Settling

This post has been a fair few days in coming. Several conversations with various people have given rise to it. The major chat which prompted it was with an older friend, who was telling me about her friend's bitter, acrimonious, protracted and messy painful divorce. It was further solidified by seeing my ex ex.  
So the theme today is settling. Not settling down, but settling for second best, because silver is better than singledom.  In every sense. This is a common theme in so many senses.  How many people have dated someone who they knew wasn't good enough because they prefer that to being alone? How many people are unhappy in relationships where one or both parties have been content, or willing, to accept less than the best? The enduring concept of 'out of my league' is testament to this idea. In addition to this, an episode of sex and the city in which a minor character, at her wedding reception, whispers to Carrie that she should marry someone who loves her more than she loves them, just highlights this.  There is also a rather poignant scene in eat pray love in which the idea of being miserable together being better than being alone is used as a reason to remain in an unhappy relationship. 
Yes I know it is fiction, but as I say, how many of us have been with someone we don't truly love / know we will not grow to love because it is preferable to the alternative? 
I know no-one is perfect. This is something I am acutely aware of. I don't subscribe to the idea of perfection or a knight on a White horse.  But surely there has to be a reasonable area between the two where you can be in love but not seeking perfection?