Relationships: Don’t Be Too Perfect

There is an old fable about 3 sisters of marriageable age. The eldest was lazy and never did any work, just stayed lazing around in bed. The middle sister was gloomy and moody. And the youngest sister was beautiful, hard-working, and always smiley and good-natured.

Once a fairy godmother came to see the sisters and told them she had the perfect husband for each of them. The sisters got on to a cart and it rolled into the neighboring village.

“Here is your husband,” said the fairy godmother to the lazy sister, pointing to the most hard-working fellow in the area. “You are each other’s perfect match.”

In the next village, she turned to the gloomy sister and pointed to the most good-natured, out-going, joyous guy there. “This is your husband,” she said. “You compliment each other perfectly.”

Finally, they got to the village where the youngest sister’s match lived.

“And here is your perfect match,” said the godmother, pointing to an ugly, miserable little drunk lying in a ditch.

Moral of the story: People who feel that they need to be perfect all the time end up with very flawed partners because they need the partners to compensate for their uprightness with some looseness. Your partner will always (although not consciously) try to become what you lack. So don’t try to be too perfect. It doesn’t pay off.