Small Sins May Be Worth Slowing Down For Pleasure

I walked out of Anthropologie this week with a simple book, Seven Sins for a Life Worth Living. 

It’s a dangerous little read for Americans. So many of us believe that keeping our nose to the grindstone insures happiness in the hereafter, if not the herenow.

Unlike the French, we’re not a nation of slackers. In fact, herenow is not a word in the English language.

Rewriting the Dictionary

Walt Whitman wrote: “I believe in the flesh and the appetites. Seeing, hearing, and feeling are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.”

My journal attempts to make sense of these small pleasures.

Like Seven Sins author Roger Housden, I believe that this earth “is a good place to be, despite all the troubles that come with the assignment.” Indeed, deep pleasures often do come with “having a body that angels will never know”.

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Standing In the Shadow of Male Ambivalence On My Sensuality

My dear friend Nancy says that she loves reading about my dating escapades. Trust me, they are often not picnics … these attempts to connect with the opposite sex.

I rarely respond to online ads, but a couple weeks ago, I contacted a guy who wrote a most intriguing post.  We exchanged pics, two emails each and met for drinks at the Soho Grand Hotel.

A Good Appetizer

Walking into the bar, we shared split second nods of physical appreciation; drinks were ordered; and we got down to conversation.

He asked me about my consulting work and trends that interest me. Why must I go first, taking all the risk to discuss what’s hot, and what’s not with American women?

I talked about the growing intersection of beauty, wellness and sexuality. Simply stated, science is providing us with increasing research that good sex is good for your health.

I mentioned my April trip to a Paris, beauty-industry tradeshow. Laughing, I explained that women will soon be smearing our beautiful lips with libido-enhancing lip gloss.

A Desire to Improve the Main Course

Generally speaking, there’s a strong movement brewing in America to upgrade the sensual shopping experience.

One of NYC Soho’s newest concept stores, the chic and elegant Kiki de Montparnasse merchandises $800 sofa throws with sensual apparatus that even I don’t understand. In Las Vegas I toyed with $300 vibrators and silk $75 bondage blindfolds in Steve Wynn’s new lingerie store Black Satin Intimates.

Especially In Rural America

Clearly, I’m guilty of believing that any blog from rural America is more authentic than my city-slicker journal. I took the bait on Red Tractor-USA’s satirical blog report that Wal-Mart will be selling sex toys. I swallowed the false story hook, line, and sinker because Wal-Mart has sold “sexual wellbeing products” as neck massagers for years.

There’s a good reason why Passion Parties is wildly successful in rural America.

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An American Economy Dissolving Under Shapely Legs

Written 2-11-10 about Grown Up and Still Foolish: Anne’s Crazy Dating Life, July 29, 2007

AnneTracker| Katie Couric wrote in this month’s Harper’s Bazaar interview about why she dates younger men:

“I just find it stupid, you know? I think it also surmises that the older woman is always the pursuer. That’s not necessarily true. I always say that maybe the older woman is the prey and someone else is the predator. It’s just silly.”

This is my case, too. I do not pursue younger men. The truth is quite the opposite — that younger men pursue me. 

As a sidebar to my sharing of this date with readers, I didn’t see this man again, even though lunch was splendid. That afternoon, this very handsome man met with a client, fearful that he would lose the account.

I drove him to his meeting. The day did not go well.

Although I don’t subsequently write very much about the changing American economy in 2007, reality is that I met many men consumed with concern over what was happening. In my own consulting business, there were many signs that an economic meltdown was coming.

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Grown Up and Still Foolish: Anne's Crazy Dating Life

The birds are waking up later in Carversville, giving me more beauty sleep. Do they know I have a New York lunch date today, with a significantly younger, extremely handsome man?

How much younger, you ask? 10 years.

I’m in the mood to try something different. Saturday’s dinner with a doctor a bit older than I, was a total bust. After making it clear that a woman my age is not his normal dating preference, he fell asleep at the dinner table.

Trust Me, I’m Hardly Boring

Twenty miles from New York, I understand the correlation between increasing traffic speed and geographic proximity to my big city. As much as I love Carversville, I do get an adrenalin rush on 78E, accelerating off 287N across four lanes of traffic. Now I’m in the fast track, ready to ride at 80 mph the rest of the way home.

Variety is the Spice of Life

Growing up in my lovely, blue-lake valley town, I was always a square peg in a round hole. My mental telescope pointed East by age seven, and I have no idea why. New York was my destiny … the sooner I arrived, the better.

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In the Beginning | Anne Launches Her Writing Life

Welcome to my new Anne of Carversville blog. This journal and expanding selection of links, books, articles, and products will chronicle my love of Carversville, Pa, a small town in beautiful Bucks County and my life in lower Manhattan. 

I hope that we will become friends, comparing notes on finding la dolce vita in our everyday lives.

I’m lucky that my love of sensual experience — from flowers to interesting conversation to the art of romantic seduction —  has fed my business career. For years Europe was almost a second home, teaching me many lessons about the importance of sensual beauty in everyday life.

No, I don’t believe that clothes or special soaps or intoxicating smells make us better human beings. But I do believe that when we open our senses in a responsible way, we are also opening our hearts and minds to new experiences , emotions and learnings. In this state of being, the probability of becoming better human beings increases exponentially — primarily because we have touched our own inner selves and glimpsed our own beauty.

I hope to drop a few rose petals, showing you my own modest path to la dolce vita.

Love,
Anne