Of Vampires and Soulmates

So, I've been reading the Twilight series and watching True Blood. Watching the episodes over and over. I wouldn't say I was obsessed with it, though a few weeks in the beginning were touch and go.


The Twilight series is about a vampire and a girl who fall in love. She's an ordinary girl, and he can't live without her. And she can't live without him. One issue I have with the books is the love triangle between the vampire, the human, and the shapeshifter.


True Blood is about a waitress who falls in love with a vampire, and he falls in love with her. And he is so gentle and romantic, and she is different (she reads minds) and she can be herself with him. And beginning last week and continuing this week, she started a love triangle with her boss, who is a shapeshifter. (notice a pattern?) And when that happened, I checked out.


For both the books and the series, I figured out what has me so entranced and connected to them. And it's not the vampires and the shapeshifters. It really surprised me, because I don't necessarily believe in it.


From the True Blood show, this exchange was what got me hooked:
Bill: "What are you?"
Sookie: "I am a waitress."
Bill: "You are so much more than that." (and then I swoon and remind myself to breathe)


Once I heard that, I realized what I loved so much about the Twilight series and this tv series as well. It's the thought of finding the one person who sees past everything into who you truly are. The one person who sees that you are different and wonderful and they maybe can't live without you. Your soulmate.


The problem: I don't believe in soulmates. I'm not saying that in a cynical, jaded way (but as I write this post, I can see I'm kinda headed in that direction). I'm just saying that I don't put so much faith in them. I think it's a choice. In a marraige, you find someone who is attractive to you, and believes the same things you believe, and is going in the same direection you're going, and you choose to commit to them. You don't find your soulmate and then get married. You choose a life committed to one person, for better or worse, come hell or high water, and you stay with them for as long as you both shall live.


Too often, in our culture, people are looking for that soulmate. That one person that makes your world go round. And we fall so short of both being and finding that one person. We don't understand that when we get married, the person we're going to marry is a sinner, and is going to let us down and is not going to be everything we thought they would be every moment of our lives. And a lot of times, as much for Christians as for non, they don't turn out the way we thought they were, so clearly this wasn't our soulmate, we just thought they were, so that must mean that our soulmate is out there, so now we have to go find them.


I know I don't think with the mainstream on this. I know that many people think they are married to their soulmate. Maybe they are. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm usually wrong. I do know that God's been challenging my thinking on this. A lot. And it bugs me. Because He's always right.


And it really irritates me that I love these books and this tv show because of the pull they have on me that doesn't even align with what I believe in!!! What's wrong with me? Wait! Don't answer that.