Coincidentally I came across something that speaks volumes to me and has put it into words much more succinctly than I could hack around for half a day. It's from a site called "The Book of Life" and was highlighted by audreyinalbany (nice one Audrey! ) in this thread in Media: http://www.crossdressers.com/forums/...=1#post3887968
I was intrigued by the site and reading around, it's deeper and more tolerant view of relationships and the flaws that persist to require compromise rather than the more Disneyfied view that sometimes persists here. Here's example quote that struck the chord:
We’ve collectively given ourselves a deeply problematic Romantic picture of what good relationships should be like: we dream of profound intimacy, satisfying sex, an absence of secrets and only a modicum of conflict. This faith in love is touching, but it carries with it a tragic flaw: having high expectations can turn out to be an enemy of workable mature relationships. We are instead drawn to what we’ve called a Classical approach. The Classical view is cautious about love. Classical people pay special attention to what can go wrong around others. Before condemning a relationship, they consider the standard of partners across society and may regard a current arrangement as bearable, under the circumstances. This view of people is fundamentally, but usefully, dark. Everyone is ultimately deeply troubled and hard to live with. The only people whom one can think of as normal are those one doesn’t yet know very well.
http://www.thebookoflife.org/tsol-what-we-believe/
That speaks a lot to me - and no, I am not about to air the dirty laundry of my relationship here simply to be sure that others cannot obtain satisfaction in gloating over the detail... By all means be happy over the feeling that you have broadcast your perfect (but often anonymous) relationship, but I'll be happy to live with the satisfaction of knowing that, however many flaws I may be carrying, there is as much honesty in acknowledging my imperfections as there is in your belief that you have eradicated them.

Katey x