By Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter
SHERYL HYMAN, 25, believes she has found the man who will complete her.
"But he doesn't know it yet," she says. "I think that we all have soulmates because nobody in the world is doomed to be alone. There is that special person out there for everyone," she says.
A long time ago, says ancient Greek philosophy, all people had four legs and two heads. But one day the gods threw down thunderbolts and split everyone in two.
Each half then had two legs and one head. But the separation left both sides with a desperate yearning to be reunited, because they each shared the same soul. Ever since then, people spend their lives searching for the other half of their soul. Their soulmates.
Another story coming out of the Judaic tradition, says that when God created each soul he made them both male and female. However, as souls enter the physical world they split making single persons really half of a soul. Praiseworthy people says the story, find their soulmate and marry them. Transgressors marry someone else. If you do not find your soulmate, you must transmigrate until you do.
Regardless of how you explain the concept of soulmates there are many people who subscribe to the concept in varying degrees. Clementina Davis, who has been married for 23 years, believes that God has selected the ideal person for everyone and people can sincerely mess things up if they choose to find someone outside the will of God. "True love comes from God," she explained. "I met my husband in Bible school and something happened when he proposed. You will know when that person is for you," says Davis.
"But as a Christian you just have to keep yourself and pray to the Lord for direction," she adds.
Despite the expressions of faith, ardour and Greek philosophies however, Valentine Rodney, who has been a marriage counsellor for the last seven years, calls the concept of soulmates "a romantic delusion."
"The whole idea of soulmates cuts against the grain of one's individuality," says Rodney. "It is not in keeping with the church's philosophy either because it is arguing that there is only one right person which we do not suscribe to, as a relationship, especially within the bands of marriage, is a decision to be committed."
Rodney argues that it would be folly to think that there is only one right person in the world for any one person because chances are, if you were born in China, you would marry a Chinese or if you were born in India you would marry an Indian.
He further explained that people change over time and the person someone would want to marry at age 18, chances are they would not be the person they'd want to marry at age 25.
"It's an issue of compatibility," says Rodney. "When God made Eve for Adam, he took into consideration who Adam was and made someone comparable and compatible," he explains.Names changed by requested
