Don't call older women cougars

The laws of attraction are conspicuous by their absence. You see, they were never written, never composed, never there in the first place. There are social, matrimonial and sanctimonious rules that are obeyed and disobeyed in equal measures, but you cannot tell A not to fancy B.

If nothing, not even heterosexual narrowings, apply in human relationships, then one of the first mooring to loosen is ageism. For centuries, older men married younger women and the populace mindlessly followed this ageist diktat. Men had to be older and women younger. Couched within this was the tacit understanding that the women will look after the men in the evenings of their lives. But in the mornings of their lives, the woman was to stay fresh as a daisy as she remained forever young to her lord and master.

Cut to the battlefield of lust. Here the eye likes what it likes, who it likes. Feelings can't be leashed to a post. Age is a self-conscious construct, occurring to all concerned at a much later time.

First there is the infatuation. Which takes everything about the other person into account except the number of birthdays. Each individual peaks in personal beauty, both inner and outer, at their own leisure. Sweet sixteen is an attitude, a mood, and can strike at any age. It is also to do with the glow the other party lights in you.