I Wish I Could Make You Less Single

A boy I know got married yesterday.

He was one of my favorite men from my youth, when I trotted off to some other state after high school and did disaster relief work and found out about the world.  He was one of the brightest, friendliest, funniest, most well-spoken men I have had the privilege of knowing. We didn't know, really know, eachother and there was certainly no romantic spark because I never like popular boys and because when I was the house-marm at the disaster relief center all of the girls were madly in love with him and I was sworn to secrecy in exhausting long midnight talks and whatnot. But he was a good man, a really good man, and anyhow he married this girl who was about six feet tall with everlasting little legs and some work undoubtedly done to render her especially resplendent, and when a photographer friend of mine blogged the photos she was paid to take at their wedding I marked the post as "Read" immediately because it was discouraging to me.

I feel happy these days, because for better or worse I am surrounded by a little group of people who for whatever reason need me. I feel lucky working for my boss, who encourages me to wait for the right guy and who in the meantime tries to make my life as full as possible. I'm lucky to have a family who believes that I am reasonably good at everything I put my hand to, and a network of friends who with very few exceptions invest more in me than I have opportunities to invest in them. Therefore, I want to be clear that I am not complaining. I am sad, though, because I have a growing number of friends who seem to have been promised any number of things that aren't true. Everybody always said that if you had a beautiful soul everybody would notice, and I have so many thirty and forty year old friends of average looks and glistening personalities who have never even been asked out on a date. I am sad for them because none of what anyone said helped them, and because when it comes down to it, having a beautiful soul doesn't mean anything if no one is fated to come along.

 I am so sad, so heartbroken, for these multitudes of girls who have lived good, unstained lives in honor of the men that they will never meet because the best men command the attention of the prettiest and the most enchanting.