Laws of Attraction

This post has been languishing in drafts for nearly a week. I'd almost forgotten about it - almost.. - but was reminded of its existance over lunchtime.

So, with a bit of a tweak and an update, here it is!

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Meetings are interesting beasts. Sometimes they drone on for so long that you start to amuse yourself. You begin examining your meeting-mates in-depth on the sly, and using them to fuel all sorts of ponderings.

This time round I had a go at the whole Physical Attraction thing. What it is that makes one person more attractive to you than another. Funny thing this, but I could find something attractive about all the humans gathered there, varied as they were! If you lined them up next to each other you might not be able to see common ground though, to figure out just what I'd consider appealing.

I saw an online amusement-thingie (those fill in the blanks and we'll tell you your fortune type sites) a while back that had you measure attractiveness on a variety of faces, and then it either threw up your "ideal" or told you all about your personality. Which sounds a bit on the dodgy side, yet has it's entertainment value when bored.

But here's the thing. And this is after some meeting-pondering and beyond.

If you asked me to define my "ideal" of what I find attractive, I wouldn't be able to pin it down. Nor could you garner it by examining the last 10 year's worth of my crushes and madly-loves - except that "tall and nutty" makes up a good percentage of that number, and always has.

When I was younger I had a "wish-list" of traits - some of which make me shudder in horror today, but nevertheless. I guess it was the teen thing of pin-up boys, where you followed the herd when it came to drooling over men, and stuck up whatever centerfold was in this week's You.

Today - well I'm older. Wiser (we hope, though my idiocy factor is running high this week). More sure of me and how I move in the world I inhabit. And my "wish-list" has turned from outer to inner. OK, so the bloke with the incredibly bluegreen eyes and shock of dark hair I spotted in Pick 'n Pay had me do a double-take (unfortunately co-incided with his double-take.. blush :-) ), and now and then I'll go "wow" (no, not out loud! well, not usually) over a passer-by or think "hell, he's cute!" when introduced to someone. But as I said - line them up and there's very little common ground. All you'll gather from that exercise is that South Africa is populated by some damn fine men, whatever your taste is. (And that I seriously drool too much - but hey...!)

Which leads me - finally - to a conclusion of sorts. That it's the person inside shining through that I find more attractive than a bullet-list of handsome. You can have model-chiselled looks, but I'll say "no thanks" if there's no naughty gleam in the eye or layers of fascination to examine. Correction - probably wouldn't have said hi to the model type anyway, as generally speaking they're shallow and vain (and I'm shallow enough myself to brush them off based on stereotype alone! :-) ).

Laws of attraction? Nah - no set in stone laws here. Guidelines perhaps (a girl must have standards after all!), with a liberal dose of gut feel and connection-karma thrown in. A "I know it when I see it" thing, my own version of the X-factor.

Though if I turn over half-asleep in the dark, take one look and scream - that might be a subtle sign the guidelines need reworking.... :-)