Learning from Storytime

Today was one of those days where I simply have nothing to write about. Instead, enjoy the stories of The Maggid of Bergenfield. I especially like this one... it is really too bad that (while this guy is a fictional extreme) more people don't have such a positive attitude about little "negatives" that happen, particularly on the first few dates. From some of what I have heard, there are some singles who are almost unforgiving in how they view their date's actions on the first couple of dates.

Now, of course, there are horror stories, and that's not what I'm talking about. But it seems that some people get dumped after a date or two simply because the other person 'doesn't see it' or for some minor perceived action or statement that either really doesn't matter or was completely misunderstood, and that's a shame. Then, of course, there are those people who strike people from their "lists" (ugh) before they've even gone out based on some secondhand information that may or may not be true and often really isn't that important. And, finally, there's the "well, since we already know everything about each other before we went out, we have no way of starting conversation" issue. As a commenter put it on Esther's blog:

If someone whom I know and respect would want to fix me up, I would assume that the person they have in mind is fairly appropriate for me in terms of intelligence, life view, attractiveness etc. I might want to know a couple of points of interest - maybe where they are from, or what they do, or like to do - but more so we could have something on which to start the conversation.

Anyways, when Serach and I met, the night before Thanksgiving, three years ago (!!), we knew very little about each other. We'd talked a bit on the phone, but that was pretty much it. And while there were surely a number of faux pas that night, we let them slide... and thank God, life has worked out quite nicely.