Symposium Under The Joshua Tree?

It's amazing how you think something is so familiar and nothing about it will surprise you, and then one day you open your eyes (or, in this case, your ears) and make a connection you never even considered before. Today, for example, I realized that a few of my favorite songs of all time had been sung thouasands of years ago at Plato's Symposium. Bono must have been channeling Plato when he wrote "I Still haven't found what I'm looking for" and "With or Without You," for the plights of the people in these songs are exactly those the men at the Symposium were discussing. Bono sings of a person who is desperately searching for that someone, or perhaps even something, that completes his soul, the other half of his tally, so to speak. Just look at a sample of the lyrics:

I have climbed highest mountains

I have run through the fields

Only to be with you

Only to be with you

I have run

I have crawled

I have scaled these city walls

These city walls

Only to be with you

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

If those aren't the words of someone trying to find their severed half, I'm not sure what is.

And as for "With or Without You," it sounds to me as if this expounds upon the difficulties that occur once that other half has been found. As Dr. Sexson said in class today, the pieces don't always fit, you may only think they should. Speaking from experience, however, I believe that sometimes even when the pieces do fit they don't match exactly. Nothing and nobody is perfect, after all. Anyone who has ever been in love knows what I mean, there are times you can't stand your other half, yet you know at the end of the day you couldn't survive without them now that you've found them. Bono says it much better than I:

My hands are tied

My body bruised, she's got me with

Nothing to win and

Nothing left to lose

And you give yourself away

And you give yourself away

Hear the whole song and watch the music video (I highly recommend it, fantastic song and interesting video!) right here.