A few weeks ago I had a pretty bad first date. Of course things seemed promising online, great conversation, coordination was smooth. But all that human stuff is really stripped away from the online experience. That human stuff that happens instantly in person and you know if it's right or wrong.
It took me a couple days to be honest with the guy. (He was a good guy but we were not a match.) And in those days I had all those horrible feelings about online dating. How pointless and worthless it was. (And I have only done it twice in my life!) But then I thought, rather than be passive and negative, I would double down. I took action.
I spent an evening looking at profiles. Searching for keywords. Looking at pictures, at the spaces between the images, at the words, at what they said and what they didn't say. I wrote light, thoughtful messages. I asked questions, I shared information about myself. And I did it with no expectations.
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That's the way I feel about the world now. I was shattered after the election. Since then, I've been ungrounded, processing, trying to make sense of the trauma. I woke up this morning for the first time in a week not feeling a sense of dystopian dread. I'm ready to double down.
Love is the strongest thing I know, so I'm doubling down on love.
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