The Couch Analogy

Analogies are on the end of the year test, so I'm use to helping young people make sense of seemingly baffling comparisons. However, it has been a while since a completely random stranger has tried to give me an analogy to happiness in my life. Which I suppose is the cue for the random furniture owner's couch analogy story:
You see I found myself the proud owner of a beautiful new home. A beautiful new home however, that had no beautiful new couch. (Or other furniture, but this story is about the couch.) I searched high and low, and yet I still couldn't find the couch I wanted. Trying to sell the fun of sitting on the floor to my roommate wasn't working well, and so the pressure was on to either find my perfect couch or pick up a loaner from D.I soon.
The afternoon after I moved in, my parents and I drove off in quest for this couch. We happened upon a new store, which we quickly scoured with no luck, until our eyes lighted on a couch that made both my mother and I say, "Hmmm." (Which was much better than most couches were getting.) Next, we began the intricate couch testing process. We sat, took the pillows to the windows, sat, searched the store for throws and other pillows to bring out different colors on the couch, sat, looked at it from every angle, sat, discussed every selling point and every flaw, and then, of course, we sat. 45 minutes after all of this testing, I took one last picture and told the owner we might be back.
He and my dad who had been visiting like old friends during our couch testing looked at me, "Why wouldn't you want this couch?" I looked up at him, "Well I like this couch, but I don't know if I love this couch, so I want to keep looking." This caused him to smile big and say, "Dear, can I ask you another question?" Well I have dealt with a lot of salesman lately, so I thought I had heard every question. I smiled back, "Sure," Then he began, "Are you married?" Like I said, I "thought" I had heard every question. Not figuring out how couches and marriage correlated, I assumed he had a rich, handsome son he wanted to set me up with because he was so taken with my couch testing skills. I smiled, "No." "Well dear, let me just give you a piece of advice. You see buying a couch is an awful lot like finding a husband. Eventually, you just have to make a choice and choose one. Dear, there is no perfect couch. Just like there is no perfect guy. We are all broken. (Which I really hoped the couch was not.) The trick is to just choose a couch or a guy you like bring him home and break him in." He finished and smiled real big. I wasn't quite sure how to respond to this cheering sales pitch on couches and husbands, so I just stared ahead. My dad, a real big shopper, smiled, "That's right, I like this couch. Let's get it." I looked at them both and smiled, "If I'm buying a couch, I'm buying a couch I really love, so we're going to keep looking."
My dad sighed, and we were off to the next store, a store I had looked in several times. However, today as I was walking over to the tables, I was stopped in my tracks at the sight of the perfect couch, MY PERFECT COUCH. That's right, a couch with the color, texture and style I had envisioned. After cheering out loud, I looked at my mother and smiled. "We have to go back to the other furniture store."My mom looked perplexed. "Why?" "Because, I want to go back to Mr. There is no Perfect Couch/Husband and have a few words with him. (I got up on my soap box.) I'm going to tell him how glad I am that I didn't settle for his okay couch because I found my perfect couch. And I'm going to tell him that sometimes when you're looking for a couch or husband it might just take a little more time, patience, and work." Yeah, I was on a roll. And I may have gone back, except this other store actually had two slightly different styles of my perfect couch. Which caused me to walk back and forth between them for an hour and a half. My mom exhausted exclaimed, "I sure hope you never fall in love with two perfect guys because you'll never be able to choose."
However, I did choose a couch, and I love it. Although, I must admit Mr. Couch Analogy was in part right, it wasn't exactly perfect. That's why I've spent weeks looking for new pillows. And I guess it's true nobody is perfect either, which is why I still smile at nice guy's unfunny jokes because maybe they are the perfect couch, they just need new pillows.