Wedding Crashers: Counterpoint vs Harmony

“True love is your soul’s recognition of its counterpoint in another”

One of my favorite movies of all time is Wedding Crashers.  It’s funny, chaotic, irreverent, and… at times… deep (as this clip suggests).

Now…  Whether the line said above is a cheesy one-liner or whether John Beckwith (played by Owen Wilson) really believes those words doesn’t matter.  It hits on an important distinction: counterpoint is not the same as harmony.

As writers from Plato to Shakespeare have said in one way or another: love (The ultimate glue that bonds people together) requires fully developed and  independent people coming together on their own terms.  Without the independence or that individuality that comes from experience, there can be no counterpoint.  It may be codependency or harmony.