Brain Buzz

Plato's Symposium literally creates the concept for complicated love. After getting through this book, I am even more curious and confused about what love is, the reasoning behind each person's sexual behaviors, and the theories on hetero and homosexuality and procreation.
In Symposium, a group of men gather together at a party to praise to the god of love, Eros. Each man delivers a speech about the topic, but the speech given by Aristophanes, which focuses mainly on soulmates, keeps making my brain whirl at completely inappropriate times (for example, at 11:44pm on a Friday night when I should be going out but insist on writing this.)
Basically, Aristophanes' theory states that that humans originally consisted of four arms, four legs, and a single head with two faces. These humans were becoming too powerful so Zeus split them in half, forcing them to spend the rest of their lives searching for their other half to finally feel complete again. instead of just men and women, primal humans were man/man, woman/woman, and man/woman- so once they were split, essentially homosexuals outnumber heterosexuals (this is an ENTIRE different topic in itself, hence the mind boggling.) Anyway, if we are all initially born with another half, we all are supposed to have a real-live soulmate floating around on the planet somewhere. this makes me think that a.) the relationships that I've had have been wastes of time because none of these people were my soulmates, and b.) will I ever actually be able to FIND my soulmate? what if he's somewhere in Alaska, or Ukraine, or fucking Bangladesh??? does this mean I am destined to be alone forever? and then, on the other side of the spectrum, (hence the mind boggling) c.) due to the incredibly high chances of never being able to sift through the 7 billion people in the world, what if the person you do end up with isn't your soulmate? does that mean you are always going to be stuck searching for something better? can you ever truly be happy with somebody else?

THIS ENTIRE CONCEPT BOGGLES MY MIND. Searching for one answer just leads to more questions.


"People think a soulmate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soulmate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life." - Elizabeth Gilbert


Honestly, reading Symposium has just made me think more and more about how I really need to continue this streak of making sure that above all, I focus on myself. Nobody should have to rely on another person to be happy, and if this is the case, my entire thought pattern just proves that it is highly impossible for another person to deliver 100% of what you really want/need.
That being said, it's finally time to head off for a drink- or 10. au revoir!