There’s an older gay man in my neighborhood I often see walking around. Sometimes with a much-younger partner (though I think they broke up?), once carrying some plants, but mainly on a post-workout stroll. I don’t know him or his business, let alone his inner life. Nor do I have any sort of proof that he
So much room to project what-about-me-ism into this discussion, which of course is what your post is largely about. As an aging gay man myself, I see your neighbor’s apparent contented freedom as very possibly (probably?) the result of adjusting to loneliness to the point that it’s just a low-grade constant in his life rather than crippling. (I realize your post was very much not discounting that possibility.)
Revisionist histories, part 2
So much room to project what-about-me-ism into this discussion, which of course is what your post is largely about. As an aging gay man myself, I see your neighbor’s apparent contented freedom as very possibly (probably?) the result of adjusting to loneliness to the point that it’s just a low-grade constant in his life rather than crippling. (I realize your post was very much not discounting that possibility.)