The Story - Part III

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

--Sir Arthur Conan Doyle



Despite a deep and resonating need to be focused on everything else in life, isn't it really only human nature that drives us to want to share our focus with someone else? Even the most resilient island or rock in the center of the ocean has to want a visitor sometime, even if it's only a castaway, buoying for something to grasp onto from the turbulence of the ocean.



There are tons of sites out there for single people. In fact, it seems that Americans alone spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year in their attempt to find the perfect match, their soul mate, the one with whom they can share their lives. If not, our society wouldn't be so hell-bent on perfection and fitting in, diet and weight loss, cosmetics and cologne, designer labels and fast cars. If none of this really mattered, then everyone would truly be marching to their own personal drum, feeling the arrhythmic heartbeat from within.



That being stated, one can only imagine that even the greatest students, at home in a world of questions and answers, research and study, sometimes find that the answers they seek, the quest they embody can never be really conquered and found and successfully attained through the pages of a Human Anatomy textbook or in the land of the lost night as they stay awake with coffee and cigarettes, recopying their notes and trying so diligently to study, to learn, to commit innumerable facts and figures to their memory for quick and easy recall. Everyone gets lonely.

Cue the twenty-first century. The proliferation of the Internet and cable connections and text messaging and newer, smaller, faster, better. Of being on the go and being in the know and never falling behind. Don't want to be alone? You don't have to be. Never alone. Never again. Take a number. Join up. Fill in your profile. Sign on the dotted line, date it, and initial just below. Name. Age. Race. Occupation. Height. Weight. Hair color. Eye color. Body Type. Smoking? Drinking? Drug Use? And just what are you seeking in a partner? What are you looking for? Short term companionship? Long term companionship? Dating? Romance? Passion? Sex? Regular Sex? Casual Sex? Group Sex? What are your interests? What are some of your hobbies? And give us a few words about yourself now... in two hundred fifty characters or less, of course.

There is more information about me circulating singles sights and personals ads beginning in 1996 or 1997 and constantly innovated and updated since then... up to now. Up to today. Some of it still at your fingertips...only a few minor keystrokes away.

I'm not the only one. Even the men and women who are married and have children and have committed themselves to life and love and permanence with a significant other. Even them. They still look. And chat. And hope. Even the men and women who so vehemently oppose homosexuality and smoking and criminal records and Democrats. They look, too. Only they're more secret and selective, and they believe that they will never be discovered. Never be found out. The options are endless. The territory is vast. The ramifications are deep.

So I filled out the ads and the questionnaires and I wrote a few things about myself and I posted a few recent photos and I waited. One needn't wait very long. The responses are quick. And endless. And vast. And deep. Conversations were had. Ideas were discussed. Arguments were argued. Pictures were exchanged.

One bad date after another. One smooth talker after another. One other potential who turns out to have more secrets than the last, more issues than the last, a potential who is potentially crazier than the last.

It's all enough to exhaust a guy.

Enough to make you want to give up for good.

But every once in a while, kismet smiles down from his perch high above Mount Olympus. He smiles, he winks, he nods, he points, and suddenly something is born that is unexpected. And well received. And amazing. And successful. And funny. And odd. And potentially life altering.

And there are still those out there who say that these are just coincidences. Luck. Chance. Just something that happened.

2009.

Shreveport, Louisiana.

328 Albany Avenue.

Well into the late-night hours.

To Be Continued...