So here we are in Oxford, on a wet July Monday, where the rain against the glass could make a hospice seem cheerful.

Question: How do we redeem today?

Answer: You and I meet at some point today, preferably early. We'll have exchanged photos so we know there's an attraction. We find a pub somewhere and start to talk. As the drinks go down, we become more fluent, more intimate. The topics go from the intellectual to the anecdotal to the personal; we move a bit closer together. At a certain point we'll both feel the libidinous thrill that tokens real attraction. We'll start to share confidences, and realise that it is inevitable that we kiss. So we do; it will be urgent and intimate and passionate. From there we can go anywhere we like––and we will, we will.

Me: I'm a charismatic academic who knows that the only value in this life is the value we are prepared to hack from the coalface of the cosmos. We can do this with work, with risk-taking, with skill. I try to do it with all three. I will charm you, enlighten you, and enrage you in a single sentence. I'm in superlative physical shape, an accomplished conversationalist, and have a mind of polymathic versatility. I will reward the gamble of meeting me with the best evening out since homosexuality was decriminalised.

You: Intelligent, attractive, and cynical are all words that describe you. Deep and beautiful also work, as do anarchic and fearless. Possibly you are a postgrad, an academic, or an artist; at any rate, you have the liberty to take a risk on a loquacious stranger on a random Monday. Like me, you have zero interest in conventional morality, so you will not be the least bit bothered if we flout it. Most of all, you will feel an urgent sense, deep in your nature, that this world is not quite enough, and we need to grasp every opportunity for pleasure that is put before us if we are to redeem the rainy days that death, entropy, and the nothing send to us.

So take the risk; send me the message. There is nothing to lose that is not already lost by doing nothing. Let's redeem the day.

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