When I was in college [oh, so, so long ago], my group of friends had a discussion about… “The One”… If there was that one person out there that could understand you, love you like no other. I admit that, at the time, I was very adamant about believing that my one true love was out there. Rightfully so, a few of my friends [namely, Anthony and Jared] argued hard with me and tried to convince me otherwise… convince me of a more liberal faith in love… that maybe there is more than one, many even, out there who you can love and can love you in return. [yes, yes, i was more naive and idealistic than you can imagine.] Our friend, Bobby, just sat on the outskirts of the conversation, staring at his computer, when Jared got all riled up and asked…
– Hey, Bobby… Whatcha think? You think your one is out there? That there’s only one girl for you?
Bobby, without flinching from his computer, says…
– Yeah, I think my one got hit by a bus.
I miss those boys… the Loft days…
Anyways, there was a segment on This American Life today on “The One”… kinda. Very, very interesting: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/player/CPRadio_player.aspx?podcast=http://www.thisamericanlife.org/xmlfeeds/374.xml
I started listening to it at work, left, turned it on in my car and then ended up skipping errands to listen to it instead. It made me cry actually.
It talks about a couple who has this amazing meeting story… a story of falling amazingly in love. [you should really listen.] But then things are rough in their relationship a while… they almost split up. And the story ends with this…
“They had to make that same transition that all couples do: From the crazy in love stage to the other thing, the hard part of love. And it’s when your in that struggle that you most need the story of how you’re meant to be, because the alternative, that the person you’re with could be any one of hundreds, or thousands, of other people… Well if that’s true, then why even try?”
I cried.
Why even try? Damn.
Kind of reminded me of Dorian Gray… a quote I jotted down in my journal a while ago… September 17th to be exact…
“What you have told me is quite the romance, a romance of art one might call it. And the worst of having a romance of any kind is that it leaves one so unromantic.”
Yes and yes. Sadly.
And if you can’t [won’t] subject yourself to listening to love, you should listen to that broadcast just for the story about the transgender eight-year-olds. Crazy. Inspiring. Loving. Made me cry [again]. Made me laugh with joy.
And a song, for good measure:
wull hay. 
Hey!
You have no idea who I am but found your blog a long time ago from LW’s blog.
Anyway, two things stuck out to me about this post that screamed at me to reply. First, I listen to two podcasts a week and one of them is “This American Life.” It is absolutely awesome and makes my workouts go by crazy fast, even though its sometimes tough to breathe and hysterically laugh out loud at the same time.
Second, I read an article a while ago about a Physicists who did a little brainstorming about if there was only one person for her. She made a list of things she wanted in a man and estimated how many people in the Boston area would meet her criteria. Even though her standards, in my opinion, were pretty high, she found there to be about 500 people she would be perfect with. (I could not find the link to the article, so I am most likely butchering the story. Sorry)
Keep up the great posting!
chris: first off, yay! i very much appreciate your randomness. we need more of that in general in life.
secondly, is your second podcast “The World Cafe”? cuz if it is, we can be friends. especially if you liked this morning’s: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122573980 blitzen trapper = awesome.
thirdly, so my friend and i [both being women of high standards] decided to find out our chances [based on the boston experiment] of perfect compatibility in the town we live in… jackson, wyoming.
assuming that all the same rules apply and we want everything this physicists wants, there are 7.835 men in jackson that could be right for us. and since there’s two of us… should we just call halfsies?
Since, I lived in Jackson for a year I would take a look at those numbers again. I think half the guys I knew there didn’t know what a relationship was and that might be a little conservative. So, we are now down to 3,800 guys. If you wanted to go halfsies with that number, I could slightly agree. But I am sure you have some standards that are high so, the real number is definitely lower. But one thing I am sure of, is the number is greater than 1.
BTW – the other podcast is “Skeptics Guide to the Universe,” but I will give “The World Cafe” a listen.
oh, i think you misread. that was a period… not a comma. i should’ve just rounded… there are 7.8 [roughy 8] men in jackson that fit the boston-model perfection mold. and if half don’t know what a relationship is… we’re down to 4… and if i have to split them with my friend…