Sparking

 I don't read the Guardian blind date column religiously, but since I spend so much time on the Guardian website, I think I rarely miss one. The last question  is "Will you see each other again", and the answer usually is "Just as friends" or "There was no spark". Maybe one date out of 15 or 20 ends with "we've exchanged numbers" or "it is on the cards". These outcomes are reassuring, lest one starts to wonder if they are the only ones incapable of sparking. (It is human to believe that our afflictions, our quirks, are universe are unique. I suppose they are far more common than we imagine but that is a conversation for another day). I guess the older one gets, the more difficult to find a platonic or romantic spark. And spark on the first date almost seems unimaginable to me. Where is the time to go beyond first impressions, to get over initial shyness, to allow each other's personalities to bloom fully, to establish which jokes are passable and which aren't? The odds of that happening to an introvert like me almost feel negligible. and then there are times when an initial spark doesn't lead to a fire. I sparked with someone last year on the first date, but our second date was a dud.