Soul Mate?

The other night a friend of mine asked out of the blue if cheekbones was my soul mate. My instant reaction was, "no, if he were my soulmate, he wouldn't have hurt me because that would be like hurting himself. 

Then, I read in Eat Pray Love where Richard from Texas says "People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that's holding you back, the person who brings you to your attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet , because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave. And thank God for it." 

The wind was knocked out of me. In that case, he was my soul mate. 

I wasn't sure if I wanted to take Richard's word for it. For a moment, I thought, how do we even know this whole soul mate thing is real? Maybe it's just something cool someone made up. 

So I turned to Wikipedia. It said, "One theory from Plato's Symposium, is that humans originally consisted of four arms, four legs and a single head made of two faces, but Zues feared their power and split them all in half, condemning them to spend their lives searching for the other half to complete them." 2 faces? Good grief. One is hard enough to maintain. Now that Zues has simplified matters, why go back to the complication of 2 faces. 

Coz kissing is great. 

Some other people believe that a soul mate is someone you've been with for many life times and they may be with you in the current life as a friend, parent, lover, sibling. See that makes more sense. That lifts the pressure and frustration from having to find The One. 

And I find it's a little unhealthy to walk around feeling incomplete, depending on someone else to complete you. 

So maybe all these theories came about because it's human to get lonely. A myth to hang on to when it gets rough? An excuse to use to throw all caution to the wind and fall in love with reckless abandon?