Sure I'll contact you

This morning I was going out to get some nice cafe lattes and some good cheese cake to cement my stomach, when I ran into Art Burshy. He was sitting outside on a bench with his hat covering most of his eyes.

"Women..." - he said - "...they have the power and skill to break down a man's self esteem in a nanosecond".

I sat down next to Art and he started talking; initially I reminded myself I was here with the purpose of getting some coffees and should not stay away too long, but Art's story made me forget all.

Art had been in a cafe, when next to him a 'breathtaking nymph', 'an elegant beauty', 'an angel sent from heaven' - as he mentioned - sat down at the bar.

Art described her in all cliches; and then he apologised, but this is what happens when overwhelmed by an appearance - you start blurting these cliches that are at that moment the only thing escaping your surprised and shocked mind.

Art had initially been calmly drinking his malt beer - he was trying to lower the alcohol consumption as he has noticed recently that his body doesn't deal that well with it anymore. He made a little chat with the bartender and did not directly think of talking to the woman, because:

- women in general fall in love differently than men; men can see a beautiful woman and assume that all of her is beautiful and thus fall in sort of love or anticipation. Women generally do not have this, and don't wan to be bothered by men when there is no real reason, and it will take them time to really develop a feeling and often require shared experiences.

- Art knows that when he is touched by someone he generally is not able to make any sense come out of his mouth, so it is often best to be silent and a)wait till the first moment of awe is gone and b) just ask open questions to let the woman talk.

- Art is aware that at first sight he is not really the man that will attract women based on his Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio or Brad Pitt looks, so his approach should always be humble

- Art is also laughing at his own male instincts; where it is clear that the situation can never lead to something but hormones kick in makes all sense flow towards his genitals.

I mentioned to Art:

"It is funny to see that you are so open about your own internal dark side; openly speaking about how you are impacted by women, how you are aroused...."

Art looked at me frowning, opening his eyes wide of surprise; "ah, are you still denying having such thoughts?...you poor soul."

Art continued explaining that after some time - and after having some alcohol - he had grown his courage and approached the woman asking what type of business she was in. Turned out she was a successful business woman, just waiting for a business appointment to arrive. So Art thought to loosely let her know that - if she ever needed artists and business leadership - he would be happy to assist.

This was the point where she told him:

'Sure I'll contact you when I need to recruit small hairy artists imitating business leaders..."

Art had been devastated. If any person would have dismissed him this he would have shrugged and chosen someone else to talk to, or even make a witty remark to not end up being the obvious loser of this conversation...

But when someone you care about or want to impress disqualifies you it really hurts.

So Art decided to shut up and sit outside, having an extra strong alcoholic drink, trying to clean his memory of this painful experience.

I decided to leave him in that state and return home... still a bit puzzled and wondering how to interpret all this, and how this should influence my image of Art Burshy... are we men really all like that?