“I’ve never loved him because he was perfect. I love him because he’s interesting.”
This is something I remember feeling and expressing about a former love interest, brought up by working on the book. My feelings for him were intense, verging on (and some would say well past) the brink of absurdity.
That relationship was never even physically “consummated” in any usual sense of the word, but it was a powerful, enlightening realization: I needed him to be interesting (essentially offer me some sense of new feeling of positive or at least neutral behavior) more than I needed him to be flawless.
It was a big turning point for me!
Looking back, I guess it wasn’t such a bad aspiration for me, either. To shoot for interesting, rather than perfect. And to attract people who found me interesting and who I found interesting, in one way or another.
I feel like, for the most part, I have this.