What is exciting is not for one person to be stronger than the

“What is exciting is not for one person to be stronger than the other... but for two people to have met their match and yet they are equally as stubborn, as obstinate, as passionate, as crazy as the other.” So speaks Barbra Streisand, with words that echo like the verses of the ancients. For in these words, she reveals a truth as old as love and rivalry itself—that the greatest fire is not found in dominance, but in balance. To meet one’s match is to stand before an equal, neither bowed in weakness nor inflated in pride, but stirred into a dance of equal flame.

The ancients often told of battles where strength met strength, where one warrior did not crush another, but where two souls found themselves locked in equal might. Such tales were not merely about victory, but about the joy of encountering someone who mirrored one’s own passion, obstinacy, and unyielding spirit. For the soul grows dull when it conquers too easily, but when it faces its equal, it sharpens, it awakens, it comes alive. This is the excitement Streisand speaks of—not conquest, but communion in fire.

Consider the tale of Socrates and Alcibiades, bound not only by affection but by a ceaseless battle of minds and wills. Alcibiades, brilliant yet reckless, sought to bend the world to his charm and power; Socrates, unyielding in his wisdom, met him with relentless questioning, humbling his pride yet stirring his greatness. Neither man was broken by the other, but both were transformed by the clash. Here lies the beauty: when two stubborn spirits refuse to yield, not out of malice but out of fervor, the struggle itself becomes a forge that refines them.

So too in love, as in friendship, the true fire is not in one ruling over the other, but in the storm where equals collide. A bond where one submits entirely may be calm, but it lacks the thunder that shakes the heavens. But when two meet who are equally passionate and equally crazy, their union becomes a tempest, fierce yet glorious, where each blow is answered, each flame is matched, and together they burn brighter than alone. This, Streisand declares, is the excitement that makes hearts race and stories endure.

O children of the future, remember this: seek not only the gentle path, nor only the easy conquest. For the heart is not nourished by victories won without effort, nor by companions who yield without challenge. It is nourished by those who test you, who stand against you, who reveal the full measure of your strength by forcing you to rise higher than you thought possible. To meet your match is not to find your enemy, but to find the one who can awaken every sleeping part of your soul.

The lesson is plain: do not fear resistance in love, in friendship, or in rivalry. Welcome it. For when you clash with an equal, you are not diminished but exalted. When stubbornness meets stubbornness, when passion meets passion, when wildness meets wildness, a spark leaps between souls that no calm partnership can ever ignite. Let this spark be your guide, for it will either destroy what is weak or forge what is unbreakable.

Practically, this means you must not flee at the first sign of conflict with someone you care for. Instead, pause and ask: is this clash born of equal strength, of equal fire? If so, treat it not as a curse but as a gift. Learn to wrestle without hatred, to argue without cruelty, to challenge without breaking. For in such trials, the bond is tempered, like iron struck again and again until it gleams.

Thus remember Streisand’s words: the true excitement of life is not found in easy victories, but in the meeting of equals—stubborn, passionate, obstinate, and beautifully crazy. For in that meeting lies the storm, and in the storm lies the greatness of the soul.