The Imporatnce of Theme, and other stuff

Steven Pressfield wrote an incredibly inspirational blog (I Can't Squeeze my Theme In) about theme. At least for writers, it's inspirational. You don't add the theme. It's already there, he says.

My wife tells me I can't see ghosts like she does because I can't let go and just relax. Apparently she experiences dead relatives alternately consoling or annoying her. She watches a lot of ghost realty TV too.

Then there's the thing about finding when you don't seek, and not finding when you do. Let it go. Use the force.

Ten there's the thing about, you don't find your passion, it finds you; you don't place your theme, it's already there. But you can't see it because you won't let go. That's how we met. Neither of us looking.

I'm convinced our frustration is due to our rat raced societal structure that imposes routine on our lives. What if we didn't all follow a circadian rhythm? Are we circadians? What if we didn't all go to work at dawn and return hone at dusk? What if we dared to sleep-in everyday? What if we refused to be pawns to the evil of money? Yeah, I know the conditioned answer is that without these things we would die or become homeless. Not true. But it's hard isn't it? To ignore our environment and peers? No it's not. Ignorance is easy. Just be selective about it.

And a few days after Pressfield's post, his editor, Shawn, writes Designated Driver to impress upon us how important his Theme post is. Yes it is. It makes me think. Actually. How daring. It's like the time I grabbed a rope, hung from a tree by a river bank, and swung right out and dropped into the water. The kids with me were shocked. I was always the reserved one. I didn't even know I could swim. That's one way to learn.

You won't find your Soul Mate while looking for your Replica

I read a real genius "award winning" blog (appropriately titled guttervomit) about the chances of finding a soul mate, called Finding Your Soul Mate: A Statistical Analysis. Apparently this math whiz thinks that by factoring out potential mates by gender, sexual orientation, language, life expectancy, and the number of people you can potentially meet, you can determine the odds of running into your soul mate. But this is only true if you are so narcissistic that you can only love yourself or someone exactly like you.

The definition of a soul mate is one who challenges you. One you makes you think twice. One who makes you question yourself and who makes you want to be a better person. Someone just like you who accepts everything about you as perfectly fine can never do that. So the first thing you have to do is get that definition straight. It is obtuse to think that merely matching people on characteristics qualifies them as potential soul mates, when the very opposite is more likely true. If matching characteristics were a true way to go, you would clone yourself, with possibly a gender change, and voila there you go. So what this guy's post leads me to believe is that he is telling people to go fuck them self.


A soul mate is not necessarily like you. They might not speak your language. They might not be in the age range you would expect. They might not be of any of the characteristics you would bother to go looking for, and this is probably the real reason why most people never find a soul mate. They aren’t looking for someone to challenge them. They are looking for a replica of themselves.