About a year ago I vented at the pressure of well-meaning friends who obsessed over my lack of a love life. Some of whom stated that I set the bar far too high, there was no way in hell anyone could meet my impossible criteria.
Their opinion was absurd. I spent many years in a wonderful relationship with a wonderful women who is still one of my best friends. After two decades we were no longer the people we had been. Regrettably.
I shall not speak ill of her. Not because I claim to be a gentleman, or out of some sense of discretion, tact, or ethics, but, in truth, because there is no ill of which to speak.
That is not something I would say about many other people.
Which, in large part, explains why I don't date.
Or rather, haven't done so in a while.
It's not that I absolutely want the ideal woman and will settle for nothing less. It's just that I would like a perfect woman.
And I flatter myself that unlike most men I actually know what that is, and how to define her. No, shan't do so here. The parameters are sufficiently wide that most readers would be unable to grasp what was meant, and I know that being specific will always prompt friends to strongly suggest someone who epitomizes many of the characteristics up with which I do not wish to put.
"She's absolutely perfect for you! She doesn't really mind tobacco, loves tofu, and is ambulatory!
And she's a beast!
Friends are always tone-deaf when it comes to such things.
One of them believes that instead I should get a dachshund.
She probably would have suggested a duck-billed platypus, but she's a dog-person, not an Australian.
Duck-billed platypuses are VERY cute.
EVIDENCE OF THAT ASSERTION:
[SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6QHzIJO5a8.]
The platypus.
Well then.
Four weeks ago a good friend enthusiastically urged me to go shmooze with a Taiwanese woman who was accompanied by a wussy male, and stated that reserve in such situations inevitably meant defeat.
I don't know to what situation he referred, seeing as the two people in view seemed perfectly matched.
And in any case, there was no evidence that she was in any way suited to me, while all the available evidence indicated that she rather liked her wussy man.
Three weeks ago someone suggested that I should go talk to a drunken blonde. Perhaps because drunken blondes are far less of a challenge than rational women who are sober.
Again I demurred.
A few days ago someone else spent two hours in conversation with three French trollops. Somehow I doubt that they spoke of Jean-Paul Sartre or Jean-Luc Goddard. Or anything worth thinking about.
They probably didn't even talk about food!
I find the examples set by other people fascinating, and wonder how they ever find romance.
It seems to me that many of them simply settle for less.
孟子曰：「魚我所欲也，熊掌亦我所欲也；二者不可得兼，舍魚而取，熊掌者也。」。
Mencius said: "I like fish, I also like bear paw. If I cannot possibly have both, I will pass on the fish and have the bear paw".
The corollary to that is that even if bear paw is hard to find, one should not simply settle for fish.
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