Act like a grown-up, please.

First: Come Tuesday, it's very likely that Barack Obama will obtain more electoral votes than is necessary to be voted our next President. I don't like that fact. I will do what I can reasonably do to prevent that from occurring. But I have enough respect for scientific polls to believe that we had best prepare ourselves to:

---Get a grip. He's not the candidate I want, but if he is legally voted into office in good faith, there's no sense in whining about it afterward. I was most appalled by the opposition's response when W was elected. Dear Lord, what a passel of whiners. They haven't let up for eight stinkin' years. Don't snivel; it's self-demeaning.

---Come together. This is hard. I know that the guy we've tried (and will continue to keep trying, for the next three days) to keep out of office is hard to get behind, but once he's become our POTUS (perish the thought), we need to show him the respect of the office. Just as important, we need to hope he succeeds in making this country succeed. Think about that for a second. Do you hate B.O. so much, that you want him to fail as President of this nation? Because the ramifications are that our nation fails, too.

Fight the good fight. But in the event of failure, do NOT become someone who turns on his neighbor. This nation sees enough division.

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Next, I've noted that a couple of my friends are having some tough, tough times with their marriages. One thing that keeps rearing its head in these deals is how immature parties in the marriages might act. (I'm not going to blame a gender, because that's specious.)

Come to think of it, it's more than just a couple of friends having problems. Not the we're-having-a-spat-and-we've-even-had-to-sleep-in-different-beds-problems, but the Divorce Is Looming kind of problems. And I've noticed some trends:

--You're not in constant bliss? You're not sure that you're In Love with your spouse, anymore? Okay. Work through it. Constant happiness was NOT guaranteed. Let me say that again: You are NOT guaranteed happiness, all the time. Are you compatible? Can you work together? Do you trust and respect each other? Good enough, most of the time.

--Do you want to succeed? This is like my second point on the election issue. If you are willing to throw in the towel rather than work to save the marriage, and perhaps make some concessions along he way, you're acting like a spoiled child.

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Yeah, you heard me. I said it.

Grow the hell up, people.