the.com/soulmate
The myth that one person exists, statistically buried among eight billion strangers you'll never meet.
means A person with whom you feel a deep, natural connection — emotionally, romantically, or spiritually — as if you were meant to find each other.
from A transparent compound of "soul" and "mate," both old Germanic words: "soul" (Old English sawol, the inner spirit) joined to "mate" (a companion, ultimately tied to the idea of sharing meat or a meal — one you eat with). The pairing is fairly modern, an 18th–19th-century coinage; the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge is often credited with popularizing it when he mused that everyone needs a "soul-mate." The romantic notion behind it, though, is ancient — Plato's Symposium tells of humans split in two, forever seeking their other half.
- odds
- Mathematically, you'd never find them in a lifetime
- ancient origin
- Plato blamed gods for splitting humans in two
- plural truth
- Most people have dozens of potential matches alive
- brain chemistry
- That spark is dopamine, not destiny
- the catch
- Soulmates are built, not found
romeo and juliet — shakespeare's 1595 tragedy about two star-crossed lovers whose passion defines literary soulmate mythology
john and abigail adams — married 54 years (1764-1818), exchanged 1,160+ letters exploring intellectual and romantic partnership
frida and diego rivera — mexican artists married twice (1929-1940, 1945-1954), depicted each other obsessively in their work