markmanso n.net http://markmanson.net/the-ipanema-boardwalk

The Ipanema BoardwalkOn the boardwalk at Ipanema Beach, it s a sunny Sunday af ternoon in Rio de Janeiro. Skateboarders,rollerbladers, joggers, surf ers, bikers, juicers, tanners, vacationers, staf f ers they all pass by, skin shinyand mildly naked. Sand and salt and vanity f ill the air.

There are small outdoor gyms every couple hundred meters along the beach: bars f or pull ups, dips, inclinepush ups and stretches. A jungle gym f or adults. Men stop and quietly pump up their muscles f or the day,then move on. It s a place where everyone is keenly aware of those around them. A surprisingly abnormalamount of men have six packs and bulging arms. A modest, yet in-shape, man cant help but f eel a bitintimidated and envious at the chiseled physiques roaming around. Short, stocky men with barrel chests,powerf ul backs and perf ect arms. He may think to himself : if only he could look like that, the day would beso much better.

And one imagines that the shorter men with chiseled physiques may look at the taller men and think tothemselves of how many tall guys there are at the beach today, and how it intimidates them and makesthem envious. How can they compete?

And a pale tall man may look around and loathe the guys with perf ect tans, f or they obviously have betterbeach bodies and get more attention. And the man with the perf ect tan looks at the man sitt ing with f ourcute girls and envies him, wondering how does a guy f ind f our hot girls in bikinis to go to the beach with himlike that?

And the man with the f our hot girls with him is annoyed at how loud and obnoxious his sisters and theirf riends are and wishes he could hang out with his guy f riends instead. Not f ar away, a man at the beachwith his guy f riends ignores their games and jokes and looks longingly at the girls laying out tanning withtheir tops undone and wonders how one would go about meeting them.

And the girl laying out tanning wishes her boyf riend were around so the men would stop staring at her. Andher boyf riend, wading into the water alone f or hours on end, wishes his girlf riend would stop crowding himand demanding his attention all the time. He envies the single men who are able to roam f ree and do whatthey want whenever theyd like.

And other girls at the beach lament that the cute boys are always gay. And the cute gay boy is so sick andtired of men who just want to have sex all the time and wishes he could f ind romance and something more.And the man stuck romancing his wif e on their vacation wishes he were still the young, handsome lad heused to be, strutt ing across the beach, commanding attention on a whim.

The white gringos admire the dark, powerf ul physiques of the black Brazilians and the black Braziliansadmire the blonde hair and green-blue eyes of the white gringos. And the English and American andAustralian boys would kill to speak some Portuguese. And the Brazilian girls wish they could understandEnglish better.

The skinny girls wish they had hips and the girls with hips want to be skinnier. The brunettes dye their hairblond and the blond girls wish they were darker like the brunettes. The men playing volleyball wish theycould surf and the surf ers wish they had the time and money to buy drinks and a nice umbrella to sit underand the men with drinks and the nice umbrellas wish they were young and healthy and playing volleyballagain.

The waves crash. Footballs bounce. People splash each other and laugh. The crisp crack of a Skol canopening echoes across every post. Children play in their own litt le worlds. Meanwhile, the Christ statuewatches over all of them f rom af ar, arms wide and unceasing, with stoic, loving acceptance. And the peoplepass on by.

pass on by.

The Ipanema Boardwalk