A Rare Combination

    I used to think that I wasn’t ready for the world, but maybe it was the world that wasn’t ready for me.  They couldn’t understand why an attractive man would refuse to use the system and play its games.  The pursuit of knowledge and the virtues of care and honesty were not reserved for men like me.  So, why have I rejected their preconceptions?  To me the answer is obvious; it’s a matter of substance.  The exterior is less important than the interior, and the glory of intellectual achievement is greater than the superficiality of appearances.  What lies beneath is infinitely more valuable than what lies above, because an idea can last for centuries, but a body cannot.  Men of skill are immortalized in the pages of history, but not men of fashion. 
    Women, however, are the opposite.  Walk into a library and you will find thousands of books about men, but walk into an art gallery and you will find thousands of paintings of women.  What men achieve with their minds, women achieve with their bodies.  We catch our prey with our skills, while they catch theirs with their beauty; it’s a mutual correspondence.
    Nonetheless, I am hated for this rare combination of generosity, intelligence, and attractiveness.  People won’t tell you they hate it, but deep down they do.  You can feel it in the way they avoid you, or by how easily they become intimidated by your supposed perfections.  Little do they know, all the strengths I possess are illusions.  With the weapon of perception I have destroyed the most important relationships of my life, with the virtue of kindness I have yielded my benefits to others, and the price I pay for looking like a Greek god is the assumption that I am a cad and a player, which couldn’t be farther from the truth.
    So I have chosen isolation.  I’ve hidden myself away from them, not because I am afraid, but because they simply can’t handle people like me.  The divine spark that lights up my aura is wrapped up in an armament of protection for my fellow man.  Because if I truly exercised my charisma, if I truly stole their women, and if I truly went headstrong through the academic community, I’d have caused more trouble than any virtuous being could manage, and somebody would have crucified me by now.