I saw a guy today at an intersection holding a sign.
I didn't read the sign, didn't have to. His layers of jackets and grimy face told me what he was using it for. The light turned green and as the line of cars he was walking alongside began inching past him, he turned around and I saw the back of his sign: "Single? Meet someone today! mdsingles.org"
It's not the first time I've seen these signs appropriated for more wanting means. But the poetry of the juxtaposition touched me.
Maybe it's because it's been a rainy Monday. Maybe it's because for the last month I haven't seemed to have any energy, and all I can do is sit and hope my body's cruise control doesn't conk out on me. Maybe it's because I'm well past the one-year anniversary of singlehood now and the nuances of life on my own are staring me in the face in high relief.
How evocative is the image of that sign?
Two kinds of loneliness: hopeless romantics throwing a try at love out there into cyberspace, flipped and hidden behind desperate optimism and blind faith in the ability of human kindness to sustain one more day.