Thursday, February 20, 2014

Maggie's exploration five

Dan Fields:

1) In the picture Dan is smiling. You notice he is also wearing what we can only assume is a suit and tie. He is seemingly professional. His sign reads "Our service is personal and strictly confidential." On the walls behind him there's a picture of a man, who I believe might be his father or grandfather, since he's a third generation match maker. With that picture there is another picture with what might be a couple and a framed document that we can read says something about marriage. I think he wants to show his professionalism and what it means to him and those before him.

2) I think having a business where your sole job is to match people up could be terribly overwhelming. Dan takes such pride is finding the perfect match and tells us about his high success rate. To do this job I think you would need to be very organized and be a "people person." It's very interesting that he's spent all these years pairing people up and keeping such a large inventory of such a wide variety of people.

3) I think he is more of a visionary. He is able to talk to someone about what they are looking for in another person. He finds out what they are looking for "inside" someone and he seems to be able to find a match where they can not just move in together, but live together forever. Dan seems to be very good at this and believes in himself and his ability, so he keeps on doing it into his old age.

4) The last paragraph on page 131 really caught my eye. It says I have men coming in here, " I want' em this way, I want ' em that tall, I want a blonde, I want a this..." I say, " My friend, I'll put her in a mold, we'll take her out, and we'll give her to you. But you didn't ask the right question, my friend. You didn't say: "She should be a model inside. Outside people change, clothes you could always buy, neighborhoods you could always move, but you didn't say the inside!" The inside you cannot change. The outside could be changed. You have to convince them.
 - I thought that was particularly interesting, because I think most people initially are attracted to what is on the outside, and some may not even give someone the change because of their appearance. I agree that was is on the inside is far more important. In order to have a good match, you should be able  to connect on other levels than the outside superficial appearance.

2 comments:

  1. I think Dan's job is cool and I feel like it would be really fun, especially since he was so good at it. I liked the paragraph you chose because it caught my eye as well. I feel like he's telling people that they need to keep an open mind and his matchmaking wont work if people automatically shut their match down because they don't find them attractive.

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  2. That passage was my favorite in his biography, as well. It gives a snapshot of how the society really functions and how people are usually so judgmental of the outside that never get the chance to see how great the inside is.

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