Love

"You put together two things that have not been put together before, and the world is changed. People may not notice at the time, but that doesn't matter. The world has been changed nonetheless." (Julian Barnes, in Levels of Life)

So with people, I would add. You put them together for the first time and their world is changed forever. That point, that small moment in which they meet and start to spend time together, be it as friends, lovers or mere acquaintances, changes their lives and destinies for good - or worse.

I had a teacher once who actually changed my life. A highschool teacher who taught us English literature and helped us to interpret english books and the characters in them. She really tried to make us understand the intricate stories we had to read and the meaning of them, which were sometimes difficult to us given our green years.

One of our colleagues had to read and interpret "Wuthering Heights", from Emily Brontë, that has not only a complex interpersonal realtional history, but also some parts of coloquial language, difficult to understand to a foreigner.

He did quiet well nonetheless and, in my opinion, hit the spot, by saying that Heathcliff, having never been put together with Catherine, so to say, traced the destiny of the future generation of their families, through his terrible vengeance.

Love and the lack of it is still and will always be the most powerful force, the most powerful driving force on Earth.

Maria