We've heard a lot recently about the "law of attraction," the notion that our thoughts determine our destinies - that if we think good thoughts, good things will happen to us.
Let's tweak that for what we'll call "the law of instant attraction," which is the current romantic conceit of soul mates, the idea that one special person exists for each of us and, if we truly believe this, we will connect somehow, somewhere ... and recognize each other instantly when we do so.
It's fate, it's destiny, it's a sure thing. There's a soul mate for everyone and soul mates are forever. When a person meets his soul mate, he's set for a lifetime of easy happiness and companionship. That's the upside of soul-mate theory. The downside? If we meet our soul mate and miss the chance to be together, we'll never find the happiness we desire or deserve.
This is a theme we know well from movies. Think Sleepless in Seattle, in which Meg Ryan falls in love with a voice she hears on a radio show. Fearing that if she doesn't act on her feelings she'll never know true love, she travels across the country to find the man belonging to the voice.
Countless Web sites address the topic of soul mates, with many being repositories for gushing testimonials to this most romantic of ideals. For more evidence of the appeal of soul mates, just peruse listings on any Internet dating site and you'll find numerous people seeking a soul mate, a person to complete them, their one and only.
We can't help but be aware of what popular culture posits about soul mates, but is there more to it? What is a soul mate - really?
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
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