“他丟下我找了個(gè)年輕的模特兒?！币粋€(gè)中年已婚婦女哼道，她一直極力避免在婚姻的早期便經(jīng)歷由于摩擦和瑣事而致的激情退卻，而揭開面紗以后才發(fā)現(xiàn)自己的婚姻如此空洞。

說不出任何不滿的理由的一方，常常是安于現(xiàn)狀、安于婚姻關(guān)系和雙方利益的人。但漸漸地，他/她突然發(fā)現(xiàn)，另外一半，在經(jīng)歷了多年的安逸生活以后，卻在力圖尋找自由。

看起來，任何情感的、身體的吸引或是常識(shí)都是靠不住的，都不能成為兩個(gè)人在一起的充足保障。那么，什么才是讓兩個(gè)人牽手一生的力量呢？是不朽的愛情嗎？有這么一回事兒?jiǎn)?？還是愛原本有其他的作用和功能？

在終了，所有都可歸結(jié)為價(jià)值。只有當(dāng)兩個(gè)同樣投入的人分享著同樣的價(jià)值觀念的時(shí)候，關(guān)系才能堅(jiān)固而持久。

When a man and a woman are drawn together, the attraction, I believe, is always sexual. Whether firing instantly, flaring bright, or taking its time, smouldering in secret, flickering, rekindling, before burning itself out.

The theory of love at first sight is appealing, but really, there is no such thing. Love comes later, an afterthought, once desires are sated, needs overcome, wishes fulfilled.

Sex is instinctive, possessive, commanding: a force to be reckon-ed with, dangerous when unleashed. Since we never know where it will take us, it needs to be handled with care.

Love, on the other hand, is never a threat. It is deliberate, fashioned by choices, generous to a fault; happy to put the other person’s interests ahead of its own.

If sex is the ultimate in self-expression, love is the opposite: an on-going challenge to vanquish the self. A formidable task, much against the grain of human nature.

Our ability to love is constantly tested, as we are faced with hurdles that call for mutual negotiation. If we succeed in clearing them, the result will be a deeper attachment, greater affection, a closer bond.

Conversely, no relationship, however passionate, will survive if love is lacking. Without love we fall at the first fence.

Proponents of the 1960s sexual revolution had a noble aim in mind: to liberate us all from the age-old tyranny of insipid morality, religious condemnation, secrecy and shame, repression, guilt and inhibition.

Love was the new currency, intimacy a birthright, to be enjoyed along with carnal pleasures and made freely available as a healthy, natural means of expression.

Loneliness would be a thing of the past, every type of relationship respected; physical and emotional fulfilment available to all, with no fear of disapproval or exclusion.

Little did these humanitarians anticipate that, before long, their idealistic concept would be hi-jacked by commercial interests and used for crass material ends with no regard for any values other than financial.

Today, sex is a prime marketing tool exceeding all others. From all directions it is forced on to an unsuspecting public, sparing no one, not even little children, from the delusion that nothing but your sexuality gives you a place in the world.

How can anybody be expected to withstand this onslaught, brain-washed as we are to accept as the real thing casual couplings or mindless drunken encounters; and to live with the consequences of increased violence against women,more sexually transmitted diseases, children who should never have been born, abuse, confusion and deviation, not to mention emotions laid waste 

Good-bye intimacy. Hello loneliness.

In the days when marriage was the only accepted arrangement for living together ? or even sharing a bed ?you went to the altar without asking why. (Unless, that is, a baby was on the way.)