“Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all” Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

 

Approaching the half-way mark of my AtoZChallenge2018 journey though the roadmap of my life, with the intent of Living Young as I Grow Older, one refrain of a John Lennon Beatles’ song keeps coming into my head.  "All you need is love, love, love is all you need.”

 

Love in the broadest sense is a fundamental  human need. Most people want to love and be loved by family and friends. But then there is also the search for a soul mate. The concept of a soul mate, the one person who “completes” you, can be traced back to Ancient Greece.  In Plato’s Symposium, speeches in praise of Eros, the god of love, are given at a banquet by important men of the times. Aristophanes, the comic playwright, relates a bizarre story about ancient humans being double, having two heads, four legs and four hands and being very powerful.  Zeus, head honcho of the Gods decides to weaken them and cuts them in half. And thereafter each one seeks his or her other  “split-apart” or soul mate. 

 

But what happens when you lose your soul mate? Theoretically there can only be one “other half”. Or what if you can’t find your match in the first place? Well luckily we now have the internet to broaden our search capacity. Just think of the plethora of on-line dating sites.

 

I was lucky to meet my soul mate when I was still in school. We married when I was in medical school and had 34 wonderful years of marriage before he passed away. In those dark moments  that still happen years after his death, I find truth in Tennyson’s words and feel blessed for the years we had together, and for the sustaining love of family and friends.