"No, I am in love with you on purpose."
Alan pointed to everyone in the room and said, "Most of you are not in a relationship because you live in a myth about relationships. Relationships that serve the people in them are active creations. You wake up in the morning, roll over with a day's growth of beard and morning breath and open your eyes to see someone with no make up, messy hair and morning breath and you say, "Good Morning Sweetheart, I love you." The "I love you" isn't something you found under the blankets, you created it in the face of her or him not being Brad Pitt or Jennifer Aniston. You create it every day by saying it and spending the rest of the day making it so."
"Young woman, I thank you for giving all of us an opportunity to look at who we are in the realm of relationships. Now, you have thirty seconds to choose, otherwise I'm going to have them all sit down."
She pointed to a man fifteen feet away.
"All the rest of you men can sit down. Thank you for participating. I'm not done with you." He walked to the man she had picked.
"Congratulations! Can you come with me, please?"
They went back to where the woman was standing.
"Your name is?"
"Frank Singer."
"Frank I'd like you to meet... I don't know your name."
"Sally. Sally Masters."
"Frank, meet Sally Sally Masters."
They shook hands.
"I have a gift for the two of you. When this meeting ends you two are going to dinner. The dinner is at Ocean Avenue Seafood in Santa Monica and you aren't paying." There was cheers and clapping.
"Next Sunday I want both of you to promise me you'll be here for this meeting. Right after the opening prayer I'm going to have you stand up, together, and report on your relationship. Will you do that?"
Frank nodded. Sally smiled. Sue took them both by the hand and led them to the back of the room. Alan turned to the rest of the room.
"Someone please share what you got from this interaction?"
Hands went up and Alan pointed to a man near where he was standing. The man stood.
"I got that I'm a coward. I've been complaining but not willing to get off my... butt, and do something about my complaint. You did and now you are in a relationship with a beautiful woman. I want that." He started to sit down. Alan motioned him back up.
"How old are you?" "Thirty-two."
"Job?" "Yes."
"Ladies, are you willing to go somewhere and start a relationship with this man? If you are meet him at the back tables. Be prepared to be here next week and report on how the creation is doing."
A woman was already on her way to the back of the room. Some people clapped. Another woman stood.
"I'm Kathy. I'm forty-six, divorced, one seventeen year old son, a good cook and lonely." Across the room a man stood and waved at her. They met in the center aisle and hugged. Alan stopped them.
He asked, "Why did you walk up to her and hug her?"
"Because if I'm going to love her, I can start now!"
"Kathy, how did that feel?"
"I can choose to love him, without even knowing his name! I kept looking at him as we got closer and I decided to love him. Hugging is what is appropriate."
"So is kissing." Alan said.
They kissed right there in the aisle. After ten seconds Alan said, "Will someone get a fire extinguisher ready, just in case?" The room filled with laughter. One after another people stood and stepped into a new life. At twenty couples Alan stopped the meeting and had the couples stand quietly at the back of the room.
"All of you still seated still have a choice. You don't need this meeting to find a mate. You don't need me up here. You can choose to be in a loving, giving, partnership this week. Or, you can hold onto the complaint that you can't find a relationship in the fifty-four million available people who are available to you. If you choose the second choice, get off this planet!" He turned the mic off, went to the back of the room and took Sue by the hand. She had Frank and Sally with her and the two couples went to dinner.