Quantum of Solace

"...the one moment in a relationship when it's all over and there's nothing left, and you no longer have that tiny piece of something that makes it work, that quantum of solace..." --Daniel Craig, interview with Jay Leno

I am exercising extraordinary constraint in not speeding down to Metropolis and watching the new Bond movie all by myself, all else be damned. Oh but the anticipation! I remember my excitement when I first learned about the new movie, an excitement which has not been subdued by months of awaiting the release and now two more weeks' self-control. I got through today; I can go another sixteen. ...Damn, I thought it'd be fewer.

But it'll come, oh it'll come. And when it gets here, my patience will be rewarded.

I've always liked the new Bond, but the title of this movie struck me with a special resonance. Craig's Bond is fearless, decisive, and focused, all qualities which I have long lost. But he is after all, just a man, and as such is subject to pain, both corporeal and intangible.

What defines a meaningful relationship? At what point can someone say with certainty that either something is there, or that it has disappeared? Married couples joke that "that magic" is gone; old friends become lovers one day as if "a switch has been flicked somewhere"; those that go their separate ways often cite that, though they love each other, they're not "in" love. Couples fight all the time. They bicker and quarrel over the most trivial things sometimes. They question in which direction their life is going. The more significant disagreements can cause a rupture that may be irreparable. And yet, those relationships that are meant to last always recover from those deadly blows. What is that mysterious element that is so discrete and powerful?

A quantum of solace, that "spark of niceness in a relationship."

Bonds that cannot be broken, ties that are meant to be...all attributed to a single moment in time when a person finds that quantum of solace in the other. Perhaps that is the act of falling in love. It is this element of time and space, of emotions and acts, of memories and hopes, like a shining sigularity at the heart of the universe, holds the relationship together when all the rest start to tumble.
(to be continued...)