I've lately come to think of the misalliances I've embraced, not as mistakes, but as my life. Just as being bald is another way of having your hair, mistakes or misalliances are us, are how we live our lives, how we grow in wisdom and learn to love better. By the way, I've enjoyed everything I've read by Alain de Botton, particularly his book on what's his name, the guy who nibbled a madeleine -- oh yeah, Proust.We should learn to accommodate ourselves to “wrongness,” striving always to adopt a more forgiving, humorous and kindly perspective on its multiple examples in ourselves and in our partners.
I think the article would be better titled "why intentions sometimes pan out differently." If I look back on every decision I made, would I make them the same way now? No, but those decisions and events made me who I am today. Can I be certain the opposite decision wouldn't be similarly looked at as "wrong" in hindsight? As a bald person, I think your analogy is a good one. Ask a person with a full head of hair if baldness is unfortunate, and many will say it is. Ask a person who's been bald for fifteen years if their baldness impacts their life (beyond protection from the sun), and I expect most won't even remember they're bald until you ask. I wouldn't. And I think the same is true of many decisions an outside observer might call "mistakes." If one likes who they are after a marriage dissolves, is it fair to say they married the wrong person? I don't think it is.
You are correct! From "The picture of Dorian Gray" (and it's 'lifelong passion', but I only know that because I googled it).