"That is, we seem to expect too much from other people, we tend to tell people things about us they haven't earned the right to know, and when people dissapoint us over things that to others just seem so common, we dismiss our friendships with them or tell them off in a way that seems extreme to them."
Greg - this is exactly what I am dealing with right now... & it is difficult, also as an answer to a later posed question. I think part of my "compulsion" (or not) to spill my guts up front (or early on) was to see if the person was going to run away or not... I also have no allusions about myself I am a very difficult person to live with... just ask my two x's... But in all seriousness I like the idea that Stripe proposes about finding someone who doesn't mind the baggage rather than not having any...
I am a hopeless romantic and I will not give up