There sometimes are some interesting pieces over at the CNN website, including a recent one that cautions to pick a mate with the right type of faults. After all, we all have them. The writer notes she was upset at the lack of intimacy in her parents marriage, but her mother noted that she knew she made a compromise -- but the dad brought a certain something that more romantic suitors did not. The author found intimacy/passion more important, but realizes the husband had other flaws too. And, as her therapist noted when being underwhelmed at them, she knew that ... after he is human. So with one's spouse, as with ones job, friends, diet, and so forth.
This reflects a personal philosophy of mine -- you generally have to look at the totality of the circumstances to get a good judge of things, since things rarely are simply black/white. A reality that can make things as complicated as it makes things interesting. A reader of this blog might think "hey, he is pretty sure of certain things, like this election!" But, shades of gray does not mean lack of a clear answer. [Obama has flaws, but as with Gore/Bush, "they both stink" is a wrongheaded equivalence.] A 70% chance of rain might not bring it, but one better bring your umbrella all the same. And, that 30% generally keeps you honest.
Talking about next Tuesday, many more people are voting early this year. My sentiment is to be attached to Election Day voting at polling places, seeing it as a symbolic event where the electorate comes together to do their civic duty.* But, there are complications (new laws and machines only complicate things), including time related, for many people. And, given the numbers [sometimes a bit too many!], we are often not talking about solitary votes here either. So, I do see the benefits too. On-line and absentee voting is a bit more complicated, especially since it open up the possibility of problems, even a few credible cases of voter fraud (ignored by many speaking out about our alleged in person fraud problem).
I'll be voting the usual way, at the usual time, and perhaps via a lever machine that might be truly on its last legs. OTOH, the replacement is slow in coming, and flaws that have popped up in other electronic machines probably will not speed things up considerably. We shall see.
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* The new Kevin Smith movie about a couple of friends who make a porno underlines "conservative" can have various meanings. Conservative can be coexist with crude ... much too much for many people's tastes. Likewise, supporting same sex marriage can actually be the more conservative thing, which people like Andrew Sullivan write books arguing.