All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

- “Eleanor Rigby”, by Paul McCartney

I don’t think that anyone necessarily plans to be alone and lonely; sometimes it just happens. Perhaps it’s because they got caught up in a career race, or they live somewhere with a limited dating pool. Maybe they’ve been dating the wrong person, they’re divorced, or perhaps it’s because they have simply postponed couplehood until nearly everyone they know is paired up, and the ones who aren’t simply don’t look appealing. However it happens, there comes a day when as satisfying as being a singleton may have been, they suddenly realize that they…are lonely.

Now let’s personalize the experience.

So here is how it often happens: you are sitting at home watching the television, alone of course, and a commercial comes on. Smiling, happy, loving couples flounce across the screen, and an announcer starts talking about how you don’t have to be alone anymore. That there is someone out there that is just like you, someone that will “get” you, someone that will understand why somebody as wonderful as you is still single, because that person is still single too - and they are just as wonderful.

The logical part of your brain will kick in at first. “Give me a break, the only people who would ever join an online dating service are losers; people who are socially inept or who are looking for a hook-up.”

But still, those couples taunt you…and you wonder.

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