The Weekly Theme?

As someone who has maintained an online diary here for nearly 2 years now, it seems rather shameful that I have not even once written an entry for the “Weekly Theme” provided by the hard working staff here at Open Diary. Truthfully, I’ve had a rather strong urge to write on one of the topics since the very moment I joined, however, an unfortunate dilemma has continued to stand in my path.

The Weekly Theme questions really suck.

This week’s question provides a fair enough example of this with “What quality make a person beautiful?” A quick review of the responses from our fellow OD members reveals that the consensus key quality is a combination of being “kind and sweet” with being “a good listener” coming in a close 2nd. Which seems to indicate beautiful people never get laid. How odd.

This, of course, has led me into a whirlwind of thought. I wonder, why is it that the qualities we logically think we should find attractive are so far removed from the qualities that really do attract us? I’m not trying to say that being “kind and sweet” and “a good listener” aren’t fine qualities, but, really, my knees don’t start knocking at the thought, and I doubt yours do either. Now, I realize the argument is that “beauty” is something that goes deeper than basic attraction and is discovered through a much more transcendental experience, and, hey, maybe it is. However, if you ask any person the qualities that they “look for” in their dream partner you’ll almost always hear similar “I want him to be a good listener” rubbish, when in reality they’d probably never even consider their described dream lover as anything more than a desperation date. Truthfully, the nice, sensitive “good listener” types described as our ideal mates would stand little chance at all if tossed into the real dating world.

Now, understand, I’m not bemoaning this as more evidence that humanity is evil and superficial. Really, I say “Oh, wait, what were you saying?” far too often to be considered a good listener, and whether or not I’m “kind and sweet” is a complete judgment call. I’m merely observing that the least reliable way to ever understand what attracts a person is to ask the person themselves. And with that observation, I think I’ll end this entry and go to bed.

Wait, I almost forgot to tell you what quality makes a person beautiful! Well, as you know, to me, looks aren’t nearly as important. I’m more concerned that they’re just nice pe

ople overall. Oh, and they must be willing to listen . . .