Romantic love has always been inextricably tied to spiritual aspiration. This is so obvious that it would seem unnecessary to say it, yet we all avert our gaze and miss the obvious. It is a truth too close to see. We only need to look at the love stories, the poetry, the songs that come from our romantic era, and we find that man-in-love has made of woman a symbol of something universal, something inward, eternal, and transcendent. What he sees in woman makes him feel that he has finally realized himself, that he sees all the meaning of life. He sees a special reality revealed in her; he feels
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