A stick, a karat and a string

In reality the great guy and girl rarely get together. Sometimes the good guy and girl do, often the bad guy and girl unite their inadequacies, But the Greats tend not to. People are like gems. The purest have been through fire, they have had all their ore chipped away quite painfully. If a jewel were animate, would it be grateful for the cleansing, or only embarrassed of it's previous state? Would it realize it's current beauty or only remember how it began? And would the hardest diamond believe that a pairing with malleable gold could be anything more than a dream?

dead ends and flying beds

while navigating a downtown neighbourhood, a friend and I tried to slip through an alley for a shortcut. as we reached the dead-end a construction worker appeared, dirty and perfect.
"Hello." said he.
"Can we get through this way?"
"sure."
At this point another perfect construction worker arrived with a wheelbarrow.
"where are you trying to get?" asked the first?
"just to the next street over."
"It doesn't go all the way through," spoke Hottie #2
As we beat our embarrassed retreat the workers offered us a job moving dirt with them. We should have accepted.
This simple narrative leads to the complex question, "How many perfect opportunities does a person get?" the answer to follow.

Later that day I spent a lot of time in the company of children. This is one of my favourite pastimes, and one of my favourite families with which to share said pastime. I told them a flying bed story as we drove along and they listened in silence, save for gasps and nervous questions. It was idyllic.

Answer: None. All we get are the opportunities we take, whatever comes of them is neither predictable nor perfect.