Soul Mates

The idea of soul mates is a foolish one. When I was 16, I thought it was very romantic. The idea that you become whole with only one other person out there in the world is the perfect concept for the brooding teenaged Morbid Lady. This idea is even expressed in The Symposium by Plato. For those who are not familiar with this, explains that humans were a creature with four arms, four legs, and a large head with 2 faces. But they were too powerful and Zeus sent down lightning and split them in half. Apollo then moved the scar from our back to our front (explaining our belly button) to remind us of what happened. I actually first learned of this legend watching Hedwig and the Angry Inch. I believe that soul mates are a myth, just like this little tale.

I do not believe there is just one person out there for you. Although I love my late husband very, very much; he is not the only person in the entire world of the nearly 7 billion people on earth that I could meet, fall in love with and marry. I also do not believe in fate… and I met my husband through some very happy accidents, which if I were inclined to believe in this kind of silliness, could have been misconstrued as fate. We met on Web TV back in 1999 in a gothic chat room. He was chatting with someone else and was getting ready to leave when I came in and he saw my screen name and started up a conversation. Within a month or so we were emailing back and forth and chatting regularly. Then we started talking on the phone for hours at a time. Then once we had been talking for a few months I made plans to come visit. Long story short I moved here to live with him 11 years ago and we got married 2 and a half years ago. I loved him more than anything, but we were not soul mates.

It seems that most of the people that I have met that speak of soul mates seem to use it as way to excuse their significant other’s cruel, or asinine behavior and why they haven’t ended their relationship. They seem to adhere to the idea of soul mates so hard that they will sacrifice the happiness of this one and only life on a make believe concept. Is being alone that bad? I would rather be alone then deal with an asshole.