Con. Con. Cont.

The true source of the problem, which I never really fully explained, is the nature of the experience itself. Life, society, religion, all of these things which are good teach people to play fair. Yet life is based in competition. One must play the game (yes... you are Leonidas) to have a chance to win it. Dating is not dissimilar to hunting, but beware, once you see it this way you have already lost. You must ready your weapon and wait. That's right, wait. If you fire off a round or two into the forest you will only scare away your prey. Or in more dating related terms, if you show too much interest too fast you scare away the prey. Whereas if you choose to not hunt at all, you will never catch prey unless it just so happens to wander by, and we all know that animals are naturally frightened by humans (except for slugs and snails, but they really don't have a good way of running away fast). So we have the basics down... you must ready your weapon and wait. First you must find your prey though tracking or trapping. Tracking involves following the signs and looking for trails or waterholes to steak out. Trapping involves knowing the well traveled areas in advance and setting up bait, it takes less traveling, but is still an activity that takes work and is an art form to perfect. Then you must check your selection, put the option most suited to your needs in your sights, close your eyes and pull the trigger knowing full well that your actions can never be undone and that if you make a mistake, you must live with it. Now the reason that you will have lost the game if you see it as such is because in understanding it this way you begin to see how it can be more effectively played and risk playing it for fun and loosing sight of the fact that the outcome of this game is a serious and life-effecting matter that should not be taken as lightly as to be seen as a game.