excerpt from Notes on the Need for Beauty by J Ruth Gendler

I love the old stories in which the beloved is partly of the human world, partly of the animal kingdom, and things are not quite what they seem.  In love the god becomes human, the wild one tamed, the fierce one is the most gentle, the ugly one carries true beauty.  The woman is tested by the Goddess.  Or she marries a bear.  Or he marries a seal.  Travel beyond all the disguises and masks to risk the nobility of true beauty.  Sometimes the journey is inward within the soul, and sometimes the journey is played out in the world with great flourish and drama.  And the story may be happy or sad--there is a sadness in deep love, a sadness at the center of joy because love, like birth and death, breaks open the heart, breaks open the dream of beauty, bigger ,and wilder and more precious than we knew.  These love stories are not about "love at first sight" or "happily ever after."  They are layered tales of grief and patience, courage, strength, and transformation.