Opposites and Absences

Happy New Year!
Mine was interesting, long and now my hours are all messed up. While driving back from Syracuse this afternoon I got to thinking about trying to explain the importance of dating only guys who are Christians to guys who aren't. It's a kind of sticky situation sometimes, but that got me thinking about the opposites in my life, and I realized that most aren't opposites but absences. For example, darkness is not the opposite of light, merely the absence of it. Darkness is not measured, light is. Cold is not the opposite of heat, merely the absence. If God is good, then evil is not the opposite of good, merely the absesnce of it, of God. Death is not the opposite of life, but the absence of it. The reason this matters (because clearly, it does) is because of the discourse of it all. If situations are viewed as an "us vs. them"--an opponent or an opposite, then it's much much harder to have compassion for the other viewpoint. However if it is viewed as the absence of something, how much more are we willing to stop attacking and start sharing? I think about this because trying to explain why it is important to date only those who believe the same as me is virtually impossible. I can't do it, and it frustrates me. I wish I had a good similie or metaphor or analogy or anagram or venn diagram or flowchart or something, but I am at a loss. It's simply the absence of the most important presence in my life, however complex that simplicity may be.