Us - In Coupledom

The following is a slightly modified excerpt from Elizabeth Gilberts book "Committed"

"As a couple, some of our differences are significant, others not so much,

but all of them are inalterable.

In the end, it seems that forgiveness may be the only realistic antidote

we are offered in love, to combat the inescapable disappointments of intimacy.

We humans come into this world - as Aristophanes so beautifully explained -

feeling as though we have been sawed in half,

desperate to find somebody who will recognize us and repair us. (Or re-pair-us.)

Desire is the severed umbilicus that is always with us,

always bleeding and wanting and longing for flawless union.

Forgiveness is the nurse who knows that such immaculate mergers are impossible,

but that maybe we can live on together anyhow

if we are polite and kind and careful not to spill too much blood.

There are moments when we can almost see the space that separates us

-and that always will separate us-

despite how our life long yearnings to be rendered whole by somebody else's love,

despite all our efforts over the years to find someone who would be perfect for us and

who, in turn, would allow us to become some sort of perfected being.

Instead, our dissimilarities and our faults hover between us always, like a shadowy wave.

But sometimes, out of the corner of our eyes,

we catch a glimpse of Intimacy herself,

balancing right there on the very wave of difference

-actually standing there right between us -

actually (heaven help us) standing a chance.