Gabriel's Island, by Marin Giustinian

[Merkin]

Gabriel's Island

by Marin Giustinian

‘…We all should become who we want to be, deep down inside, without paying mind to what others say or think. We should do all we can so that the little boy we were, when we were ten years old, isn't sorry to have wanted to grow up.’

This lovely story is more than a beguiling tale.  It may be a compelling handbook for living and loving, written just for you.  Do not pass it by without giving it a chance to work its magic.

http://awesomedude.com/marin-giustinian/gabriels-island/gabriels-island.htm
 

[colinian]

Tristan did what many would like to do.

Colin 

[William King]

A short story that evokes the experience of life, the search, a journey, in some non-comprenhensible way, a sort of compulsion to find your home and perhaps your soul mate. The story is as beautiful as the landscape in which it is set. 

[Rutabaga]

I have run across this "twin souls" concept in other stories, often involving Native American culture.  It is an interesting idea.

R

[William King]

 

Looking into stuff about soul mates and souls I came across the inevitable scientific rebuttal of their existence.

You would be looking for one person in half a billion and given you would become acquainted with around 50,000 people in your lifetime, unless you got very lucky you would only find true love (your soul mate) in one lifetime out of 10,000.

Nice statistics but the basic assumption is that the process is random. It is not. Love is all around you.

Around two thirds of Americans believe we have a soul, science says we are stuck in Cartesian dualism, we see our physical bodies separate from the "spiritual stuff of souls" which don't exist, and all memories, feelings, and sense of personal identity coming from an immaterial soul are actually just "a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules," (Francis Crick, biologist who co-discovered DNA).

Both are right. We are stuck in dualism. The immaterial soul is greater than those individual memories and sense of personal identity, but feelings persist. Memories fade, personal identity is a construction.

It's feelings that connect us to the universe and through which we may reveal the world and discover a soul mate. Feelings carry with them a vague sense of person, memories can linger, feelings reside in the soul, are often inexplicable, and last beyond a lifetime!

[Rutabaga]

My sense is that the concept is not random as generally conceived.  As in this story, one mate will be drawn, for reasons that do not necessarily make sense, to the other.  Whether it's the unseen action of a god like Freyr or some other mystic influence, the notion is that forces will come into play that tend to steer the mates toward each other.  

R

[colinian]

A "soul mate" isn't necessarily a one-off out of the world's population. It's someone who you connect with and the two of you fall in love.

I met my soul mate in 2002 when we were 12 years old and in middle school. Doug and I have been together for 16 years, first as friends, then as best friends, then we fell in love and became boyfriends, then on August 23, 2007 (Doug's birthday) we became domestic partners, then on July 23, 2013 which was as soon as it was legal we got married. And, most important, we are still soul mates today and still totally in love.

Colin 

[Merkin]

Not much about the 21st century has much appeal for me but Colin and Doug's ability to have that sequence of experience makes it all worthwhile.

[William King]

@Merkin  I just wanted to add (a little off topic) that I read this story because you recommended it. I enjoyed it and passed on the recommendation, and it spread like ripples, so others enjoyed it also. I think it's great to pop in links to stories you've liked with a brief indication as to why and what the story is about. I've discovered lots of good stories this way. So thanks for the recommendation.