The ONLY and not the RIGHT Person

I re-read one of my favorite books-- PATCHWORK PLANET by Anne Tyler.

I really love this particular novel of hers. Besides being well-written, this simple tale about the life of black sheep and average guy Barnaby really gets to me. Barnaby's like a neighbor I know, or a brother I was supposed to have.

I'd like to share a good passage from the novel.

Short background: Barnaby's a former village trouble-maker for stealing precious things and whatnot from affluent neighbors. What's ironic is that he comes from a rich family himself, whose father is a well-known charitable man of the Gaitlin Foundation. He married Natalie at a young age and didn't finish college. They have kid named Opal, but they eventually divorce. The novel picks up from when Barnaby was already 30 years old, with a new girlfriend Sophia. He's working as a hired help for Rent-a-Back.

(Patchwork Planet, page 218- 219)

Oh, once upon a time I'd had all I could ask for: a home, a loving wife, a little family of my own. A place in the world. How could I have thrown that away?

At Rent-a-back, I knew couples who'd been married almost forever-- forty, fifty, sixty years. Seventy-two, on one case. They'd be tending each other's illnesses, filling in each other's faulty memories, dealing with the money troubles or the daughter's suicide, or the grandson's drug addiction. And I was beginning to suspect that it made no difference whether they'd married the right person. Finally, you're just with who you're with. You've signed on with her, put in half a century with her, grown to know her as well as you know yourself or even better, and she's become the right person. Or the only person, might be more to the point.

I wish someone had told me that earlier. I'd have hung on then; I swear I would. I never would have driven Natalie to leave me.

--

This is a new point-of-view to me. How many people tell us "darating din ang tamang tao para sa'yo"?

When the truth is, there is no right person. Even if you're the most incompatible couple, it doesn't matter.

What matters is the journey you spend together and how somewhere, along the way, he/she hecomes the ONLY PERSON.

Wala lang. Ang ganda. Nakatuwa. :-D