Hello, fellow redditors! If you came here looking for a friend, please lend me your ear, and once I have it, I'll fill it with enticing words 😁

I am a man in his mid-50s, who has done a lot in his life and achieved quite a bit relative to where I started, only to realize that I should have paid more attention to having more friends. Work comes and goes, but nothing can replace a truly intimate human connection. I can see that this group may feel a bit oversexed sometimes, so I have to say that am using the word intimate to indicate that I am not asexual, and hopefully neither are you, but what I am primarily looking for is closeness, not a particular physical action a man and a woman can do together. I am quite skilled at that, if I may say so myself, but, paradoxically, what I am looking for is someone to go on a hike with, visit a museum or an exhibition, talk about a book or a movie. Hopefully you also like a good non-fiction book, since I find real life way more fascinating than any flight of fancy of any one person, no matter how talented. It would also be nice if the movie we talk about is not made in Hollywood. An any case, please, please don't be a hardcore Marvel fun.

I work in an industry with mostly young colleagues around me, and do well in this environment, so you don't have to be my age to connect well with me, but please don't drink too much of the modern pop culture KoolAid - my sarcasm about it will drive you insane. I am always inquisitive about everything, and would love you to also naturally question opinions of any influencer you come across. Or anyone else for that matter, myself included. I stay active, work out 4-5 days a week, and my ideal female friend would not find a 10 mile hike with 1000ft elevation gain over rocky terrain particularly challenging. If you are not there yet, but would like that to be a walk in a park for you, eventually, I would love to help you with that!

I am a recovering caregiver. I am not completely cured of this affliction yet, so I hope you don't mind my trying to care for you every so often. I now know where the boundary between care and obsession is, and I have all intention not to cross it. But it would be nice if you are able to accept some care sometimes. If you are a fiercely independent woman, and you value it above anything else, you will be perplexed by me trying to do some little things for you, things that you could have easily done yourself, and it will be stressful for us both, and I want that for neither of us.

I am very often being stereotyped for my age and race, so to paint a slightly more colorful picture of me for you, I will outline where I am not really fitting into it all that much. In most everything else I am probably your typical mid-50s guy, lol.

* I am white, but none of my ancestors brought any smallpox to these shores

* I have been to great many churches in my lifetime. As a tourist

* I don't own a truck. My vehicle gets 50 MPG

* I spent time in the army, but I don't own guns. I own more plants than some gun owners have rounds of ammo

* I don't have a MAGA hat or a t-shirt. But I do have many a NASA one

* I don't like football or baseball. But I am able to sit and watch it out of politeness to the hosts

Oh, one tiny little detail, since you've stuck around for so long: I have been married for most of my adult life, and still am, and not looking for change that. We are practicing ENM, and are happy for each other about having friends of the opposite gender. Very affectionate and intimate friends included. So, there will be no drama, and you are welcome to be married as well, as long as your SO is aware of what you are doing and you have his/her enthusiastic support. I am not looking to take you away and keep you for myself, I am looking for ways to enrich your life while simultaneously enriching mine with everything you bring to our friendship.

I should wrap this up here. This was not supposed to compete with War and Peace for text length ... If anything here piqued your interest, you can always chat or message me here, and we can talk and find plenty more of common interests, I am sure!

Cheers! 🤗