On the Way to the Wedding [antikvár]

PREFACE The Search for a Soulmate E ^ ver since I can remember I've longed for a soulmate. I was never particularly interested in marriage itself A since my parents' marriage was so terrible. And when I was young I looked down on weddings. To me they were bourgeois, materialistic, nothing but "show." But a soulmate, that "other half," as Plato called it, that one who would make me whole, who would lead me to the divine mystery—was this not the very purpose of existence toward which life strives? I grew up as an only child in a house full of anger and chaos. I had three parents who loved me—my mother, my father, and my grandmother—but because they were unhappy in their own lives and relationships they fought constantly, and each projected their idea of meaning in life onto me, not allowing me a life of my own. Shy and introverted by nature, I retreated into an imaginal world to find my own space. And in this world there was always one Other—a friend and companion with whom I explored and learned in various adventures and with whom I grew in soul. Together we fought witches, braved giants and dragons, ventured into enchanted forests, crossed oceans, climbed mountains, found new and adventurous lands. This was my secret, exciting world, safe and inviolable from the curious, possessive eyes of my parents. With my imaginal companion in my secret world I could share my feelings, dreams, hopes, and fears and finally be myself. These