into (probably needless) wondering about topical, superficial matters. (The infinite number of "What Kind of Guy ..." surveys in circulation does little to curb this wondering.) Does he have good posture - nice shoulders? Shoulders are important because a girl's gotta have sumpin' to hold on to you know. Yet nothing causes me to reconsider the "Be careful what you wish for" adage quite like some recent interactions with men with broad (and sloping) shoulders.
It calls to mind those scenes in Waiting To Exhale where Lela Rochon's character, Robin, is all in love with Russell (who goes by one name, Leon, in real life. I never understood what she saw in his slick-lookin' tail, but that's what I'm talkin' about more or less). Anyway, you may recall how she eventually gets swept off her feet by the pudgy, short, go-getter Michael (Wendell Pierce who may be better known as Bunk from The Wire. Shiiiiiiiiiiyid. Anyhow. Sorry. That was for me.)
I remember watching that movie with my mom and sister (she who always got a man), and when Michael used nearly all his might to carry Robin away, I was just shaking my head in disbelief. "But she's so pretty!" I remember thinking. "How could this happen?"
"Look at what she's found though," my mom added. "Sure is better than that fool grrrr'in', and it's definitely better than that lazy, greasy-lookin' Leon!" (Mags was still harboring some hateration towards Leon based on another slick performance in The Five Heartbeats.)
Anyway, you know that grrr'in' dude had some nice shoulders, too. Umph.
But then, ironically, I see myself in the computer screen reflection sitting like a broke-down Buddha and somehow I'm reminded that I probably shouldn't look for features and qualities in others which I myself do not possess (or at least look like I'm acquiring).