I tell you, Mike, what I am learning here is that it is the chasing of dames and not the catching of dames which is the best part of the whole business comprising or having to do with... dames. Chasing dames with high standards provides an awesome incentive structure to do things you might not otherwise consider or have a passion for doing. Rousseau once illustrated how education is best facilitated by desire when he described how a young man would fail in the classroom to learn french but study it successfully later in order to read signs at the movie theater he knew some dame he liked wanted to visit it. For my part, I am going to the gym and running about in the hills because the dame I am chasing is a fitness monster who likes a fighter.
Chase dames. Dames with high standards. Dames who value things in men that you value in yourself and would like to cultivate. You still have to be twitterpated by the dame, but the dame must have those high standards.
Do not catch the dame.
Wiley Coyote would be a real bore if he did not chase roadrunners. He would be an even bigger bore and pain in the ass if he actually caught and satisfied himself with eating one. (Who'd want to sit around and listen to the fat bugger gloat about it?)
A caught dame can be quite a nice thing, it is true. The same way a warm shower or a tasty cake can be quite nice. If you deign to catch a dame, it would be better for you that she struggle and be a pain in the ass once she is caught. Else you grow fat and useless so that not even your good friends will joy in your company (I will always joy in your company, no matter how fat and useless you are, but you should be leery of me for that.)
On January 30 2010 01:31 citi.zen wrote: Catch and release works too.
This is his reply:
Well, yes, catch and release could work but there are potential snags with the releasing. Dames (and fellas) have a tendency to develop emotional attachments some more than others. Whatever is done during a dame-chase must be done in adherence to some duty of care; ideally, you should treat dames like you would want a daughter of yours to be treated by some fella. In perfection, the dame you chase should be better off for it.
Incidentally, I think the method of dames as keeping oneself in line was used by Odysseus during his long journey home. If he were only after pussy, he would have remained at the Isle of Calypso with all those goddess dames, getting laid freely every day. I think he may have stayed stayed loyal to his wife because that required him to cultivate the best qualities of himself (and arguably of manhood generally). Indeed, his trip home was more difficult than his contribution to the war against Troy and it was his heroism during his return home that is better remembered.
Praise the gods that the world is populated with such an abundance of dames fit for chasing.
So yes, in recap, see how a fellow whose goal was strictly the chasing of dames for the purpose of conquering them would pick from the herd with the eye of a predator: he would select the weakest-willed, daftest slut among them for an easy chase with a gratifying conclusion. The fellow whose goal is the pleasure of the chase and the possible self-improvement required for the chasing selects the healthiest dame who is likeliest to make for the hardest, most interesting chase. This fellow goes the distance. This fellow runs for speed. He chases dames for reasons similar to those a cat might have for scratching a post. (But mainly because dames are so damned lovely.)
John Stuart Mill kept after a dame who married another fellow (who was a bad husband to her) for decades. The other fellow would not allow a divorce (we're talking nineteenth century Britain here) so Mill had to persevere until the dame outlived the husband and consented to marry him. It took decades. Perhaps we can now begin to understand why Mill, a successful marriageable fellow would have undertaken the trouble when other dames may have been available.
What was good for both Mill and Odysseus was that the dames of their focus were out of the way while they went off doing all their greater works. Dames just helped give them an excuse to do what was good for them anyway.
I like it, I really do. Somewhere in there though there is a Platonic notion of a single "true form", a common ideal "man" or "morality" we (should?) all strive towards . If we were to reject that notion, and instead suggest there are multiple types of men out there, perhaps each with their own ideal "form", each would have a different ultimate fulfillment, with its associated path in life. What worked well for Ulysses might drive another man crazy.
Sounds like the sad, sad loss of individuality to me. Would rather do things for myself and wait for someone to appreciate me for it, than to try to become someone's fantasy.
When I think about the most attractive people I know, and the most attractive qualities they have, it's that they always seem to have their own goals and their own focus. Independence you can admire. Being hungry for attention destroys that. It also destroys the value of an accomplishment when it's dependent on someone else being proud of it, like it ceases to matter once they're out of your life (when really you should feel like your accomplishments hold value in and of themselves).
EPT
