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Nena #2

Rafael has a fresh new Nena, who is, if such a thing is possible, even more wide-eyed, innocent, and virginal than Nena #1! I wonder if Nena #1 knows. I would call this one Ingenua except at the rate these things get exchanged, it's not worth the trouble of naming them.

It seems so boring, eh?

And yet a recent article in the New York Times that tried to make its readers prize and aspire to the crushing boredom that can happen in marriage and marriagelike partnerships ended up just making me think, “wow, I really want to be completely financially independent, so I never have to suffer the boredom of a marriagelike partnership ever again.”

My own company doesn't bore me as a default setting, but even dragons like me who set up housekeeping best in caves built for one still like to hang out with other creatures sometimes.

Are these really our three choices? The crushing boredom of running through sexual partners like Kleenex, so fast gossipmongers don't even have a chance to learn their names, the crushing boredom of staying with one person forever, or the occasional painful loneliness of being on one's own?

I know the dancers I like watching best are the dancers who are dancing with someone they love, know intimately, and have been with for a long time. And I know I would prefer watching a dancer sit alone at a table than whip through fifteen tandas in a row with a different partner for each.

I know I have already sat all night long at milongas rather than dance a single Kleenex tanda.

But I also know that the real dance chemistry required to make one of those beautiful dances I love to watch is rare. And the rarer you are, the rarer your chances of a beautiful dance of your own are. Of course, if you do find it, it will be a rare and exceptionally beautiful dance....

In the meantime, some buy their disposable tandas by the gross at Costco.

Some assume that grinding along in a soul-crushing tanda with no growth or conversation is somehow virtuous and respectable, and stump along, step, ocho, ocho, step, cross, step, repeat.

I will continue to sit, all night long.