Playboy Plato and the Meaning of Love

In Plato's symposium, Aristophanes gave a speech on why it is that people feel "whole" when they've found their partners in love. He told a story about how people were originally created with four arms, four legs, and two heads. Zeus was afraid of the power that they'd have, so he split them in half, and they were doomed to spending the rest of their lives searching for their other half.

It's a sad story, if you think about it, and as mythical and absurd as it sounds, sometimes it feels as though there's a little truth to the whole thing. It's a cold world sometimes, and for a cynic, one that will always feel a little bit empty. The thought is frightening-that we are fated to spend all our time searching for something to complete us, some way to feel less lost and alone.

It's all that more powerful, then, when someone comes along and touches your heart. Plato, in his ancient Greek wisdom, knew that somewhere, somehow, for every one person, there will always be a perfect match, an ideal fit in another. And though in today's world of independence and noncommittal relationships the concept seems antiquated...it's certainly not one to be taken lightly.

It seems there really is someone for all of us.

Maybe it's crazy, and maybe it's overreaching to say that our souls are the "halves" that Zeus created. But is it so crazy to think that maybe some people have a connection to each other that can't be explained easily? That maybe on some level, certain people have a bond that can't be found anywhere else?

Maybe there's no such thing as a soulmate. But maybe there is. Maybe "everyone has someone," and maybe that's a bunch of optimistic nonsense.

Can we spend our whole lives "incomplete" and never know it?