Dear Cary,
I am the worst person I know. My life is a shambles and I get so desperate for companionship that I talk to someone whose interests overlap with mine somewhat, and I'm so sociopathically charming that she falls in love with me or thinks I'm "great" or that I bring a lot to her life. My technique is to take the few things I know a little something about and present them so that they're accessible or so that they shed some light on a topic she has an interest in. This makes her think I'm worth something. Then I fail to be great in all ways and she's heartbroken.
Yeah, I know this isn't all my fault, that it takes two to make a bad relationship, and all that. And certainly there are women -- most of them -- who wouldn't even look my way. Great for them. But for those who are willing to look my way, don't I have a basic human obligation to keep them safe from my horribleness and inevitable failures? Without exception I say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing or just collapse.
So. Given that I contribute nothing to the world but disappointment and misery, and I can't control my desire for companionship and attention, shouldn't I just kill myself? Isn't that the moral thing to do at this point?
A Dangerous Nothing
Dear Dangerous Nothing,
You, my friend, are exactly perfect the way you are. You're not a moron!
Look on the bright side: You have a technique. Don't wait to show her your bumbling, fumbling, weak and incompetent side. Spill your soup on her now! On the first date. Roll your car over your own foot and have her take you to the emergency room. Come out of the bathroom with tape all over your face. Why? Because a person with tape all over his face looks funny!
It'll break the ice. She'll thank you for it!
Pour it on about what a loser you are! That'll get her going about how you just have low self-esteem and you're being too hard on yourself.
If you are asking women to marry you and promising to fly them in your private jet to your villa in Portugal and saying you'll pick them up at 8 o'clock sharp the next morning and then you are not showing up, then women are going to bed thinking about your private jet and then not getting to ride in it. That's bad.
You should slap yourself in the face once very hard if you are doing that. Then you should force yourself to sell your imaginary private jet at a loss of millions of imaginary dollars.
But killing yourself wouldn't make any sense at all, and it wouldn't make anyone happy, not even you.
Besides, there are worse people.
Shares