Love to Love

Why people still believe in the 'soulmate myth'. Perhaps because the single actual couple that is interviewed for the story first met when they were aged 8 and 10, were married before 21, and now have been happily married for 23 years?

Despite featuring multiple marriage experts and counselors, the story is bookended by the Hannah and Sam story, and the couple absolutely believes that they're soulmates. If even a story that purports that soulmates are a myth apparently buys into the idea that soulmates are a thing, and they make for effortless long-term relationships, why shouldn't people believe?

Hannah and Sam are presented as precisely what the article claims does not exist; people who were made for one another. There's nothing about them having to learn to work through problems in their relationship, or needing to understand that maintaining a lasting relationship involves effort. It's just two middle-aged people who met as children and are still the perfect couple. They're held up as, effectively, proof that soulmates can happen. So why should other people give up on the idea that the perfect person for them will simply fall into their lap? Why should people believe that soulmates are a myth when here are two of them right there?

Of course, given that today is Valentine's day, a story on the heartache and stress that relationships can bring, and than many people overcome, wouldn't likely have proven as popular as a half-hearted debunking of the idea of perfect and effortless love. But I suspect that a full-throated approval of the alleged "myth" would have been just as engaging. And more honest.