[Type R]

Some statements are true. Others are false. Then there's this vast "twilight zone" between the two.

In truth, many of the decisions that we make in life are imperfect. For various reasons.

Sometimes we don't want to make a decision, because all the options available to us are bad. For example, saving money vs spending. If you save, you will deny yourself certain benefits and maybe even necessities (how many Kenyans cut down on going to hospital?). But you will have money. If you spend, you may live a better life but you may go without savings for emergencies & even retirement.

Life is full of situations where neither right or wrong is clearly defined. To make things more complex, even the relative advantages/disadvantages of a decision are in continuous flux, such that a good idea yesterday may turn out to be an utter disaster today, but may still fix itself into not-so-bad by next week.

Example: Should the US have invaded and occupied Iraq? Is it possible to say "yes" or "no" to that, sincerely? At the time, the USA said yes!!! Now, they have changed their mind, and Hillary Clinton's vote for the war has been her liability, much as Obama's vote against has proven to be a major asset. But when you watch a documentary on Saddam's ruthless reign (gassing illiterate villagers who do not know what sulphur is), you're not so sure. Of course, it wasn't America's business but sometimes nations help each other out -- like Nyerere toppling Idi Amin (now we wish Mbeki would do the same to Mugabe).

This is not an irrelevant topic. Increasingly, multiple-choice exam questions are beginning to take on the nature of "tick the best two or three answers." Shucks!!! Whatever happened to "tick the correct answer"?????

Lawyers deal with this all the time. I think they call it the "relative weight of the argument" or "the preponderance of truth" something like that.

Even doctors make decisions based on inconclusive and sometimes contradictory information provided by patients, especially children, or poorly educated peasants.

Politics is similar in that you never exactly know what is right or wrong until you've done it, at which point it may be too late -- it's a nightmare trying to gauge the damage public mood: look at the so-called great politicians who have fallen.

The decision to get married is one of the truest occurrences of this mid-zone decisions. You think of your others positives and negatives, and you struggle with the paradoxes.

This post ends in a similar state of limbo, not asking anything....