October 10
While I was taking my afternoon break on the porch today, turning the pages of the weekly paper, my nephew came by heading home from school. I like to think he comes by the store on account of he likes to spend time with his only aunt in town but it's more likely he's remembering that jar of M&Ms I keep beside the register. Today he took up the other rocker and just sat and surveyed Main Street in much the way I expect he will do when he's old, should he be blessed enough to live here then.
"Do you ever read the personal ads in there?" he asked and nodded at the paper.
"Not in any regular kind of way." I told him. "I'll give 'em a glance if I'm reading something else on the page."
"Sometimes my sister and I do." he informed me. "Why do you think they all start them with like 'gay white male'?" he asked with all the pureness of his eleven years.
I inhaled a great chestful of autumn air while figuring how exactly to express the answer. One needs to be mindful when answering a child's questions about weighty matters; they tend to only ask them once.
"Well I suppose they want to make it clear that they're not looking for female friendships."
It was plain from his puzzled expression that I hadn't made it any clearer.
"No," he said, "Not the gay part, the white part." then he added, "Maybe they should just say 'gay prejudice male'."
"Maybe." I said, then reminded him there were M&Ms inside.
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