life as literature

Nicholas Sparks wrote "Nights in Rodanthe" (and The Notebook, The Wedding, etc). It's a book about a ?newly? divorced woman who gets away from it all for a few days after her divorce. She stays at a bed and breakfast and one night (perhaps it was a weekend?) she meets a man and falls in love. This lover has such an impact on her, so changes her perceptions about what love is, about what attachment is, that she's forever changed. She never winds up with him, alas, but she's okay with that (as best I remember).

In a movie i recently watched (Damage) Jeremy Irons has an affair with a woman (Juliette Binoche) who forever changes him. In the end, he can't have her and he winds up alone; forever touched, but alone nonetheless.

In both these (and countless others, no doubt) someone enters the central characters' life and is recognized as "the one", the one that's been missing from their life up to that point. All that was missing from their life is found. Where before was empty, now is fullness. Where relationships previously were routine and dull, they have become alive and vibrant and rewarding. The two share a brief time together before the found one departs from their life, forever, leaving our central character forever changed.

Forever changed, but alone, nonetheless.

It might make for great cinema, but when played out in real life - it sucks.