--- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have to write and thank Tom (I think) for the recent post > in which he suggested that at a certain point in one's evol- > ution it was possibly more accurate to think of desires as > 'appreciation' than it was to think of them as desires. > I got a real taste of that yesterday. > > I drove to Sommieres, a bigger town near the one I'm living > in, because they have a market on Saturday mornings and > there is a cafe there where I love to sit and watch the world > go by. After all, I am on record as believing that the sidewalk > cafe is the pinnacle of Western civilization, and I just wanted > to sit in one and watch the newly-arrived crowd of tourists go > by for a while. This is Unc's idea of a good time. :-) > > Anyway, the population around here essentially doubled > yesterday, with most of the French taking the entire month > of August off and a great number of them coming down to > this area for their vacations. Naturally, at least half of them > are women. Even more naturally, a lot of them, being French, > are *attractive* women. I am not averse to attractive women. > > So I was in lecher heaven, just sitting there and watching > hundreds -- nay, thousands -- of beautiful women walk by > my cafe table in their summer dresses. > > But after a while it struck me that I really *wasn't* being > lecherous. Almost *none* of these women provoked any > kind of desire in me. I wasn't watching them out of a sense > of lust, or because I wanted to have sex with any of them, or > even because I wanted to meet any of them. I was just > watching. > > And *appreciating*. It really wasn't an issue of desire, or > of wanting anything from these passing women. I just > found myself *appreciating* them, without having to form > any judgments about them or "rank" them or think about > them much at all. A thin, lithe woman would walk by, and > I would appreciate her. A big, fat woman would walk by, > and I would appreciate her. The morning turned into just > one big Appreciation Fest, me sitting there appreciating > the endless variety of creation as creation paraded its > creativity past my table. > > It was really cool. And I don't think it would have been as > cool if Tom hadn't mentioned what he did about appreciation > the other day. That helped to put the whole experience in > focus for me. So thanks...
Sounds like a great time! I agree that the sidewalk cafes and people watching are pinnacles of Western civ too! Thanks for the travelogue from France. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
