Kalikiano Kalei comments

We live in an age of crassness, of extreme self-centered selfishness and narcissism...thanks in no small part to the commercial exploitation that the so-called 'American model' promotes and that has been readily embraced by too many other nations (including Japan). I would agree that in older age, companionship and having a compatible person to share life's final years with rank at the top of the list. There is an old saying that good looks and flashy moves are fine when you're young, but you'd better hope that the woman you find as a potential mate has both a high degree of intelligence AND a strong sense of humane altruism.

That said, and speaking as an older man with an artistic temperament, I still demand good looks on my list of attributes an ideal mate should possess. There is no argument that age imposes a severe handicap on the basic human mating urge and even though it's probably politically incorrect to say this, menopause wreaks radical effects on a woman's femininity; this is borne out by medical gerontologists who tell us that after a certain point, as male and female hormone balances shift radically, men tend to become softer and more compliant, whereas women tend to become more unyielding and resolute ('hardened', if you will?). It is not a change for the better in most cases!

Furthermore, finding genuine love is a matter of both opportunity and timing. Sometimes things never 'click' and we end up living out our lives as lonely, rather pitiable individuals (who COULD have offered so much more, had fate & circumstance merely been kinder to them). To that end, sometimes we have to settle for unrequited love, but often enough that is the purest form of love anyway. Requited love often turns out to be merely a matter of mutual projections of expectation ultimately failing to match imposed realities.

Finally, 'diversity' does not really help the process along much and in most cases imposes even greater levels of both sexual and emotional dissonance that frustrate amicable pairings. In my opinion, deeply homogeneous societies (such as those found in traditional Japan, China and Korea) generally fare better than highly diverse societies such as that that is characteristic of modern America! It is therefore no wonder that America is today deeply neurotic and almost schizophrenic in its essential spirit. And it is no wonder, further, why China is headed for world hegemony. Just saying... *Aloha nui loa me ka malama pono!*** **-K2 平和と善意！