You Make My World Go Round

This morning I was in a rush, doing paperwork and heading to an appointment on the subway at the same time, all while trying to keep track of my upcoming stop.

The subway stopped. I looked up, craning my neck to find a sign through the windows and inconveniently placed support beams that often block my view. Not my stop yet. I return to my paperwork, trying to remember all the places I've lived since birth. Why do they need to know the one month my family spent at an apartment while we remodeled some parts of our house? What's the address? I was six years old, how should I know?!

I notice a woman sitting down across from me, shoulder-length straightened red hair, a tiny stud on the left side of her nose, her left forearm tattooed in many colors crossed over her right. My mind wandered a moment about what she would have drawn on her arm, and what it means to her. She has white headphones in her ears.  I wonder about her taste in music, as I sit there with my own earphones in listening to my personal favorite song of the month.

Back to my form. Forget it, our address was still the home address. It was a vacation, not a residence change. I'll leave that one out. The subway went onward. Another stop. I looked up, instinctively at the red-haired woman sitting across from me. We make eye contact. My heart warms, I smile genuinely at her. She smiles back. "Must get my paperwork done," I tell myself. I have force my attention back to the forms balancing precariously on my legs while I attempt to write and sign each one appropriately without making too big a mess.

The subway stops again, I stretch my neck out, looking for the sign. It's my stop. I check back across from me. The red-haired wonder is gone. I miss her, for a moment. On with life.

Women are beautiful, in so many ways. There is just something about seeing a woman, no matter where I am. It happens when I'm walking around town, out shopping, on the subway, sitting on a bench. It happens in school, at work or at home. Sometimes, I'm just so focused -my face buried in a book, or my mind occupied with thoughts -that I'm too absorbed to notice my surroundings. but if I'm at all aware of my surroundings, my attention is magnetically drawn to her.

It doesn't matter what she looks like, all women are beautiful. Or at least, I seem to sense something exquisitely unique in every one I see. I may not find each of them attractive, yet I am powerless but to see something that I want to explore, to know, to see, and to listen.

Is it mere curiosity, I wonder. But then, it's not the same with all men. Sure, when I recognize an acquaintance or a friend. And for some of my more cherished friends, absolutely. But for men as a whole? I have curiosity, but no magnetism.

Back to the topic at hand -every time I see a woman, there is a little extra joy in my heart. It's a very minute connection with a woman, since I've never seen her before and we don't form a close bond by passing each other on the subway, and the connection lasts only as long as her presence. When she's gone, so is that connection. When I'm attracted to a woman, that connection is magnified. And more so in a relationship.

The stronger my connection to her, the more excitement, pleasure and happiness I feel from that connection. Clearly, physical proximity is a huge part of that, especially if I feel something from just seeing a woman sitting across from me on the subway. But the same may be true of talking on the phone, via text or thinking about a woman I have a connection with.

If the world had no women -if my world had no women -I miss out on so much of that joy. Women, you make my world go round.

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