Idealizations of human love run deeply within the human

imagination.  While contemporary

romantics search longingly for their soulmates, the ancient Greeks spoke of

seeking their other half.  If human

beings were made for intimate love, then it seems that human lovers must be two

halves of one whole.  Neither is fulfilled

in themselves, but each needs the other for completeness.  If we represent this model as an image, we

might think of a circle (the whole) bisected right down the center creating the

two lovers (the halves) united in love.  But

this image would suggest that any man and any woman are equally compatible

marital choices to any other, because any two half circles of the same diameter

could create a whole.  Our experience

with love, however, tells us otherwise.