The Top Ten Reasons That I Will Never Be Prince Charming;
Being a single post college professional guy in America these days is sometimes easy and sometimes painfully a self-aware moment that you are not yet living the nuclear family dream that much of America that was born prior to Ronald Regan (POTUS 40) will spoon feed you. And feed you. And again ask if you are full yet, that they have plenty of leftovers if you still have room left.
For me, I have no notion that I am a prince. I have read The Prince, and I wish to have no dealings of sinister things that heads of state or sons of heads of a nation state must do. I am a simple guy with simple dreams. Silly things like having room for a few pets to run around in a fictional back yard with a fence to protect them from the urban neighborhood that I have decided is good enough to call home. Some of my small and tiny dreams usually fit inside a box no bigger than the box with the rooster on it that silly commercial for flakes of corn. For me many of my dreams are here and I find solace that I am living the American Dream.
Not the same one that you hear on TV, but the one that is whispered in foreign tongues from people that many people have described as “swarthy? to my face. I find this land home, love, and warmth. I also find it perplexing and cold. I am not of this lands, but have been here so long that I know none else as home.
Back to Charming. Recently while perusing more things on dreams and in search of a good read, I stumbled upon a fun little list of what would not make a good Prince Charming. Not a straight cut list of tall fair Germanic or Nordic looks, or how one would be a just ruler. More of a personal look of how jaded lovers saw one another and how their pain can still be felt. It may have taken time to write the treatise on how young love could or should behave or what expectations people had when looking for love. It could have had many thoughts and views about love, life and where people want to go and what it takes to find someone that you want to share the rest of your life with. But it missed one key question that many readers have not asked of the inverse; If ladies are looking for a prince, a master, or love, what are they bringing to the table in the same negotiations and could they look in the mirror and come to an equal compromise?
Many of my life stories are simple, provincial, and can be really petty. Much I can promise I will never bore the masses with stories of my exploits in the desert foothills of Colorado mountain towns, villages, and other places with small names and even more petty problems. Moreover, I will never bore people with counter attacks on their own intellectual works and ideas. I can just give a simple top ten for you from a man who is in his thirties now and who may give insight to others of what men may be able to offer but what not to look for if you are not interested in becoming a princess.
Again, The Top Ten Reasons That I Will Never Be Prince Charming;
1) I am not a prince and I cannot bestow crowns, tiaras, or titles. I have met people that wish to be swept off their feet or surprised when meeting a potential date/boyfriend/lover/husband. If you want comedy, feel free to come over to my place, rest on my couch, and watch Seinfeld. As for me; dating me or going further is not going to make you special, get you a spot on the Tonight Show, or make me feel better for you to be able to show me off to friends. That feeling has to come from within yourself.
2) If you love kissing frogs and are interested to find one that loves magic spells and Harry Potter and that will turn into a prince, again, please look within first for what you are really looking for. The people that think that dating someone they see as beneath them to turn the new dupe into a prince if they believe in that sort of thing still have to think of the mans position. I never promise to be a gentleman, but if looking at frogs, would you ever invite him to your fathers’ table? If the answer is yes, you have never been to a swamp, and the man you have has never been a frog. Count both of yourselves blessed.
3) What things are dear to your prince and to yourself? If you purport to be in search of a prince, what would you give up for love? If the battle lines have been drawn, you may not have time for a War of the Roses or a Hundred Year War. If you do find love, and do find a lover, you will find room for him and some of his needs in your heart. If you cannot trust him, you do not have a heart to give him and he will never be enough for you. I am not here to wheel and deal as a used car salesman, and I am not in the habit of chasing ambulances. Princes take in the name of King and Country. I do not have the need to seize and conqueror hearts. My distant ancestors may have been Conquistadores, but I have only room to receive love given, not taken.
4) What core issues do you hold fast to display your soul and convictions? What would you find a good fitting to build a solid foundation and structure a relationship with? Do you have the values of someone that you look up to build the rocks and solid grounds needed to support a building? Or are you just looking for the next cardboard box to sleep in; discarded in the light of day and forgotten and abandoned in a storm. Are you trying too hard to bring all of the materials and labor to the table when building a relationship? Do you bring all of the foundation materials, then ask where the vacation house is? A prince comes with the house, the servants’ house, and everything. I have never done that. I have no time for squatters. I am looking for the mortar between the rocks in the high raftered banquet hall that would be a relationship I dream about. The trouble of that? It takes time to build a castle. It is a lot of work, and sometimes a lifetime to lift each stone, to carve the rock and to find what goes where, and to finish the massive architecture. Some people look for a small DQ that is a shack open in the summer that looks great on a hot day. I cannot be a prince if I do not have a castle or a kingdom to give.
5) Are you ok with the 3 Second Rule? With reclaiming what is yours, in which others may deem not pure, but of which you know is fine just how it is? Just like dropping your cookie in the playground during recess, knowing what is good and what is worth keeping is a quality of judgment and beneath royalty. Can you look at your potential, and see past their mistakes and imperfections and realize that the glass shoe is not the real test or even the shoe to wear, but that the flaws in the cookie and the ideal that “the shoe? are choices that people make on what to keep and what is important. What is more important? That the shoe is glass and that the prince is looking for someone to fit such a narrow ideal, or that the cookie that is yours is not for others to sully and even if it has imperfections, it is only meant for one to enjoy- and that one is the person holding it.
This reminds me of a Stephen Crane poem. Crane, popular of his time of his many works did have an odd hair every now and then.
In the Desert
In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter – bitter”, he answered,
“But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.”
6) Do you take life too seriously? Unlike a prince, I am a single bachelor. Not a playboy, but an unmarried man who shaves when he wants to or needs to. Who wakes up for work alone and falls asleep on a large bed made for two by himself. Who enjoys life and the company of others and is social, but who calls the shots of what to do every evening on a whim. A creature that finds self affirmation in another creature that wakes me up to say that I am fine and cool in his book; My alpha feline “duder? cat. Unlike royalty and the notion of Prince Charming, I do not find my life goals met on the praises of “People? or “US? weekly zines. I am just a simple guy. And not the pretentious guy who puts his pants on one leg at a time, and then makes gold records, but the guy that likes playing Wii with cousins at Thanksgiving, and enjoys a pint of beer and hanging out with the guys at the neighborhood pub. The kinda guy who is not dreaming of NASCAR, but who likes speeding every now and then, if only for a few seconds. Hey, I bought a car with a turbo- I might as well see if they sold me all the horses I ordered.
7) I am not a prince, junk food is still fun and I like acting like a kid every now and then. I also forget stupid things pretty easily and therefore have no idea why people hold onto grudges. Is a Big Mac a sin to eat? Is small-scale indulgence decadent over-consumption? Is the desire to look good being vain? If even small things like changing out that daily ritual Venti Latte + Half-Calf in exchange for breakfast bars or Slimfast Shakes is evil, count me in for Republicans For Voldemort. I have bought many shoes for myself, and I find that a guy who owns more pairs than he has fingers is someone who should keep quiet about what the actual number is, but when buying spur of the moment purchases (and something that would be on the center mannequin in The Limited or Banana Republic) becomes a problem or an inappropriate gift to a lady, perhaps it really isn’t you. I mean, not a Jimmy Choo, but is buying a featured shoe a crime?
8) I am not perfect. I am not in a storytale. If I am prone to being spontaneous and after dating on and off for 8 years, if I propose to move in together to see if a relationship, which was predicted in the first week to be another “When Harry Met Sally?, is for real and a test of mine to see if I really should just go to a jeweler, should I be surprised for the first reaction to be “what will my roommate do??. A real test of a prince.
9) If in an argument with someone you can give your heart to and would give your heart to, the need to say “Ouch that really hurt? comes up and is hard to sleep on not getting an apology. Should the need to say you are sorry come up and pass on by, are you a prince? If you are the oppressor or the victim, is it good to be royal and above needing to say you are sorry? I know that I am not always good. I know that I am capable of great things and loyalty. I am easy going enough to be big about fessing up my misdeeds. Political suicide for love is noble and kind and worth it for love.
10) True love is not easy to find. I have not found it. I have been choosy and at times, I have had weakness about what I thought was love. I may learn and I again may not learn. Carpe Diem. It is not about seizing the carp. Leave the fishies alone. Love is not something that could be built in a day like a pre-fab shed, but more like Rome in which it was not built in a day. I am just a simple guy in a simple time living in a simple town. I have a simple bank account, and a surly accountant that tells me where to stick it if I am being too carefree. Nevertheless, in the end this story is not won or lost, but is still unfinished. Check back in 5 to 10 and ask “So, Hows’ the family??