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resonantThe kidlet started ice-skating lessons today. It seems environmentally unsound to go ice-skating when it's a syrupy 96 degrees outside, doesn't it? But boy, that rink was a comfortable place to be.
The kidlet spent most of 45 minutes falling down and getting back up, and I was very proud of that persistence, but I spent 45 minutes ogling one of the instructors.
He was a stocky redhead with a beaky nose -- yes, I thought of Charlie Weasley right away; sue me -- and he was just totally, effortlessly graceful. All the time. Even skating idly alongside his ten-year-old student, backwards, on one foot, with his hands shoved into his windbreaker pockets.
I love to watch people ice-skate anyway; it's like watching someone dance and fly at the same time. This guy, though -- I think it was the ordinariness of his body that made him so striking to me. He looked like he'd be right at home hefting a keg or a bag of fertilizer on his shoulder. Stocky, as I said, thick all over, muscular, little bit of belly softness under his T-shirt.
Because, see, this culture really discourages men from being graceful in their ordinary movements, unless they're dancers or certain kinds of athletes. Men actually seem to train all the grace out of their movements, for fear of seeming effeminate.
So I don't get to see this kind of grace very often. It was beautiful.
The kidlet spent most of 45 minutes falling down and getting back up, and I was very proud of that persistence, but I spent 45 minutes ogling one of the instructors.
He was a stocky redhead with a beaky nose -- yes, I thought of Charlie Weasley right away; sue me -- and he was just totally, effortlessly graceful. All the time. Even skating idly alongside his ten-year-old student, backwards, on one foot, with his hands shoved into his windbreaker pockets.
I love to watch people ice-skate anyway; it's like watching someone dance and fly at the same time. This guy, though -- I think it was the ordinariness of his body that made him so striking to me. He looked like he'd be right at home hefting a keg or a bag of fertilizer on his shoulder. Stocky, as I said, thick all over, muscular, little bit of belly softness under his T-shirt.
Because, see, this culture really discourages men from being graceful in their ordinary movements, unless they're dancers or certain kinds of athletes. Men actually seem to train all the grace out of their movements, for fear of seeming effeminate.
So I don't get to see this kind of grace very often. It was beautiful.
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(no subject)
Date: 7/22/05 01:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7/22/05 01:18 am (UTC);-)
(no subject)
Date: 7/22/05 01:28 am (UTC)Wonder what he would've done if you'd taped him...
(no subject)
Date: 7/22/05 02:30 am (UTC)Reminds me of my sweetie (who's built nothing like that) in that his movements are always refined and contained in a very un-masculine way. I never get tired of watching him :)
(no subject)
Date: 7/22/05 05:04 am (UTC)I've had an experience like this myself. There's a baseball player, my imaginary baseball boyfriend *G*, who is not a handsome guy in any conventional sense, but I find him absolutely mesmerizing. He's a big guy, strong but not skinny. He has that kind of body confidence and natural grace that makes him look like he's choreographed that jog to first base or that leap to catch the fly ball. He runs like a cougar. He makes my mouth water.
(no subject)
Date: 7/22/05 10:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7/23/05 01:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7/22/05 11:25 am (UTC)You could take a pic of him on the pretense of snapping your kidlet ...
(no subject)
Date: 7/22/05 05:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7/23/05 01:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7/22/05 06:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7/23/05 01:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7/24/05 08:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7/29/05 02:21 am (UTC)