Source: https://xkcd.com/3172/
More context: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3172:_Fifteen_Years
I’ve copied some of it below, but I didn’t go in and add all the links:
Randall’s then-fiancée (now wife) was diagnosed with cancer in late 2010. This is a matter he has discussed in the comic multiple times before, with Randall being depicted as Cueball and his wife as Megan. At this comic’s release, it had been 15 years since her diagnosis and treatments.
This comic continues previous comics in the series – 1141: Two Years, 1928: Seven Years, and 2386: Ten Years – the initial parts of which are shown in the first 20 panels, which are grayed-out. These take us through the initial diagnosis and inability to imagine what future might be, into concerns about it potentially recurring, and up to enjoying ten years of life together that they weren’t sure they would have.
After some new panels marking more significant non-cancer-related events from the most recent five years of their life, Megan announces some potentially concerning-sounding symptoms she’s experiencing. However, the punchline is that these are just the signs of growing old, which Cueball is experiencing too. This is good news, considering the serious medical scares they lived through.
The title text continues that ending with a play on a common conversation topic. Normally someone rhetorically asks “Want to feel old?” and then follows it with a description of a difference the conversants have with the younger generation, or how long it’s been since some significant event they both experienced, as Randall has done in several previous comics. This is meant to make the other person feel bad about their age. In this case, though, the question is taken literally, with a simple “Yes” response to indicate that feeling old is better than being dead and they are happy to be alive and to have had the time they have.
The finality of this new installment suggests that it may be the last in the series, as it is solely related to Randall’s wife’s recovery from cancer.
I’m not a religious, spiritual or otherwise superstitious person.
I don’t even know how to say this without sounding crazy, even to myself.
Soul friends are a thing.
I don’t even know what exactly, and a soul doesn’t have to be some weird metaphysical spiritual soul or whatever, but like whatever makes our innermost selves… us?
I don’t think I can fully explain it to someone who hasn’t lived through this, but it feels like this person has always been part of my “self”, so much that I don’t even always see her as separated from me.
Not in a co-dependant way, it just is.
It’s almost like having one brain in two bodies.
A new feeling of wholeness that I can’t begin to describe, and honestly probably don’t need to, at least not to her, she gets it, I get it, whatever.
It doesn’t even need to be romantic, though it could be.
Certainly, none of it fits in a nicely labeled societal box.
And yet, this person is far from perfect and doesn’t need to be. Around each other, our flaws don’t matter anymore, they don’t need to be hidden, we don’t need to play some role or worry about optics or whatever… it’s… her… we accept each other as we are, raw. It’s enough, we’re enough.
We feel safe around each other, sharing stuff we’d never even approach with anyone else.
Without always realizing it, we heal each other of our past, we understand each other and ourselves better just by having each other. We’re brutally honest, yet no judgmental and genuinely caring.
And yet, despite all this, we honestly may not be a good fit as a couple.
I mean there certainly could be worse matches, but we’re best friends first and foremost, although the friends label really doesn’t do justice.
I realized I don’t know why I’m saying all this.
I guess I get excited whenever I see people connecting to each other.
Cherish it for what it is, raw human connection, it’s fine even if you don’t what “it” is.
Peace
The last two weeks have been a whirlwind because I’ve been asking myself some of questions that make me wonder if the idea of a “soul friend” is right for me.
I appreciate this insight. But the more I think about me and this girl, the more it makes me want more of her. Like to know her more to see her more. I think in my case, I see us as a couple. But I won’t know if we’d be a good couple long term without being in a context that allows me to see that. Right now, from our mutual interests both in and out of the bedroom, we are a great match.
If I’m reading your comment correctly, I think you’re trying to encourage me to look beyond my desire to date her/be in a relationship with her and I think that’s valid. But at the same time, I know that if I didn’t ask her out, I would have hated myself. I’ve let too many similar moments like this pass me by and know better.