Sunday, March 2, 2008

Somebody to Love

"Everyone has a soul mate, just not everyone marries theirs." - Evelyn Moran

Ah, soul mates. There are countless references to them. From bad poetry to classical literature, from great ballads to single-chord off-key songs composed in preteen periods of angst. I suppose the place to start the investigation into this mysterious world would be the source of all linguistic knowledge - the dictionary.

An online dictionary
defines a soul mate as "a person with whom one has a strong affinity". In case we are unclear as to what "affinity" means here, don't worry. Even the dictionary seems confused on this one. It has ten definitions, all of which have several subdivisions.

Ok, so you have an affinity with someone, whatever that means. Kind of kills the romantic, ballad ideal, doesn't it? I can hear it now... bards of old singing of the great affinities of the past... But with such a broad definition of affinity, wouldn't that imply a larger scope of soul mates than just Romeo and Juliet? One of the definitions of affinity is "a natural attraction, liking, or feeling of kinship". By that definition, friends, family, and pets can all be soul mates. Believe it or not, as long as you were attracted to or liked all of your exes, they were all soul mates! Maybe the question isn't "when will I find a soul mate" but "when won't I find a soul mate".

So how did the idea of a romantic, white picket fence and 2.3 kids idea of soul mate come to dominate the vast definition of the phrase? In ancient Greek mythology, humans were originally two-for-the-price-of-one. That is, each one had four arms, four legs, and a single head made of two faces (eww). But Zeus (see picture right), the head honcho of the gods, feared their power and split them in half (ouch), condemning them to spend their lives searching for the other half to complete them. Not cool, Zeus. Not cool. Anyway, this theory came to us from our good friend Aristophanes, as presented in Plato's Symposium, after all the guests were charged to philosophize (yes, that's a word) on the topic of love. Perhaps this idea is where we get the notion of having one other person who "completes" us.

Whew! It's exhausting sorting out centuries of mythologies, creeds, ideas, and philosophies just to find something that we all take for granted. But what it all boils down to is this... next time someone says that you're their soul mate, be sure you know what they mean!

Valete!

3 comments:

Andre said...

And I think that everyone will want a soul mates in every boring time!

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the better quest would be for a "sole" mate! Interesting reading - just gotta love that mythology!
M-Mm

Julian said...

Hey how's it going. Thanks for inviting me to the blogging world. I saw that you go to the University of Arizona. Are you a creative writing major as well? You look familiar, maybe we have class together. I'm taking English 373 b. Are you? If not what are you taking? E-mail me if you want. Maybe we can exchange writing tips or meet up for coffee sometime. (520) 981-9489 cell phone