Vive la Différence...

How much of what we call love, romantic love, is about "the match" and how much is about "the mismatch?" I'd say the mismatch, though hopefully a smaller slice of the pie, is in some ways more important. It will define the level and the kind of friction that exists between lovers. Within this tension lies the specific fuel, the magic juice that will propel a couple through time and space and all levels of experience. A 100% match goes nowhere. Total agreement stalls and stagnates.

Of course, the mismatch hides. It does not want to spark too much awareness for fear of unleashing it's potentially acidic and burning properties. But lovers who love can benefit from carefully pondering the nature of their own friction. Talking about it generally won't work. Too volatile. Like viewing a solar eclipse, the mismatch is best understood as a reflection rather than seen head on.

And by the way, I should add that nothing personal sparked this post. I believe that Sarah and I have a rare understanding of our differences and samenesses. I was researching old Apple ads and kept coming across the John and Yoko one (seen above), the ad that for many years loomed large over Hollywood on it's largest billboard. If we take John and Yoko as one unit and Apple Computers as another, we can intuit the many levels of friction and harmony that this bizarre but not entirely inane juxtaposition creates.

"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher regard those who think alike than those who think differently." -Nietzsche