I just wanna be understood, is that so wrong?

In different times of life, I think we each long for different things. I happen to be in a place where I'm wishing there were more people in my life who, when I described my journey or experiences or thoughts, were able to say, "I totally get that." I don't doubt I have people in my life who love me, and I try to be grateful for that, but right now, it doesn't offer much comfort, if any, to hear it. What I want to hear is, "I understand you. I get it." More than that, I want to be able to believe it when someone says it. I suppose we tend to want most what we most perceive is lacking. In my case, it's not people I can have fun with, or talk with about serious things, or who feel affection for me and genuinely care, but people who really understand me. Maybe I've always kind of felt that way. Thought that way? Not sure which...or both? But maybe I've reached a point where that's too much to expect. At my ripe ol' age, what are the odds someone else's experiences, perceptions, beliefs, questions, and conclusions truly match up with mine? Smaller and smaller all the time. Ah, this is why getting married before you're too old is helpful. I'll try not to resent the hand I was dealt and the challenges it has presented to forming lifetime partnership relationships.

Maybe it's too late to hope for someone with mostly shared perspective on life, the universe, and everything. Maybe affection, mutual goals and values and principles, and mutual respect will do. And I can build associations with a variety of individuals who can identify with different aspects of my experience and relate on personal levels to portions here and there. Maybe that will hold me over until the next time I start thinking maybe I've found a soulmate of sorts who doesn't have to understand me from the start but with whom I can embark on the exciting journey of learning about each other and understanding one another more profoundly than anyone else understands either of us, and loving each other with a wholeness of passion (and I use this word at least as much in the sense in which you're passionate about or attracted to an enriching hobby or field of study as in the sexual sense...I can feel strongly attracted to a lot of people, but this kind of passion is more complete and soul-encompassing) I've felt only a couple of times in my life (sets a rather difficult standard for the future) but dream about feeling again.