Even after all the rumblings up there in the sky we can't seem to get along down here. I'll admit it, at this point I'd rather have a Gucci bag than a relationship. There it is, I said it and I'm not one bit sorry, I could probably have a more meaningful relationship with an expensive handbag than I could with another human being at this point in time and I seriously doubt the designer bag could drop me for another or for any other ridiculous reasons. Let's face it, the dating world has gotten tough and it shows no signs of getting any easier. To prove a point my own mother clipped an ad for an Internet dating site for me, my mother who doesn't even know what the Internet is. The prevalence of these sites are becoming more and more frequent as we are either getting more and more lazy or just plain impatient in our quest to find the "one".

Ok, I may have exaggerated a bit, the ad that was clipped was not exactly a dating site. The true nature of the site is "singles" travel. Meetmarketadventures is advertised as group travel for "active" singles. Hmmm, that still sounds a bit suspicious to me. Maybe it is not quite as bold as sites such as Match.com which is nothing but a dating service but I still don't buy the fact that it is strictly a travel site. Well, I'm not here to debate the purpose of these sites. I pointed our earlier that it has become an issue to whether or not people have gotten too lazy to date or just too impatient. Everything now is high speed. Here in Chicago if you wait two seconds after the light turns green you have somebody behind you laying on the horn, everyone is in a hurry all of the time. Why can't people just slow down and date? It makes me wonder if the divorce rate would go down if people slowed down and did not hurry into things. In fact it makes me wonder a lot of things.

Putting the whole issue of rushing aside, let me address another thing. I wonder just who uses these sites. There is the old stereotype that only people who are "desperate" use dating services. I don't believe that that is entirely true. I believe that sometimes people just need a push to get back into the dating scene. Or a helpful hand to guide them or in this case a point and a click. I'm certain that people from all walks of life have used dating services in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

It also makes me wonder what has happened to traditional dating. By traditional I mean what I now think would be called an old fashioned courtship. Dates starting at seven and ending at ten. A kiss at the door and nothing more. Those days seem to be long gone forever. I say good riddance. Change can be good and we must keep up with the times. We are a progressive society and we are forced to keep moving. As much as the old folks would like us to slow down we simply can't we were born into a generation that is trying to race the clock and we do it with a lack of grace and a certain charm.

That brings us back to the issue of speed again which is the name of the game today. Strangely enough with people living longer and longer couples seem to be getting married younger and younger. Out of these young relationships it seems like at least half of them are doomed for failure. Once again what brings the rush? Can we blame it on our society or can we blame it on ourselves? I think the best bet would be to realize its most likely a combination of both. We want everything and we want it yesterday. We don't know how to take time to smell the flowers. Our high paced lifestyles lead to our competitive nature which is great in the boardroom but probably not so great in the bedroom.

Dating has taken some interesting turns in the last fifty years. We've gone from the traditional days to the days of meeting and greeting. If we continue down this path where will that take us? Some interesting possibilities are sure to be stirred up. We are leaving the old ways in the past and forging out new paths. Will we continue to have dating as we know it in the future or will it become something else entirely? Only time can tell us that and time is flying by as we all know too well. It's time to join in this dance or take your place on the sidelines. This is a dance that will surely have some new moves in the years and decades to come.