Terri and I did a final check for clothes, parts of clothes, and pocket contents. Except for a few buttons, we finally agreed that we had recovered all that we could and proceeded to drive back to camp.
Terri seemed to be enjoying the scenery as we drove back to the campground. Since we were going mostly downhill now, we got more nice views than when we were going uphill. However, at one point Terri happened to look in my direction, got a pensive look on her face, and proceeded to lean onto the center console between our seats.
"Stef, I've got a trivia question for you. I don't know if it's a dumb question, but it has been bugging the dickens out of me."
"Okay, fire away." I said.
"Every day you seem to wear a different type of underwear. I have seen you in boxer briefs, and today you are wearing white boxers. Why the variety in something that most people will never get to see?"
"Oh, that's a goody! It sounds like a straight line that a good comedian could really run with. Unfortunately, since I'm not a professional entertainer, I guess I'll have to tell you the strange truth.
"My body size puts me exactly in the never never land between clothes that are size small and those that are size medium. Consequently, ever since I got past size small, I have never found a style of drawers or undershorts that is comfortable all day long, every day. Since my body reached my current size of small medium or medium small, the only crotch attire that I have found to be comfortable virtually all the time is to go raw, or to wear a breechclout or a kilt!
"Of the three, since I sleep raw most of the time, that is my most common form of comfort. Unfortunately, the social constraints on the other two make my use of them very limited!"
"Wow! Stef, you are deeper than a black hole! It seems like every time you open your mouth, something strange or unique falls out!
"So, I guess my follow-on is, why is today a white boxer day?"
"That's easy, as you noted earlier, my hiking shorts are pretty baggy. That means that as long as I'm not doing a lot of sitting to wad them up, a pair of nice, loose boxers are entirely compatible with baggy shorts which translates to a maximum of comfort.
"I guess I could add that when I'm in a kilt and in mixed company, the boxers are nice to wear under a kilt so that I don't wind up inadvertently flashing someone."
"Speaking of baggy shorts, Stef, they are looking more baggy than ever. I guess my suggestion that the belt would close the fly well enough to be presentable was a bit off."
I laughed, "Well, I'd best not complain. To use a word that your generation seems to have adopted, Terri, you were awesome back there! It was an experience well worth a few buttons!"
Terri giggled, "I suppose that you do get better air circulation that way?"
"I'm not sure, but I suppose that's true."
"Well, we could make sure of it." Terri said as she reached over the console and opened the fly on my boxers! "Oh my! And it looks like somebody here is thinking of coming out for some fresh air!"
I groaned with surprise as Terri helped Little Stefan to pop up and out of my boxer shorts. Fortunately, we were on a reasonably straight stretch of road so I was able to keep us from going off and into the ditch!
"Dadburn it, woman! Not only are you incorrigible, you're dangerous!"
"Why thank you Stef!" Terri massaged Little Stefan all the way back to the campground, but not enough to make him cum, just enough to keep him standing tall in the fresh air!
After safely parking at our campsite and before we got out of the cab, I was motivated to ask, "All right Terri, what is your end game with this gambit? Is it your intent to give me a case of blue balls, or do you have something less devious in your game plan?"
Terri gave me her best Cheshire grin and replied, "Well, to tell the truth, it started out as a fun tease. Then it morphed into a fun toy to admire and play with. Now it's kind of boomeranged on me since I'm now pretty darn soggy down under, but Ms. Kitty is too sore to play!"
I was raising my eyebrows in frustration when Terri continued, "However, if you have no objection, I would love to have a snack before supper."
"Damn! What makes you think that I have anything left to give?"
"Welll, I have had a nice supply of precum to play in for the past couple of miles..."
"Okay, pax. I wish this was a bench-type truck seat! You could have your snack right now, right here!"
"How about you drop your drawers and go sit on the picnic table by the trailer?"
"Uh, not here! As I demonstrated back at the fire tower, I have no problem getting rutty in front of Mother Nature; but on the other hand, exhibitionism is NOT one of my kinks!"
"But there isn't anybody in the campground that I saw when we came in..."
"Yes, but there are some vehicles in the parking lot so there are folks around who are fishing or day hiking. This campsite is in full view of the horse trail that goes right by the campground and I saw some horse trailers at the corrals when we came in. Oh, and about a third of the riders and other day users have small children with them!"
"Okay, point taken! I will confess that showing off in public is not one of my kinks either. Let's get into the trailer and have some fun!"
I managed to stuff Little Stefan into my shorts and we quickly retreated to the trailer where I got some much needed relief and Terri got a bigger snack than I thought I could deliver!
Both of us agreed that protein needed to be on the menu for supper. Terri started the campfire while I fired up the generator and used it to thaw out some large steaks that we proceeded to grill over the fire along with some ears of corn.
After eating and cleaning up from the meal, Terri and I settled into armchairs around the campfire and shared what was left of the wine from supper.
"Malbec, ay? Not bad at all. Normally Rosé is as close as I can get to a red. During supper, maybe I was hungry enough that it didn't matter and now maybe I'm partly sloshed, but given those possible caveats, thish shtuff ain't haff baad!" she finished with a grin. "How did you get into it?"
"I came across it in a liquor store a few years ago and wondered what the hell it was. I definitely liked it, but it was a pain to try and find it in those days. Fortunately, these days it is unusual for a liquor store not to have any in stock. Also fortunately, I have yet to come across what I would call a truly bad vintage."
"Okay, so much for oenology. We've got to finish off Stefan's philosophy of love tonight."
"Ahh, gee whiz! And here I was so looking forward to a night devoted to the intricacies of Chinese peritransitional calculus, NOT!"
"Very good. I also vote against an evening of Chinese polywhatsis! Now, let me offer a hint, Stefan. The floor is now yours!"
I paused to gather my thoughts. "I believe that I have pretty much laid out the fundamentals of love as I see them—Stefan's theory of love, if you will. What I think I need to shift gears to is an exploration of some of the ways that this theory interfaces with the culture—and some of the specific implications that might have for us.
"Now back in the day when I believed in the existence and inherent wisdom of 'love at first sight,' I would have espoused the idea that two, or even more, people could leap into level four or five relationships as soon as they knew that they were in that level of love. These days, I am a whole lot more circumspect on this idea. As I alluded to earlier, high doses of dopamine and oxytocin make it real easy to mistake 'lust' for 'love.'
"This makes it important that we ease into levels four and five. In an ideal world, level three would be achieved at a civilized pace from the first level and then would flow seamlessly into level four and then to five. In our case, the Universe has contrived to get us to friends with benefits faster than the speed of light! That in itself is not a problem. In fact, it's more of a gift from the Universe. However, every silver lining has to have its cloud, and for us that is the fact that what we deeply believe is love may really be lust. It almost goes without saying that lust is not a solid foundation on which level four and level five loving relationships can be built!
"I gather that many people think that lust can morph into love over time. I will grant that this is entirely possible, but I also regard this as something of a fool's bet. Given strong economic and cultural incentives, lust is more likely to resolve into simple duty at best and codependence at worst. Without strong economic and cultural incentives, at levels four and five, lust simply sets the stage for disillusionment and vituperative separation.
"A complicating factor that can worsen the downside of lust, is the fatuous belief that WE can change good people to be even better people. People do change over time, but it is largely an internal process over which others have minimal influence and which is most often attempted to be effected through negative reinforcement. Nagging is the most common negative approach, and while it may bring results that last for hours, it also inexorably pushes those who are dutiful, or lustful, or even loving farther and farther apart.
