So just as it is blood alone that binds people to defend one another in the face of danger, on the spiritual plane one person will struggle to help another only if this person is not, and if quite aside from opinions and convictions they share similar natures at the deepest level.

[…] my father […] knew about this duality, he too had met a woman whom he loved profoundly but at whose side nonetheless he remained alone because they were two different people. […]

The greatest secret and the greatest gift any of us can be offered is the chance for two people to meet. It happens so rarely-it must be because nature uses all its force and cunning to prevent such harmony-perhaps it’s that creation and the renewal of life need the tension that is generated between two people of opposite temperaments who seek each other out. Like an alternating current … an exchange of energy between positive and negative poles.

Sandor Marai, Embers (1942)