I met a man on the plane the other day. Oh stop laughing at me! This time it was assigned seating and I had no choice but to sit next to this good looking young (28) man and immediately start talking to him… who turned out to be, of course, another Aries. Fate brings me who she wants and (drool) who am I to question her choices or methods! Now, where was I…
Ah, yes. He was amazingly confident in a way I hadn’t seen in a while. He was perceptive, like me, and spent a lot of time observing and knowing other people. We talked for about 3 of the 5 hours on the flight and it was a meeting of opinions instead of a meeting of attraction. Not that there wasn’t attraction.. hello people.. this is ME I’m talking about. But he was in a relationship he felt was going to lead to marriage (though sorely tempted since she’s been away for weeks. Ha!) and frankly he looked and felt a little too much like my brother. And this little minion is done tempting the “taken” to the dark side.
He was fascinated by my adventures online and we discussed a lot about relationships and sex and dating. The whole conversation started when I began talking about how much I love takeoff. “I’m a speed junky,” I told him and he grins, says, “Me too” and shows me a picture of his sports bike. Oh, such a sexy machine! In the many subjects we bounced around on, telling stories from our lives as examples, he admitted he liked to find/use/keep in mind nuggets of lessons learned as catch phrases. His favorite was “You gotta ride your ride”
He was referring at first to motorcycles and there are two sides to it. You gotta RIDE your ride… meaning you need to know your machine and ride it within the limits of knowing yourself and your level of skill. And you GOTTA ride your ride.. meaning if motorcycle riding is your joy… you gotta ride. Basically its Live your life but know your life well enough to really live it safely. Don’t go overboard and don’t just flow with the flood.
He (and I wisely never got his name, although who wants to place money down it was David!!!) reminded me a lot of my brother before my brother found God. And it made me realize just how much I miss the man my brother was. Not that he’s not a bad guy now… to him he’d tell you “I grew up” but to me he left a wonderful part of himself behind. He’s riding his ride, but its a Christian Suburban and not a ganja-hazed bike, like it was.
My brother used to be the most accepting man I’d ever new. He felt if he was to expect you to respect his lifestyle choices he should reciprocate first and respect yours. Do what you want dude, its your ride… to put it into a nutshell.
I’ve always admired and so adopted that philosophy. So I’ll Ride my Ride.
Oh, btw.. is anyone shocked that by the time that plane ride ended my fellow Aries was seriously reconsidering marriage over my philosophy that some people are just NOT meant to be monogamous? Poly-amorous strikes again!