Thursday, March 4, 2010

Lotus Eaters, Navel Gazers


Self-discovery rocks.

I recently registered for a dating site - not because I'm looking to date, oddly enough, but because it operates on a very cool model that I wanted to check out - sort of the crowd-sourcing of online personals. Basically, when you sign up, you say YES or NO to about 10 hypothetical dates. You also answer a few most basic questions (i.e. Do you smoke? Do you drink? Are you a lady?) along with about 3 questions regarding who you're looking for (Gender? Age? Religion?). Then you propose an ideal date (i.e. "Bake vegan cupcakes and play kazoo to the animals in the Bronx Zoo," "Eat lotuses and stare at our navels," or whatever) and when you'd like to do it ("June 4th," "this week," "whenever") and how much correspondence you'd prefer before the actual date (i.e. a few phone calls, a text, nothing but an RSVP email).

Then, based on your basic preferences from those early YES or NO date scenarios, you're sent some other person's date suggestion to reject outright or explore further. If you choose to explore it further, you get their contact info and, shotgun fired, you're off.

I like this idea a lot - the idea of actually seeking out someone with shared interests in the most practical sense. So I'll see what happens... But the reason I bring all this up is not to make you think I need to get out more. Nope. I bring this up because something interesting happened to me when I was filling out the text box for "Your ideal date would be..."

What interesting thing happened, you ask?

I had no idea what to write. I had no idea what I would enjoy, and (being the ever-dogged hedonist even in the face of all these new and healthy choices) I figured this befuddlement must reflect a lack of self-awareness.

Who am I? I'm not sure. I'm finding out. I have a ways to go. But dating sites world-wide be warned: I'm working on it.

Oh, and as for the death imagery in the last post, well, the story continues to unfold....

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