This de-salacious piece spawned from three contrasting sources. First I happened by someone touting bookstagram. I thought, “ummm... I’ve never heard of bookstagram before...” and made a virtual bookmark to check it out. That never happened, at least not yet, or before I got to thinking about Valentine’s Day approaching. I LOVE Valentine’s Day, and imagined tying in my bookstagram notes to a LOVE theme and whaala...two would make one and whatever I wrote would forever be in print. 

Except halfway into writing the love fest post, one thing after the next preventing me from finishing the piece as Valentine’s Day passed on by, I happened to catch an article posted here on She Writes about Toni Morrison. Now a twosome is one thing, but a threesome? That’s something else. I was like, “Whoa...hold on. This post needs to be more meaningful...”

Call me old-school but I admit to being a reluctant fan of online dating. Contrary to popular belief, lifelong lovers are built from friendships that survive infatuation, puppy love, long talks, lies, betrayals and the make ups and break ups. I’m saying finding a love to love lifelong can be found right in our literal midst. There’s no reason to cast a wide virtual net looking for diamonds scattered all around me.

And I know. I know. I personally know a couple who met online, casting that wide proverbial net, and two-three decades later are still together, married and claim to be deeply in love.  Besides that, which is probably fitting to note as well, I’m married... ahem... marriage number two, thereby denoting I have no business on any dating sites and thus not the best prospect to critique online dating. I only brought up the topic because this was what came to mind when I passed by the bookstagram tout, along with reading quotes from Toni Morrison interviews. 

Scrolling back to provide extra context to this piece, when I hopped online and started blogging in ’09, everyone I virtually bumped into talked about the need to cast this wide virtual net to increase the odds for success. I ‘had to be’ on Twitter, and participating in the bookish forums and chatrooms, and LinkedIn, Googling, Facebooking, You Tubing... and after Instagram and Pinterest this social media mix got so exhausting I couldn't keep up. It didn't take much to slip on my analytical hat... even though... when I’m not thinking about casting a wide net for a reason I find untenable, I actually enjoy socializing (about books) virtually. If I had the time, I’d join them all, for no other reason than amusement.

Nonetheless, this was how I correlated 'jumping From one Thing to The next,' to online dating and a few of Toni Morrison's quotes. In all three instances I was unable to shake the time-tested logic; “There are no shortcuts to success.”

From what I've learned thus far, Content is King (or okay, Queen). 

And (by-the-way), Happy (belated) Valentine’s Day to all the lovers out there.