Date men from United States / California / Santa Ana, 69 year old

Date someone special from California, United States. According to one local talk show host, happiness is a serious business. I agree completely. Life offers more than any of us has time to fully absorb or partake. We must choose wisely, and that advice takes on added urgency as the years go by. Time can be a harsh taskmaster. In the lifestyle and background areas to the left I have tried to emphasize the choices which particularly appeal to me. It must be apparent that I love the world of ideas as well as the idea of nature's world, especially when accompanied by the prospect of warm companionship and heady conversation, and of course, coffee (or substitute an inviting glass of merlot, port, or your favorite after dinner liquor if you like). As an INTP (if you have ever taken Keirsey-Bates/Myers-Briggs, you know the drill), you will be aware that I prefer an intimate setting with someone special over playing to a crowd (although ex-colleagues swear my test results are flawed). But believe me, I will take quiet and stimulating discussion over venues that lead to 'Fisherman's Friend' by evening's end. Somehow, and I do not know exactly when or how it began, I graduated from needing the frenetic to tell me that I was alive. I get that sufficiently from the local freeway traffic grid. If that is a sign that aging has indeed set in, so be it. I am sure that you, the jury, will let me know. But don't mistake my love of books and the mind for couch potato-ism. I love to give nature her due in exploring this fragile globe around which we revolve so perilously. This past summer I traveled to the east coast, to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, west to Glacier National Park, and to the oil sands project 300 miles north of Edmonton, Alberta. In my past I have run a marathon and still do 30-40 miles a week of cardio exercise....but I'm still waiting for that elusive runner's high. Earlier in my life, I spent seven years in Vietnam during the war years, first in the military and later in contract assignments. The infantry taught me that humor and the serious are but two masks sharing the same face....and, more importantly, that because life is fragile at best, each today must be cherished and honored. Every day is a bonus. My being here at this site means finding someone like you to share that windfall in the days and years ahead, hopefully for the last time. And I am grateful to have that opportunity. Who am I looking for? Another me? Not if I can help it. I would be disappointed if my match did not bring an independent set of expectations and interests to the relationship. At the same time, I am enough of a realist to know that while opposites may attract, they frequently bear a burden of trying to reconcile the irreconcilable. Which is why, at some level, I would hope we can share a set of values about life that brings us together while celebrating room for the differences. Love, like the rest of life, requires an investment in time and commitment. That is my goal....and hopefully, yours as well, a new beginning, a new life together.
As a fitting, and humbling, final addendum to this screed, I am reminded of an old Biblical parable from the New Testament, which when paraphrased, sums up the roles we play as males and females in this search for love and/or happiness. The parable reads, 'Many are called, but few are chosen'. In terms Match.com members will recognize, it becomes: 'Men may call, but women will choose'.