The Picture

There is a fellow not unlike myself. He is searching for his bashert though he knows what she looks like. Most people would find this odd. He doesn’t because he has a picture of her. But this isn’t an ordinary picture. It is an image that exists solely in his mind.

The woman in his photo is not real. She cannot be real. She is too perfect. She is merely a vision he wishes would come into being. Yet deep down he knows she never will.

Still, the picture gets him into trouble. He meets women. Beautiful, talented young women. But they are nothing like his picture. He is sure they cannot be his bashert because they do not match.

His friends tell him to get rid of the image. “Destroy it,” they say. But he cannot. He wonders what they know about his picture. Do they have any idea how much he has invested in it?