Rational Insanity
By Bryan Argos

Kindred spirits

In Norse mythology it is believed that in a place in heaven called the “guf” souls are stored until they are sent out to inhabit human bodies on earth. Everytime a soul is released from the guf another soul accompanies it. These twin souls that will inhabit separate bodies are called kindred spirits, or as we popularly know them – soul mates.

Roni, one of my readers, texted me last week requesting me to write something about soul mates, unfortunately, I find that my knowledge on the subject borders more on the hypothetical than on the theoretical, so instead I will discuss this subject in the context of my own experiences (I hope you find this amusing Ron).

I am a writer and I let's just say that, somehow, I have found what most of us would call a soul mate. In my own experience, a soul mate is someone who understands you beyond what you reveal in spoken words. You might say that there are many people who have achieved this kind of understanding in your life, but a soul mate is different; he or she can see through all your pretenses and reveal to you, sometimes, even feelings that you yourself would deny because you never really knew they existed.

My soul mate is a writer like I am. Through the years, he has been a part and parcel of every word I write. Every poem I compose is, in truth, a collaboration between two souls. He may not be directly responsible for each and every poem or story, or essay that I write, but I have to admit that my writing has improved greatly when I found this soul mate of mine. Legend has it that when kindred spirits meet, they highlight each other and raise the awareness of each one so that the existence of the two bodies inhabited by these kindred spirits embrace the universe in such that the corporeal shells do not exist anymore but transcend human tangibility. I feel this is true, because more than just the legend, at some point in our lives we actually find somebody who is worth the entire cosmos for us; that we do not really mind the petty pains caused by the triviality of human emotion just as long as we play an active part in the life of this significant other. Whether the legend of “kindred spirits” is true or not, we need not validate it to explain what is happening in our lives because every day, every person somewhere in this world finds a significant other who makes them better persons.

Is it necessary that the person we get romantically involved with is a soul mate of ours then?

I believe that the considerations of the soul mate phenomenon in choosing our partners in life would be a requirement that would make the human activity of coupling even more difficult. Consider the fact that even in the absence of the soul mate phenomenon one has to consider so many things in choosing his/her mate. Most of these things are even irrelevant to the fact that one has to actually live with that same person for the rest of his/her life. Now, if we add the soul mate criteria to the criteria we need to satisfy in finding our life partners, we would make the criteria so complicated that we might end up looking for someone who is close to impossible to find! Think about this: what if your soul mate is also male or female like you are? Wouldn't that be big trouble (unless of course you are gay or bisexual)?

Very few people in this world actually pair up with their proverbial soul mates. I am lucky to have found my soul mate at the prime of my life.

It is nice to have someone right beside you, even at a distance; someone who is talking to you, even in silence; someone who smiles at you, even through the tears; someone who holds your hand, in the wind, in the breeze, in the whispers of memories and the echoes of time. While it is true that the search for that soul mate of yours is a search that will go on every day until you are finally contented with what you find, that search is also dependent on the demands that we have of other people – the lesser the demands, the easier it is for us to find that person. Insatiability keeps that soul mate of yours away from you because it is unfair for someone who is insatiable to be blessed with the gift of eternal companionship. It doesn't matter whether this soul mate of yours finds someone to get romantically inclined with; as I was saying, soul mates are there, even when they are not; all the time, and never in a second. Soul mates are ironies. They are your ironies – the irony of your single soul having another soul exactly like it somewhere out there, in the vast, hostile, cruel, universe.

Be rational; be insane…every once in a while!

Hello to all the fellows of the 12th INWW especially to Rosandrei Ladignon (ayan na ha, complete with family name, hehe), and to Virgil (beloved big brother namin ni Marcel, coffee mate, yosi mate, at pasyal mate, hehe), and to all of you guys, to Jason, Vlad, Nonoy, Roger, Dennis, Jam, Jen, Abi, Grace, and to all the others I have not mentioned. I had a wonderful time with you all! Hello to Anne and to Mary Dale, Welcome to the RI Barkada! Hello to my dearest readers, Chan, Mr. Bobot, Vic, Vincent, and Rex, Alex, Arvin, Corz, Jim, Kiara, Malikh, Audrae, Franz, Hendrick, Janice, Jay, Jim, Jonathan, Mark, Marz, Mel, Pres, Nhonoy, Niel, Piper, Rheavil, Joey, Alma, Rodolfo, Ecker, Ryan. Hello also to a new addition to our RI Barkada, Roni, thanks for the great comments, to Miss Dieter of Lapaz, to Ian of Bacolod but who is in Iloilo right now, to Narle, Sunny and to Anuj of CMC, I love you all! Byers! Salamat gid sa mga walang-hintong text and reactions nyo! Catch Rational Insanity in TNT's online edition, check us out at www.thenewstoday.info, text me at (0920)9254269, or email me at prague@eudoramail.com.