I knew someone who had met her soulmate. They both agreed that they were right for each other, and that soul-mateyness was for life, so they married. A few years later, he met a new soul-mate. He forgot to mention to his wife that she had been replaced, but she found out eventually and they divorced.

I never knew him, but when she and I met as friends 20 years after the diviorce, she described him to me. She went into some detail, especially about his character. It seems that he was simultaneously the greatest man on earth, and the most foolish.

She said that the separation was very hard for her, but that she had “recovered pretty quickly after the divorce and done well”.  She knew, apparently, that he hadn’t. She had great insight into his true feelings and she told me that he had never been happy since the divorce. (How she knew this, I don’t know, as she had not seen him for years). She realised he’d never come back to her though, and even if he did she wouldn’t have him.

If such a situation arose, she said, he’d be surprised to see how she had moved on, grown, and that she no longer needed him.