The Courage to Let Things Pass

For a man and a woman to become husband and wife and vow eternal love—helped along by the surge and momentum of the feeling of the moment, one can declare it there and then; but to understand each other deeply for a lifetime and to spend one’s days together in harmony demands considerable difficulty.

Even if a man can make the effort to understand a woman 100%, her true heart is something he will never know for the whole of his life. And the same, surely, could be said of a woman toward a man. For two strangers of different sexes to come together and live even a little more comfortably, rather than demanding 100% of each other, to gaze upon and respect only the talents and good points of the other, and to have the courage to overlook the rest—this is love toward one’s partner, and feels to me like the most important thing of all.

By the way, to whom am I writing this? It has started to dawn on me that it might be to myself.

—To all of you about to be married, may you be happy for many long years to come.