Haruki Murakami simply has this “laser-like clarity” in verbalizing our exact thoughts …
“Izumi was ten years younger than me. We met at a business meeting. Something clicked between us the first time we laid eyes on each other. Not the kind of thing that happens all that often. We met a couple of times after that, to go over the details of our joint project. I’d go to her office, or she’d drop by mine. Our meetings were always short, other people were involved, and it was basically all business. When our project was finished, though, a terrible loneliness swept over me, as if something absolutely vital had been forcibly snatched from my grasp. I hadn’t felt that in years. And I think she felt the same way.
A week later she phoned my office about some minor matter and we chatted for a bit. I told her a joke, and she laughed. ‘Want to go out for a drink?’ I asked. We went to a small bar and had a few drinks. I can’t recall exactly what we talked about, but we found a million topics and could have talked for ever. With a laser-like clarity I could grasp everything she wanted to say. And things I couldn’t explain to anyone else came across to her with a precision that took me by surprise. We were both married, with no major complaints about our married lives. We loved our spouses and respected them. Still, this was on the order of a minor miracle - running across someone you express your feelings to so clearly, so completely. Most people go their entire lives without meeting a person like that. It would have been a mistake to label this ‘love’. It was more like total empathy.” (Man-Eating Cats, from Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman)
