THINGS IN COMMON

When you choose a friend, do you choose someone completely different than you? Or do you tend to gravitate towards those with whom you share some common interests and maybe viewpoints?
Naturally, we tend to befriend those with whom we have at least some shared interests.
So why do we tend to wed people with whom we share few, if any, interests? Do we realy hope to build a life of common interests, discovered together? That is, I admit, a possibility. But is it not even more true that people with at least some shared interests are more likely to find something more in common thatn two people who have no foundation at the start?
I don't want to spend my life with someone exactly like me. That would be utterly boring. I do, however, want to spend my days with someone who shares some interests with me but who also will expose me to new things, new ideas, new insights and with whom I can discover things that we both enjoy. And maybe some things we both agree we don't like.
I want both a lover and a companion. And yet first we must be friends. I truly think the very best marriages I know are those between people who truly are each other's best friends. These are people who sometimes were friends first before they became lovers. And while I had often thought it impossible for a friend to turn into a lover, I now think that such a miracle can occur. And it is a miracle we should all seek.
For when the passions cool, as they will in time, and life takes on its daily routine, who would you rather be with? Someone you hardly know with whom you share few or no interests? Or a best friend with whom you can sit and talk, do things together and know that she is having just as much fun at it as you are?
I choose the latter. To me that is the only kind of relationship that truly lasts.