Carpe Coma

Every 3-6 months I stumble across a profile on another site that I freeze when trying to write to. By most accounts, there isn’t anything remarkable about these profiles. In fact, most would probably consider them positively banal. They are never vulgar, rarely explicit, and frequently almost chaste in style. However, there is something in them which resonates strongly, an unspoken message which permeates through their words. They are almost always independent, confident (at least outwardly), educated, capable, and successful in their own right. They know that they have no material need and that they don’t need someone to protect them from the world. However, they still feel the need to find that person with whom they can relax and be vulnerable to, someone they can trust. A person who will compliment their feminine side, yet can match them intellectually. As they do not tolerate fools or charlatans, their profile is tinted with a message of weary patience. The weariness of one who has been searching in one form or another for a long time, one who has low hopes of finding what she seeks, yet the need compels her to continue looking.

These profiles cause me to freeze the same way a hunter might freeze at seeing a 12 point buck. It isn’t out of intimidation or trepidation, but out of anticipation and preparation. These aren’t your everyday prizes, but the ones around which legends form. So I’ll sit there and mull over what I am seeing for hours, sometimes days. Considering what she is saying between the lines, how to open without giving her cause to bolt. Sometimes, I move unprepared because fatigue has gotten the better of me (like tonight) and the rustle causes her to hide, sometimes I miss, but more often than not, the message finds it’s way home. When it does, I almost always at least end with a good friend, and sometimes more. When I miss or she darts off at a rustle, I’ll utter an expletive under my breath and settle back in to wait for another to wander my way, because just like her, I too am compelled to keep trying, to keep looking.

(Ed. Note: Repost due to server data loss. Original post date: 8/01/2009)