Online Dating Schopenhauer Style

On-line dating is it daggy or a sign of the times?

Sure we have all dated, blind dated and been blinded temporarily by a date… or was that just me… just me I think.

The amount of time or should I say, time management skills we have seems to be way outta balance with the pressure and priorities we place on ourselves with the busy lives we lead.

Much like shopping on E-bay, On-line dating seems to be growing in popularity. The young independent late 20’s early 30’s guy or gal that has come up for air from a frenetic effort in his or her career has taken a moment and discovered there is no one by their side and that they have everything and nothing at the same time. Hence the leap to the time saving option of looking but not looking (on-line dating)

In some ways I feel the same about my youthful aspirations to become a naturopath. Still in my teens I was so ready to learn all the natural remedies and holistic lifestyle so I could deliver my own children and treat them from birth to adulthood with learned nutrition, symptomology and herbal remedies. I was so keen I even researched and wrote a paper on water birthing and visited birthing suites in Kew.

Needless to say my aspirations overshot by my reality, life changed suddenly at the end of 1989 and I thrust myself into a Russian winter of 40 below for a time challenged my beliefs and found true love. That is a story I will tell another day. But I digress.

I too have stumbled into the computerized coupling, well, at least registered a profile. I have yet to get fully involved – that would mean paying for memberships etc. But I do scan the sites from time to time and look into the faces and written aspirations of the women seeking a perfect love thru a digital media.

I honestly believe that being in the right place at the right time for love is a myth told my family and friends to sooth us into avoiding the reality that we are all just individuals, many unskilled in the art of knowing ourselves in a true sense or knowing what we want in a partner. So we stumble, tumble and fall, rightly or wrongly, for someone we want for the person we want to be, not the person we are.

I think I have lulled myself into an acceptable excuse for this online dating, expand the social network outside and beyond what my current situation, expectations and circles can provide without the expense of my emotions from rejection or the financial folly of spending money on a woman that just isn’t interested in anything but attention and flattery. Just escaped that situation a few weeks ago and still scolding myself for being that dumb.

But as with all of us we want to give our all to the dream we have for ourselves. I will keep trying either through subconscious belief or genetic directive.

Maybe Schopenhauer was right… love is just an distraction for genetic continuity…