(no subject)

[d_aulnoy]

Hellooooo, emotional roller coaster! I was just reading my f-list (i.e., procrastinating), when I cam across pegkerr ’s latest entry. She, in turn, had linked to two takes on a single event: a blind date, and its predicted future. You can find the optimistic version here, and the pessimistic version here. Try reading them in reverse order and see if you come away from it uplifted … I read the original and then the redefined version, and now I just feel -dirty.

No one has ever referred to me as a romantic, good knows; but for a second, reading the first one, I felt … happy. Hopeful. A kind of a “That *could* happen” fugue. The second one? That was more like, “Been there, done that, and he never even returned my tee-shirt.” The second one just sucked all of that idealistic possibility right out of me. I think that one thing that pushed this a little further is the repeated trope of “I want this,” which in the first is generous, and in the second mean-spirited. This is, of course, affected by the fact that the first poster actually *saw* this, sitting there in the early morning sunshine of a cafe humming with laughter, feeling good after a cinnamon-dosed cappuccino, content in her solitude, alone but not lonely, and felt the hope, whereas the second poster read it at home, late at night, a little maudlin from red wine and knew the truth. The first refers to herself as a godmother; the second, as a sadist. The difference between the two is openhanded generosity that doesn't profit, and a mindset that takes solace in the certainty of sympathetic experience. [BTW, I don’t know either of these people; both seem like good writers, I just feel a need to riff on for some inexplicable reason.] And you want to know what the sad fact of the matter is? Sure, I envy the happy couple in the first version; but, the thing is, I’ve *had* a couple of those good dates, and they’ve turned out pretty much as the second poster predicted. The one I envy is the first poster, for being able to have that mindset in the first place.

Here's to hope, and generousity ... and that happy couple.

Comments

[gramarye1971]

Came here via your comment in readers_list, and I just wanted to say 'Hear, hear'. I also felt rather tarnished by reading the second version of the story, even though I know that statistically it's the more likely experience. But there's enough to be bitter (or 'realistic') about without taking someone's good wishes and turning them upside down just to prove a point...or worse, to not prove a point.

Thanks for putting it so well. ^_^