Where do the Lonely hearts go? They go to the bar.

Is there a point in our lives where we finally just give up? A point where we throw our towel in the ring and wave our white flags? Is there a certain age we reach when we just know its the right time to give up? How do you know when to give up on finding true love? I know it sounds desperate and sad...but at what point do you accept the fact that you are NEVER going to meet Mr.Right and you haul yourself out of the dating trap and start to avoid the meat markets (aka the local bar scene). Why would anyone give up, you may ask?....but the reasons are scattered on barstools all over Orange County like ashes from last weeks fires. They are the Cougar women.
I watch these older women sit in the local bars and throw themselves desperately into the paths of single young men. They use corsets to push sagging boob jobs sky high, their faces have been lifted so tight that their skin looks like you could use it as a drum. They all are in competition with one another, racing to buy drinks for men without the slightest bit of regret before someone younger swoops in for their prey. When they see me they no longer look at me with the same envy and hatred they would bestow upon me when I was 21, now they look at me with jealousy because I still have a few "Pretty Years" left in me. They look at me and worry for an instant that I may want the same guy they have been flirting with for the past 2 hours. But they don't want to fight me for him, because they know that they will win in the end because they have something I don't have yet- they have a total lack of self respect. They let all the men before this one slowly take their self respect one piece at a time and now they will do anything just to feel wanted for an hour, or if they are lucky, one whole night. They wake up in strange beds often, always with the glimmer of hope that he may call again. But he never does. And they repeat the entire process again another night at another bar.
So the question is, How do we keep this from happening to ourselves? When do we realize that we can LOVE all we want, but without anyone loving us back...it still doesn't make us feel better inside. When do you accept the fact that you can be the greatest person on earth, but if there is no one to appreciate that greatness, then you are just that tree that fell silently in the woods because no one was there to hear the sound of your fall?