Gravitas

Don't worry ya'll....I have all my stories written, it just turns out I'm horrible at posting every day.

:::clapping hands:::

Ok, let's get this Story A DAY thing back on track people!


Word of the Day Monday, March 15, 2010

gravitas

\GRAV-uh-tahs\ , noun;

1. High seriousness (as in a person's bearing or in the treatment of a subject).

"How is it that you are even with this girl? She just doesn't seem like your type at all," Joshua said cradling his beer in front of him.

Jack shrugged, "I think she is very my type."

Joshua frowned.

Jack was one of those effortlessly cool people. His clothing, his hobbies, his home, his women. Everything was beautiful and chic, stream-lined and function driven like a purest minimalist, but elegant in a way that made it all seem luxurious. With a twist of 70's quirk nostalgia, of course.

If Joshua could be anyone, he would have chosen Jack.

Well, after Steve McQueen, obviously.

But part of what made Jack so effortlessly cool was the fact that it was all, well, effortless. He didn't think about any of it. Whereas Joshua was a studied cool. Jack drank his favorite microbrew because he liked the taste and drank it at this particular pub because he liked that people could bring their dogs with them to drink and he liked the sausages. Joshua drank the beer that he though would make him look sophisticated and worldly, with just a smidge of elitism, and he drank at this particular bar because the Hipsters that were always hanging around were the It group at the moment.

Jack genuinely enjoyed Joshua. He was a good guy at heart when he could forget himself a little bit. One of the good points about Josh's relentless pursuit of being cool was that he kept up on world events so he could hit all the talking points. Jack found that he was good for interesting conversation.

"But all the other girls you have dated have been so much more…polished,' Joshua continued.

"Yeah, that's true, Bridgette is a lot more earthy. But that is what is the most appealing thing about her. The things that she has in her life she genuinely cares about. She doesn't keep anything that doesn't have importance to her. She strips out the non-essential," Jack explained.

When he had first met her, this silly blind date, he had been shattered by how strong of an urge he had felt to open up to her. He had found himself inviting her up to his apartment and making her mulled wine in his grandfather's old chipped mug. Something he had never done for anyone.

He remembered that the look she had on her face that night was the same look she had the night of their first Valentine's Day together. She had scoured through a dozen antique stores buying old silver baby spoons, and being a metal artist, she had sculpted a little baby bird perched on the edge of a nest getting ready to launch himself into flight for the first time as a gift for him.

She had been searching his face the entire time he opened the gift, and when he felt his eyes tear up slightly, they both just knew that the sculpture embodied the two of them. A nascent connection leaping towards the unknown with nothing other than instinct and the belief that open, unlimited sky was where they belonged as a rationale.

"Everything about her is genuine. Her personality. Her kindness. Her art. All those other girls were just the same Gustav Klimt painting over and over," Jack continued, the gravitas of his voice causing Joshua to look up at him sharply.

Joshua secretly wondered if Jack was talking about the tacky bird statue that had appeared in his apartment a couple weeks ago. Obviously it was something Bridgette had brought over. He still couldn't understand what was so special about this hippie girl. But he also made the mental note not to bother with Gustav Klimt anymore.