A Story About Two Halves
by Tanya Bykova
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An old story holds that for some time man fancied himself as being equal to the gods. The gods, wishing to punish man, divided him into two halves. Ever since that time, the man has been looking for his other half. He can find happiness, comfort, and harmony for his heart only after finding and joining together with his other half.
This is the truth, isn’t it? When we find someone special, someone who makes us feel good, we say: “I feel so comfortable with you! I feel so good with you! I am so happy!”
Let us imagine that some part of our body was detached, and then we got it put back. When would you feel better – before or after? When you look at it this way, maybe it is a true story, and maybe the gods really separated us one from another a long time ago?
In this case, the theory that everyone has only one possible “other half,” is bore out, and each person only needs to find it. The gods definitely put a difficult task before us as they showed again how we humans are much weaker and helpless.
You see, the world is enormous! This is incredible that we have to find the only one special somebody in a huge world like this! You may not know in which country or on which continent the gods may have placed that marvelous person! And where exactly you should look?
Another question: if the other half may be anywhere in the world, then why do we usually marry those who live close by? What if your other half does not live near you and you made haste to get married?
But gods are gods, and life is life…
Gods are gods. They are powerful, but merciful. The fact that we talk in either the same or a different language may be not only reminding about the Tower of Babylon – the Biblical punishment for man’s vanity. The gods may have given some of us the same language so that we can understand each other better at the very moment of finding each other. So is language the hint to point us in the right direction in our search for our other half?
But there are international marriages that cross language barriers. Oh, still how different is our life! Yes, there are international marriages, and I have heard many happy stories about those marriages. (They also say the children born in those families are especially beautiful.)
To understand each other better, people since ancient times have been learning foreign languages (which I am doing, too). I believe that life (or perhaps the gods) brings us one way or another to our destiny. The cards have been mixed up – now it is the time to help us to find the only one right way.
Life is life. Life is like a game: it has rules. If you follow the rules, it will bring you in the right direction. In the beginning and in the process, each player receives some resources. These may be material values, physical potentialities, intellectual abilities or spiritual gifts; the nature of these resources does not really matter. What matters is that we can use any of those we are given. Could this be another hint from the gods? Whether a hint or not, these resources bring us closer to our dreams.
People we meet are another resource we are given in the process. They are the resource of new experiences, new information and new feelings; they are the resource of everything for us. With every new experience you are climbing up to a new level, like in a computer game. The difference is that in the computer games, the number of levels is the same for all, and after the last one you receive the prize. In life, however, the number of levels, and thus the very last one, is defined by each person. The last level is the one for each to stop.
The basic rule in this game is accepting each individual resource given. Otherwise, you may try to pursue someone else’s way, get lost, and fail in your own search. Then the game may become an endless jumping from one level to another.
On which level should each of us stop?
For this we have the third hint: feelings. I believe we feel it when we find what we are looking for. And here we are not talking about the upper and the lower levels; they are all different for each of us. One may find his or her other half earlier, while another may wander around first, but then find – definitely find – the one who is the missing other half.
Let us make the right use of what we are given. I, myself, must yet learn to do this.
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