I was discussing this in the car today with a friend. We were doing a little bit of a get-to-know-you session, asking random questions to get to know each other's personalities and values. I posed the question:
If you could combine fictional characters to create your perfect man, who would they be, and for what traits?
She didn't have an answer right away and asked me to go first. Here's my list, and then I'm going to explain why I'm writing this post:
1. The dedication and patience of Rory from Doctor Who. Rory waited for Amy for 2,000 or so years while she was stuck in the Pandorica.
2. The tenderness and sense of adventure of Logan from Gilmore Girls. Yes, this is probably because I'm currently watching all seven seasons, but whatever.
3. The bravery of Harry Potter.
4. The appearance of Andrew from The Proposal...because Ryan Reynolds.
I told her I could increase my list and I certainly could hit on the intelligence and wit of basically any Victorian-era classics male main character (though maybe Dantes from The Count of Monte Cristo could do...or any Jane Austen male lead), and the loyalty and ambition (though not the crazy) of Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, but I kept it at that.
She gave me her answer of course, which I won't reveal for confidentiality purposes. After discussing this topic, I thought about a movie I watched recently with two of my close friends, Beauty and the Briefcase. In it, Hilary Duff's character has a list of ten things she needs for her "magic man". She is a journalist and is sent on a mission to find a perfect "man in a suit" in the business world for a cover story. She dates, eliminating guys for not matching the list. And SPOILERS...
She breaks the rules and dates non-businessmen blah blah blah. And BIG SPOILER.
She ends up with a man that doesn't match any of her ten requirements.
So?
I guess what I'm getting at is that everyone has certain standards, but the perfect person doesn't exist. We love based on the good and bad of a person, the wonderful qualities and those pesky quirks. Perhaps we set each other to too high standards. Maybe the man that you will end up doesn't look like a chiseled-abs, beautiful jaw lines actor. Maybe he isn't going to wait for you to come to your senses or break out of a box for two thousand years- would you? Really?
This doesn't mean we should be pessimistic or eliminate our standards. One character in the movie takes an item off of her list every year in the hopes that someone will make it through her crazy standards. Another character just wants a guy who breathes. Well, that should work I guess.
But maybe, just maybe, a wonderful guy is out there who isn't insanely ambitious, who doesn't have his whole life planned out, and isn't as intelligent as Einstein or Hawking. Maybe he is lost and confused like you but has reasonable goals. Maybe he is his own type of smart (theory of multiple intelligences anyone?). Time will tell.
What do you think? Are lists silly? Do you have a list? Let me know!
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