A Wry and Realistic View of Dating at Sixty

Today I had a delicious lunch in the cafe, our havarti and ham melt special. Then I had a chance to read an essay by Andree Aelion Brooks, who proved herself a witty, saucy and clever woman when it comes to men.

Her point? That at her age, it's best to take risks, play the field, and keep men close yet far. One other tip she passes on is how hungry old men are for computer instruction and help. It's become in her words, 'the golden ticket.'

"In a world of senior dating, I found it [computer smarts] to be the golden ticket. Fostering intimacy over dinner may well include the various ways to use a flash drive, operate an in-dash nav system, download photos from a camera or print out a spreadsheet with the gridlines showing. If one of my admirers invites me back to his home, it's likely that what he really wants is help with his computer issues. I kid you not. For me it became a way to give as well as get."

She observes another conundrum facing those who date in the 60s: people die. She thinks about her good friend Betty, who made the mistake of falling in love, rekindling great passion...and then having the guy diagnosed with fatal cancer and vanishing in a few months. "Keeping a distance, she says, 'became a form of insurance. Because, men have a limited shelf life.'