Extra Credit: The Meeting by Aimee Bender

The short story The Meeting by Aimee Bender is about a man who meets a woman that he did not plan on meeting. Bender implies that this man has his entire life planned out. He knows how he is supposed to meet a woman and what characteristics she must fit into in order for him to be attracted to her. Then, his brain will tell him if the woman is right or not for him. However, this particular woman has nothing special about her. She does not fit into any of the characteristics that his brain really wants/specifies. Her hair color, sense of humor, and even the animals that she likes are all wrong. What even turns him off the most is that fact that at the very beginning they did not meet the way he had planned to meet a woman. His brain refuses to change what it wants. He starts to like this woman in some ways but then his brain rejects it. He thinks too highly of himself and disrespects the woman by shooing her away, not listening to her, and laughing at her. He is a very stubborn man but changes this when he slowly starts to let himself like her more and more. The battle between the man and his brain can be compared to someone with a disease and is therefore an outcast. A person with a certain disease will want to do one thing but the mind will tell it to do another. This diseased person becomes an outcast because this is not seen as "normal" in society. In the same way, the man feels some sort of attraction to her. He really wants to like her and get to know her. However, his brain will not let him, therefore he rejects the woman, and refuses to change his ways. The brain wants to be in control but we cannot let one part of our body control the rest. As human beings, we need balance to survive. We also cannot control the future. So why not just go with the flow? Don't try to control every aspect of your life, because it can change in an instant.