Opposites attract - a perennial reality

Opposites they say attract. This statement's verification comes off the social scene not necessarily of recent times. History records royalty's romance with commoners, not to forget some older men that prefer young female company.

Walk into any restaurant, starry hotel or may be even workplace canteen, such scenes would hit your eye aplenty. To these oldies certainly it is a welcome shower for its added advantage of mitigating the pitfalls of advancing chronological years.

Nelson my one time colleague on the tutorial staff of Ananda College is one such whose encounter with young female company is more out of compulsion than choice - not to rule out his delight in being in their midst which perhaps is why he could take off a chunk of time's overbearing hold on him.

He is just the Nelson he was more than two decades ago thanks to those nymphs that dance attendance on him.

Apart from his many official tasks he is also honourary counsellor, legal advisor and clerk all rolled into one and shares commonality with very many of those old men referred to earlier on.

One time science teacher, now turned manager to over a hundred nightingales, you are certain not to escape his presence in one of Colombo's leading healthcare giving centres. On one of your visits over there, should you ever encounter an oldie seen talking to more than a dozen nurses, you could rest be assured its good old Nelson.

I only hope and pray the guy would not set his eyes on this, my write up, lest he be offended over my crude yet well meant references of him.

Talking of opposites attract it brings to columnist's mind British King Edward's abdication all for the sake of his commoner wife - which betrothal denied him even the throne - his father's legacy which culminated in his brother's ascension.

Abdicating within an year of his reign, he made this historic and astounding pronouncement in his farewell address to the Empire on December 11 in 1936.

"You all know the reason which has compelled me to renounce union. But I want you to understand that in making up my mind I did not forget the country nor the empire which as Prince of Wales and lately as king I have for 25 years tried to serve.

But you must believe me when I tell you that I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love. This decision is entirely mine."

If class was the deciding factor in King Edward's rather painful yet compelling decision, in local setting there was the famous King Saliya who was head over heels in love with Asoka Mala - a raving low caste beauty.

A further exploration of opposites getting attracted is evident in very quiet men's penchant for the very loud mouthed female wrestler type.

Magnanimous men have even vowed marital allegiance to purse flinching women. Even in friendship the domineering one has the other under her control. I know of one such.

She now suffers personality loss.Incidentally, I wonder what is in store for another I know of - a good looker and budding intellectual expected to settle for less - a stinking rich man domiciled in Singapore. Backgrounding all this is the girl's keen and adamant mother eagerly awaiting the deal to go through.

A sudden mind change is sure to lid the old woman's aspirations. That's as far as her ignorance goes on the 'opposites attract' theory.

History also records the unification of brain and beauty as the story goes in the romance of famed scientist Albert Einstein and bewitching beauty Marilyn Monroe - again an example of opposites attract.

He, reportedly had wished for an offspring with his kind of scholarly brilliance and Monroe's good looks.

'Opposites attract' could even get on to higher terrain - the attraction of metaphysics with the ephemeral. For instance, the Buddha's extraordinary spiritual brilliance being seeded in palatial surroundings from which he extricated himself enabled hope into a world of strife. Then there is the Prophet's (OWBP) wife who was 25 years when she married him, at 40.

She, a wealthy lady preferred him who helped run her business. Even kings visited baby Jesus in the manger - the palace and manger being two highly polarised entities. What then are the moral lessons one could deduce in 'opposites attract'.

Deep down within the heart's enclave is the spirit that disregards worldly construct. It is this abstractness that attracts humans regardless of externalities.

What they make of those externalities in many instances is another story altogether and far removed from morality.

For instance the meek and miled are preferred partners in friendship by the overbearing for purposes of control and manipulation to meet selfish ends.

Despite the social constructs contained in the identity discourse the 'opposites attract' theory seemingly has held sway and would nevertheless continue that way in the future as well as discursive practices of those discourses are not likely to be written off.

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