ON BEING SOUL MATES

Soul Mates I, Destin, FL
Soul Mates II, Greensboro, NC

Helen Reddy had a big hit song in the 70’s with “You and Me against the World”. She was actually singing to her child, but Kansas City’s own R&B diva, Ida McBeth, most assuredly has the most soulful cut for soul mates. The lyricist must have known a lasting love to pen these words that struck such a cord with so many including my wife and me. It’s pretty obvious when you look around that being married isn’t necessarily synonymous with being soul mates. A soul mate has your back and has your heart. A mate is one of a matched pair. You spend years together through all of life’s mountains and valleys, all of life’s triumphs and failures, all of life’s joy and tragedy. And all the while, you are two independent and sometimes head strong individuals who have resolved to become one flesh, one soul—one day at a time. That fusion of spirit is tempered in the crucible of everyday life when it does indeed many days seem like it’s you and me against the world. And soul mates never give up on each other.

I like the very real image of “we seldom get our due and when the day is through, I bring my tired body home and look around for you”. Because when the slings and arrows of the world around you seem to have almost beaten you down, it’s uplifting to come home and converse with your soul mate to sort things out. Then you have the spirit and energy to start the new day with the resolve necessary to try again. Life is truly not as much about getting knocked down as it is about getting back up as many times as it takes to persevere. And our creator understood that it’s good to have a soul mate there to reach out a supporting hand to pull together and keep your life between the ditches. As the lyrics continue, “for all the times we cried, I always felt that God was on our side. And when one of us is gone and one is left alone to carry on, well then our memory will have to do; our memory alone will get us through. I’ll think about the days of me and you, you and me against the world”.

We’re making memories every day of our lives in this world whether we’re conscious of it or not. And I guess we are seldom aware that these present moments may just be the ones we later cherish the most. So, make the most of your present moments together with those you love and the memory of these days will bring you much comfort and peace in the sunset of your life.

“Marriage is not a simple love affair, it's an ordeal, and the ordeal is the sacrifice of ego to a relationship in which two have become one.”—Joseph Campbell