One day they will have to understand, there's more to love than boy meets girl
Lynne & I were on the Tube, going from one place to another in London. Where isn’t important, I can’t even remember now.
In our time in London, we had been seeing a lot of public displays of affection. I mean a lot of it.
One was a long goodbye by a Metro station, where guy & girl were making out and crying, and he had a small suitcase. They kept kissing, crying and there were a lot of “I’m going to miss you so much!” Once, he tried to walk down the steps, made it about 4 steps down, turned around and came back to kiss her again. And then, as we had to walk down the same steps, he kept looking back and blowing her kisses. It was all overly dramatic.
We got onto the metro going somewhere on Sunday evening. Standing in front of us are this dreadlocked white girl and her equally dirty looking boyfriend. (I know it is bad of me not to have an open mind, but I think all white people with dreadlocks look awful, just terrible.) He looked like he had been blonde at one time, but his hair was dingy, matted and brown now. And they are sucking face like there is no tomorrow. Going to town like they are alone. I even said aloud “Get a room,” but they are either too into each other or ignore me. A little old woman who was sitting nodded agreement to me after my comment.
At each stop, when the train would push them closer into each other, they would giggle with the different ways their bodies could touch. Several other passengers were looking at them, mostly of them clearly with disdain. They were at the back of the train near one of the door entrances, but off to one side. I was standing next to them, so I got the full experience, including sound effects.
Trying to avoid this show, I looked right behind me, and there were two men, both looked mid to late 20’s, tall and fair, one taller than the other (both taller than me, and I’m over 6’2”.) They looked very sleepy, and had a lot of luggage with them, so they were visiting the city (I do believe we were on a line from the Victoria Station, which connects directly to the airports, coming into the city instead of away from it.) We heard them speak, and Lynne was sure they were Russian (she has a good friend who is Russian and has heard it spoken more than I.)
If you aren’t familiar with the London Underground, most of the cars have two little cushions on either side of the emergency door that you can rest your bum on when you are in the back of the car; you’re not really sitting down, just leaning your bum on it. These guys were each taking one of the cushions, both facing forward, about 2 feet separates them.
I saw the taller one say something to the other, who just shook his head. Then the taller one slyly smiled, said something else and put his right arm out, just in the middle of the emergency door. After a pause, the other guy put his left arm down, and after a few seconds, they intertwined their last two fingers together. They held that for a stop or two. The taller one looked quite pleased, but the shorter one looked a bit worried and kept looking around. The taller one said something else, and his boyfriend shrugged his shoulder and finally smiled.
As I looked around the car, the old lady was now looking at the two guys, and this time she was smiling. Obviously I have no way of knowing, but she seemed to be smiling in approval. Maybe juxtaposed next to the hetero couple trying to remove each others spleens with their tongues, these two guys were the picture of normality (and maybe even the English idea of proper public displays of affection) and this old lady approved. Maybe it’s the fact that we live in the 21st century, and if hetero couples can orally molest each other in public regularly, then two men simply holding hands is fine. Maybe the old lady had cataracts, and she couldn’t see that it was two men holding hands. Whatever it was, it made me all warm and fuzzy on the inside, and made me smile.
I hope to do that one day, in Pittsburgh, on public transportation, or going into a restaurant, or, like those young guys a few months ago, just walking around a mall. I want to be able to do it one day. Maybe first I should find someone to do it with, and then worry about actually doing it.
In our time in London, we had been seeing a lot of public displays of affection. I mean a lot of it.
One was a long goodbye by a Metro station, where guy & girl were making out and crying, and he had a small suitcase. They kept kissing, crying and there were a lot of “I’m going to miss you so much!” Once, he tried to walk down the steps, made it about 4 steps down, turned around and came back to kiss her again. And then, as we had to walk down the same steps, he kept looking back and blowing her kisses. It was all overly dramatic.
We got onto the metro going somewhere on Sunday evening. Standing in front of us are this dreadlocked white girl and her equally dirty looking boyfriend. (I know it is bad of me not to have an open mind, but I think all white people with dreadlocks look awful, just terrible.) He looked like he had been blonde at one time, but his hair was dingy, matted and brown now. And they are sucking face like there is no tomorrow. Going to town like they are alone. I even said aloud “Get a room,” but they are either too into each other or ignore me. A little old woman who was sitting nodded agreement to me after my comment.
At each stop, when the train would push them closer into each other, they would giggle with the different ways their bodies could touch. Several other passengers were looking at them, mostly of them clearly with disdain. They were at the back of the train near one of the door entrances, but off to one side. I was standing next to them, so I got the full experience, including sound effects.
Trying to avoid this show, I looked right behind me, and there were two men, both looked mid to late 20’s, tall and fair, one taller than the other (both taller than me, and I’m over 6’2”.) They looked very sleepy, and had a lot of luggage with them, so they were visiting the city (I do believe we were on a line from the Victoria Station, which connects directly to the airports, coming into the city instead of away from it.) We heard them speak, and Lynne was sure they were Russian (she has a good friend who is Russian and has heard it spoken more than I.)
If you aren’t familiar with the London Underground, most of the cars have two little cushions on either side of the emergency door that you can rest your bum on when you are in the back of the car; you’re not really sitting down, just leaning your bum on it. These guys were each taking one of the cushions, both facing forward, about 2 feet separates them.
I saw the taller one say something to the other, who just shook his head. Then the taller one slyly smiled, said something else and put his right arm out, just in the middle of the emergency door. After a pause, the other guy put his left arm down, and after a few seconds, they intertwined their last two fingers together. They held that for a stop or two. The taller one looked quite pleased, but the shorter one looked a bit worried and kept looking around. The taller one said something else, and his boyfriend shrugged his shoulder and finally smiled.
As I looked around the car, the old lady was now looking at the two guys, and this time she was smiling. Obviously I have no way of knowing, but she seemed to be smiling in approval. Maybe juxtaposed next to the hetero couple trying to remove each others spleens with their tongues, these two guys were the picture of normality (and maybe even the English idea of proper public displays of affection) and this old lady approved. Maybe it’s the fact that we live in the 21st century, and if hetero couples can orally molest each other in public regularly, then two men simply holding hands is fine. Maybe the old lady had cataracts, and she couldn’t see that it was two men holding hands. Whatever it was, it made me all warm and fuzzy on the inside, and made me smile.
I hope to do that one day, in Pittsburgh, on public transportation, or going into a restaurant, or, like those young guys a few months ago, just walking around a mall. I want to be able to do it one day. Maybe first I should find someone to do it with, and then worry about actually doing it.
posted by Mike at 8:04 AM
1 Comments:
wow what an awesome post u made me feel all warm inside i hope 1 day it can be like that here 2!
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