Jinha Kang

It is not uncommon for individuals to experience a relationship that appears to be a mirage. At times, the relationship looks completely perfect from a distance, but soon you realize there is nothing as you approach it. After a few attempts and failures to create a nurturing relationship, you find out the relationship is ultimately an illusion. Such relationships give the perfect illusion of hope, forcing us to face our desperate hope being trampled and disappearing when we approach it. Yet, the illusion is a powerful one. Our minds are designed with an intuitive psychology that cannot help but attribute this essentialist view to one another, and the promise of intimacy is the promise of being offered a glimpse of your soul while offering up mine in return, despite the fact that this full-blown promise is illusory. An illusionary relationship with a particular person resembles a mirage in the desert.