How, exactly, do you measure a man?

The title was not intended to get a truckload of off-color comments, but a reference to Clay Aiken, my favorite American Idol so far. They are doing a AI Christmas, and the winners from past Ai will perform, which means, Kelly, Ruben, and Fantasia. And. Not. Clay. Now, I've kept mum during the entire length of all AI seasons, and for a good reason. Too many teeny bopper bloggers out there are blogging about it already, and I didn't even watch it through the whole season. As a reality show, it reeked! I do watch the final few episodes though, and during the second season, I really wanted Clay Aiken to win. I mean, isn't he just a total sweetie?

Clay Aiken is a fantastic singer. He's a college graduate, and he has a reputation of being extremely genuine and sincere and kind, as well as humble. (Not that I know him personally!) He majored in special education -- he wants to work with kids with autism and other challenges. He started an organization for autistic kids. He plans on going to graduate school. And he's very cute in a skinny-nerd-without-glasses kind of way.

I know it's too late to gripe about Ruben, but I don't like him at all. There's that whole scandal way back about his getting paid to wear some sort of logo advertising something or another, and I read an interview in a magazine (not a shady source, but a well-reputed source) and he came off as extremely haughty. Would it be too mean if I called him a too fat of a tub-o-lard who won by affirmative action? Just kidding. Of course AI isn't run by affirmative action or anything. He's an alright singer -- I just think Clay has more talent, as well as better attitude and intelligence (speaks lovely English with a slight air of a charming Southern accent).

But it brings me to the question regarding a title from Clay's CD: Measure of a Man.

Why do you ask him move heaven and earth
To prove his love has worth
Would he walk on water
Would he run through fire
Would he stand before you
When it's down to the wire
Would he give his life up
To be all he can
Is that, is that, is that
How you measure a man

Maybe love is this magical thing that we are just not meant to understand. Maybe true love is a preternatural thing, out of our boundaries. Something not empirical, something that just can't be measured. Despite the advancement of technology and whatnot, there are many people out there who believe in love at first sight. Or soulmates, for that matter.

Believing in a soulmate for me is like believing in a god. I just can't bring myself to believe in something without logical evidence. Of course there are things that I just don't have the data to prove something, and it bothers me to no end. But I just don't want to complicate my life by putting extra effort into believing something which, in my heart, I completely know as non-existant! But maybe I should change my way of approaching this thing. Maybe, instead of trying to believe, I should hope.