Our friends recommended the movie "Our Souls at Night", starring Jane Fonda and Robert Redford, on Netflix. We watched it and we both felt it was touching, memorable and beautiful. Addie is a longtime neighbor of Louis. Both have been widowed for a while. One evening, Addie comes over and confesses to Louis that she is lonely, especially at night. What would he think of coming over and sleeping with her? She would like to have someone in bed to talk to. This is not about sex. She lost interest in sex a long time ago.
The explanation and the situation seem pretty straight forward, sensible and understandable. Louis responds to the idea calmly and says he wants to think about the proposed activity. The actress was 79 years old when the movie was made and the actor was 81. I read some web comments about the movie to Lynn that included the statement that both of them look at that age better than most of us ever have or ever will.
I realize that a woman and a man mentioning the subject of bed is going to tip lots of minds toward sexual intercourse. But that is not the idea. The idea is companionship, understanding and the intimacy of two souls, two minds, two spirits. We could put the idea in a different context for perspective. Let's say you are a heterosexual but at an advanced age, after 5 or 10 years of living singly, your sibling of the same sex as you suggests sleeping in the same bed on a regular basis for company. I think there are intelligent pairs of brothers and intelligent pairs of sisters who could agree to such an arrangement and reap real benefits from it.
Since our heroine and her guy are people of today, they fully realize that most people have strong interest in sex, sometimes to the point of being somewhat unable to think about anything else, once the topic somes up. They are not surprised when friends and townspeople take note of the couple nor of the gossip that relates to their relationship. Both deal with questions and curiosities fairly smoothly and realistically. I imagine that many people, over the centuries, have dealt with loneliness and the riches available from each other in such ways.
