The idea of being set up makes many of us groan and roll our eyes. I can't tell you how many times people have tried to find matches for me. A recent one went like this:
Wannabe Matchmaker: "I know the greatest guy you have to meet! The only problem is that he lives in [insert small town with population of 3000]"
Me: "Why does he live there? What does he do?"
WM: "He's a rancher."
Me: "So the facts that I'm a vegetarian and scared of farm towns would probably get in the way."
WM: "Oh yeah, that wouldn't work."
Now some of you might say that I'm being too picky and ruling guys out on shallow terms, however I would say that compatibly is what makes a match, and looking at my priorities and values, I wouldn't have compatibility with a guy like that. I love big cities, travelling, trying new restaurants, animals while they are alive and free, etc. I'm sure the aforementioned guy is kind and has a lot of great qualities, but our lifestyles wouldn't jive. Plus I already knew of him and had other concerns that ruled out agreeing to an introduction.
The reason why I share this is not to evaluate my matching compatibility, but to point out that one of the biggest problems with people trying to set up blind dates is that they don't often have enough criteria to make the match. They see a single girl and a single guy who seem relatively normal and go to the same church and then conclude that they should date on that criteria alone. This rarely leads to a solid match.
This leads me to the point of this post. I want to know what you think of matchmaking, dear readers. Have you had some dating successes? Could you use the help of a matchmaker? Would you pay for a professional matchmaker if he/she guaranteed to find you the companion of your choice? Is using a matchmaker a sign of desperation? Please share your thoughts!
