Sexual Healing by Dr. Margarita Kressin

Single or divorced male, kind to animals, not in prison, good teeth, preferably have a job. More or less.

I was helping my friend go through her eHarmony application. I was amazed at how detailed the questions got: what best friends think of you, the last book you read, "must haves" and "can’t stands" in seeking a mate. Don’t get me wrong. I obviously care that my friend meets a decent guy, so I am glad they get pretty detailed. But I stop to think, this is what it takes nowadays?!

My friends are intelligent, not physically grotesque, have never been arrested let alone been in prison, have all their teeth, are college educated, have good jobs, kind to animals, chew with their mouths closed, and they don’t spit when talking. Really, what does it take?

Within the last two years, I know of three friends who met their husbands through some sort of online dating. I know of four people right now actively going through some dating service. I see ads on TV, hear them on the radio, even read them on the airline magazine I flip through when flying — Just Lunch, Great Expectations, match.com, eHarmony, just to name a few. There are also speed-dating services in order to increase your chances of meeting that special someone. It is playing on odds and statistics that maybe, just maybe, there is that one-in-30-or-so two-minute encounters that you will connect with.

I myself became Dr.-Mrs Kressin as a result of a set-up, so I empathize with my friends having a difficult time meeting other people (good decent people with no criminal record and have all their teeth. I know I’m obsessing about the teeth thing, but my friend just mentioned this, and now I can’t seem to stop looking at people’s teeth).

When you think about it, however, classifieds have been around for a long time. Our online and speed dates are just more sophisticated forms of looking for that special someone. So maybe it isn’t that it has become more difficult to meet someone. Maybe it’s just that we’ve just developed a fancier way to say:

SWF looking for S/DM, NS for LTR.