There is this passage in the poet Byron’s Don Juan that has always impressed me as one of the keenest observations concerning women to be found in literature: “Man’s love is of his life a thing apart,/’Tis woman’s whole existence” (Canto I, 194). In my thinking, most men lack women’s capacity to love fully. I write this knowing the tendency of stereotype to overlook exceptions, … Continue reading Women are better lovers
Like many of you, I follow the news, only to come away frequently dismayed. For all our pretense to rationality, people often seem governed more by passion than reason. History strikes me as repeated scenarios of human excess, or what Freud astutely called manifestations of the Id, or pleasure principle. I like to think of this inchoate anomaly as the Child within. There are pretty … Continue reading How fear erodes love
Recently one of America’s favorite singers, Rihanna, reconciled with her on and off again boyfriend, Chris Brown. You’ll remember he had beaten her up several months earlier. In a similar vein, about a year ago I got to know a girl in her early twenties who complained of her uneasy, abusive relationship with her boyfriend. While she didn’t tell us of any violence, she made … Continue reading Love as a many splendored thing
