This will be the last article before I post a restaurant review or a blog about a trip again! I just have to share this. :)
104 Ways To
Break The Ice
FEB. 14, 2012
So I’m
out at a bar with a friend and he tells me there’s a girl across the room that
he thinks maybe made
eye contact twice or might have been three times but it’s possible she was looking at someone
else or something on the bar and you never really know in these situations so
maybe he’ll just stay here, he says, leave her alone, since she’s probably
having a nice night and he doesn’t want to ruin that and he doesn’t have
anything to say anyway.
You don’t have anything to
say?
See,
I’ve always held the opinion that it doesn’t matter what you say, as long as
you say something. The whole 99% of life is showing up
thing which is I know is corny but which I also know
is true. I mean, nobody in a bar, or the world in general, thinks you’re actually interested in the shoes or the weather or the New York Giants or
the new season of Sherlock or how loud the place is or whatever — it’s just the
necessary cover for the please talk to me I’m
lonely that we’re all desperately communicating
but don’t want to acknowledge. That’s just the ‘game’ people talk about, and
there’s nothing wrong with it. For years I told partners I had a totally sweet
saltwater aquarium in my apartment and did they want to come up and check it
out? And not one person ever complained about my lack of an aquarium. All parties were
just happy to have found a way around having to say, “Hey, I think you’re
pretty and I want to kiss you.”
So I’ve
never once had a relationship begin with something grand and romantic, like I
came to expect from the movies, and I figured the same was true for most other
people, as well. The opening lines of my relationships span from sweepingly
idiotic to mundane, and while there are some sweet ones in there, too, they
certainly don’t make up the majority — nor did they predict future success and
compatibility. In fact, many of my favorite longest-lasting relationships
emerged from moments that were painfully awkward — shining examples of the
opposite of smooth.
So when
my friend told me he had nothing to say, I told him it didn’t matter. I said:
just walk over there and open your mouth. Something will come out. Trust me.
You won’t say nothing. And if you do say nothing, that’s good, because we as humans don’t need
your nothing-saying genes in the
mating pool, anyway. And so he stepped off his stool, straightened his tie, and
cleared his throat. I gave his shoulders a hearty shake, then slapped his face
and spun him around, pushed him in the direction of the girl.
He
stumbled but caught his footing — walked right up to her table and said,
Uhhhhhhhh, what kind of
chocolate is that? Is that French? I mean is the chocolate from France?
They’re
together now. He’s been in a mutually-loving relationship with that person ever
since, making love — not even banging, making love – every day and sending emails like We’ll
find you someone, Jack, I’m sure there’s someone out there for you, too and posting adorable pictures of themselves on the internet and
the walls and anywhere which will allow it, and it’s almost too much, and it’s
all because he walked over and said something. He said anything.
It’s a
good example.
It’s a
good example that 99% of meeting someone nice is in showing up, is in
preventing yourself from overanalyzing and instead just being
with them in that particular
place at that particular time. That it’s never as difficult to connect with
someone as it seems in your head. That love is not this impossible thing reserved
for the clever — it’s the for the awkward and embarrassed and the lonely and
the unimaginative and the nervous and the self-conscious and anyone who can
bring themselves for a single moment to say something.
Say anything.
And I
know this is true. Because I checked.
I
checked one hundred different relationships for their first words. The rules
were simple: the first line must be honest — what was actually said in that
moment — and it must have led to love. Romantic love; the sort of love we’re
all about. The kind we imagine on Valentine’s Day, wish for when we’re alone,
fight tooth and claw to protect when we find it. That sort of love. And the
lines below are the result. They’re the truth. They were all — each and every
one of them — good enough to find someone love, and, I think you’ll find,
something worth considering the next time you’re certain you don’t
have anything to say.
1.
Yeah, no, that girl’s not my girlfriend or anything.
2.
Hi, I’m [someone].
3.
Hey, sorry, you probably don’t remember me but the other day you
asked for a pen and I said no, and I felt like I was kind of rude, I mean I
really didn’t have a pen to loan you, I just had the one and I needed it to
write that, but I felt like maybe I came off rude and, I dunno, I worry a lot
about that I guess, and I didn’t want you to be thinking like ‘wow that girl
sure was an asshole’ all week, which you probably weren’t, I know, you probably
didn’t even give it a second thought, but like honestly I was just sitting here
kind of hoping you’d sit there again so I could apologize and this isn’t really
turning out as planned, so sorry, for this too, and um, my name’s [Someone].
4.
So you went to school with him?
5.
Wait so it’s you who put all the Spice Girls on the juke?
6.
You sound drunk.
7.
Is this The Village? Am I in The Village right now? And am I
saying that right?
8.
So, you go to an all-girls college… do you like chicks?
9.
Can I call you Trixie?
10.
Hey there — you seemed cool, thought i’d write :) what was
guatemala like? i’ve never been anywhere in central or south america yet.
hoping to make it to brazil one of these days. maybe we’ll talk!
