Earl -
Great post. Of course you are hot. Shame on anyone who says otherwise.
Correct. Looks do fade. It does matter who one is as a person. In the end there is nothing else. And in my experience, attractive people are frequently not: very nice, good, level headed, common sense, sensitive, kind, thoughtful,considerate, good humored people.
I know that while I was in my twenties with plenty of money at my disposal (which I did nothing to earn) I jetted back and forth between New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Los Angeles and took for granted everything I had. The person I was then - young, affluent and beautiful - is a person I would cringe to talk with today.
Age, life experience and a severe reversal of fortune has a way of altering one's perspective - in a good way, I might add.
When remembering the string of beautiful women I was with, I understand why we got together - hot, young, with money, horny and socially fabulous together. But those are also the reasons we never worked out. Spoiled children behaving badly. We never had good, solid examples of how to be.
So when you see a beautiful person who is alone, perhaps consider their background and hope they realize that no matter what they look like, they know it doesn't matter.