Here's two quick things to ponder, and possibly, post your opinion about. 1.) Do you believe in the concept of a "soul mate"? Do you think it is even healthy to believe in such a concept? 2.) " 'Tis better to have loved and lost/Than never to have loved at all. " -From Alfred Tennyson's poem 'In Memoriam:21', 1850 (Quoted from http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/meanings/62650.html) Do you think that the quoted phrase above is actually true? Why or why not? Also, to get the obvious questions out of the way, no this is not for a project, and no, this is not another one of those threads along the line of "asking random strangers for relationship advice". I think I have a pretty definitive answer to the first question, and a shaky one on the second, but I'll leave things a little vague at first, because if one approaches things logically and makes a few assumptions, then I think the answers are pretty clear. So, what do you think? I'm rather interested in hearing poster's responses to the above questions, since I expect the replies to be rather diverse.
1) I don't really believe in the soul mate in the sense of a single other person that was meant for you. What if they're a beggar in Calcutta and you live in Tierra Del Fuego? What if they died before you were born? I suppose I should mention that I don't believe in destiny either. 2) Yes, but not much better. The quote is true because a person who does not try to find love is an idiot. Looking back on life and regretting your actions is better than looking back and regretting your inactions... but it's better still to love and not lose, in my opinion.
the second has an implicit assumption that "to love" is always a positive experience. my crackwhore girlfriend is a living refutation to that assertion. at this time, i am in the closet hiding. i must be quiet now. i hear footsteps *we'll talk when the coast is clear.
daph unusual to find you this careless soulmate=a person temperamentally suited to another (mw) now we all know that there are mystical connatations as well so perhaps your definition?
spookz, since when has MW been a code for life, it's a humble dictionary after all: "It is the fate of those who toil at the lower employments of life, to be rather driven by the fear of evil, than attracted by the prospect of good; to be exposed to censure, without hope of praise; to be dissgraced by miscarriage, or punished for neglect, where success would have been without applause, and diligence without reward. Among these unhappy mortals is the writer of dictionaries"
To love deeply in one direction makes us more loving in all others. Anne-Sophie Swetchine To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead. Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970), Marriage and Morals (1929) ch. 19 The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed. Carl Jung (1875 - 1961) There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900), "On Reading and Writing" I pay very little regard...to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person. Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Mansfield Park The enthusiasm of a woman's love is even beyond the biographer's. Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Mansfield Park Love is, above all, the gift of oneself. Jean Anouilh (1910 - 1987) Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age. Jeanne Moreau Love is the delightful interval between meeting a beautiful girl and discovering that she looks like a haddock. John Barrymore (1882 - 1942) To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven. Karen Sunde When you give each other everything, it becomes an even trade. Each wins all. Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campain, 1999 Love is an exploding cigar we willingly smoke. Lynda Barry Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit. Peter Ustinov (1921 - ) Love is not blind - it sees more, not less. But because it sees more, it is willing to see less. Rabbi Julius Gordon For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation. Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926) He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882), Address on The Method of Nature, 1841 I don’t think anyone can DO anything that would make him worthy of love. Love is a gift and cannot be earned. It can only be given. Real Live Preacher, RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, January 20, 2003 Love is an irresistable desire to be irresistably desired. Robert Frost (1874 - 1963) One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love. Sophocles (496 BC - 406 BC) Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments: love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds. William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Sonnet cxvi
Daffy I'll address 2) first. With hindsight, I can safely say that I learnt a lot from myself through the mistakes I made as a result of being burned by Love. It's part of life's rich tapestry, you get hurt, you learn, you grow, you move on. So I would agree with that quote. Now, on to soulmates. The cynics say bullshit. I was kind of cynical too (as a result of many 2's!!) but they haven't met that special person. looks like Wraithy boy might just have....Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! is she my soulmate?? Don't know, feels like it right now. Ask me in a years time. Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta ring ma cutie and give her a booty call. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
If you are lucky you meet your soulmate. If you are very lucky you get to be with them for a long time. If you lose your mate it still better to have had the experience.
Careless? How so? I demand that you support this assertion with a rational argument that follows from a set of reasonable assumptions and the fundamentals of logic. (That was a joke.) Seriously though, I'm feeling a little lighthearted since its close to the end of the semester. Also, Mercury is in retrograde, causing personalities to become inverted. (Again, the last one was a joke.) You can take whatever interpretation of it you want. I purposefully omitted a definition of "soul mate" so I could see how people chose to interpret the term as well as the question.
i think this is the operative word. the judgement is dependant on time (or somthing like that) i shirk from terms such as love. way too loaded with baggage. empathy/charity/blah is preferable
nostalgia boym states..."between critical reflection and storytelling, hoping to grasp the rhythm of longing, its enticements and entrapments"boym i know the dangers. i simply wont, automatically, buy into another's characterization of a past event. there are mechanisms that feed the ego. an independant assessment is the key
As time goes by people change. You could meet a "soul mate" when your in high school or college. But what happens as the years go by? You both will want different things and possibly your friends and values will change as well. Can you expect your "soul mate" to accept all the changes you go through as well as yourself? That's why I don't think this expression is very fitting for soul mate implies someone that is tuned into you so close they won't ever leave, which is not true. Divorce happens to those 'soul mates" that they thought when first married that all would go as expected, but then reality sets in and that's when problems happen.
NO and no. No matter how special "your lover" is one seriously can not delude themselves into believing that they are connected to each other in ways that just can't be explained. There is no such thing as a connection of two souls...it is simply compatability. Either it works, really works, or is so destructive that it ends up hurting those involved. No amazing connection or "were meant to be" Many, MANY will tell you that it is very true. It depends really, if you are smart enough to get into a relationship expecting nothing but ephermal pleasures....then you know that getting too involved can be quite painful. Most of us, however, walk into relationships head firts and mind shut.......you get burned and learn. Love is such a misused term these days. Most of us do not even know the true meaning of love nor will we ever as much as believe the contrary. I think i know and comprehend the true meaning of love but ask me in about 20 years and i will likely disagree with my own opinion.
sarg, the more i learn from you the more i think your a genius more than an insane old fool. please, take this as a compliment.
take things figurativly. if your lucky this just might be the starting of a new cult... i was getting bored of cthulhu anyway Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
nope, he's just a grumpy old git in the body of a young man.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
