M. We've had a great few days together enjoying each other so much. Each of us so much playing toward the other's desires.
W. Yes. Indeed we are good friends now. I trust you. I wish we could continue to be friends.
M. If you trust me then we can have sex. Actually we ought to have sexual relations.
W. But then we could not be friends anymore. If you drive toward sex then we cannot be friends.
M. Why so? Friendship is just a matter of trust and loyalty. We got that. And you are interested in me, you enjoy me - so you got sexual desire for me. Trust with desire is the ideal condition for sexual relations. Why not?
W. Because I don't know if I am interested in you that way. And because I want love too. Will you love me?
N. She does not know if she desires him, but wants love nevertheless.
M. I don't know if I will love you.
W. If you love me I will be entirely open for you. I'll give you all of me - sexually and otherwise. I'll serve you.
M. But it is not all of you that attracts me, but something particular that terrifically impresses me in you.
W. What is it?
M. I am not sure. But it feels like something very alive that takes my breath away. I feel myself in you - that is why I want to have sex with you, to discover it.
N. He is vying for the chance to know the woman.
W. So I would be just material your desire molds at will. You degrade me!
M. No! Please... I think sex would give me a chance to love you. Really...
W. Oh! Really?...
N. Now we have the point of impasse. The woman wishes to be recognized and known in her entirety but the man cannot deliver that - at least cannot promise delivering. The man wants to find something ineffable that he feels is the essence of life. Woman seeks knowledge through love and man seeks life by producing knowledge.
W. Okay. I'll keep talking to you. What can you give me? What do you guarantee to have for me?
M. What do you want? O yes - you want love.
N. Love is knowledge of being. She is asking him to know her being. If he delivers then he can deliver for a number of other feminine beings.
M. I feel I'll give you love ... but cannot guarantee it.
W. Then why should I give you sex? For the mere chance of love?
M. Yes! For the chance of it! And it is not that small a chance given the strength of our attraction.
W. Silly optimist! I've had so much sex with guys without any love. I am not going there again without assurances.
M. Wait! You have had so much sex without seeking love. So it was not worthless. I suppose you got some love through sex.
W. Yes! No! But - not the whole thing! I want the whole thing - permanent and forever.
M. The whole thing is impossible. We are finite. We urgently want pieces of the whole thing. They, the pieces, are available while the whole thing is not.
N. The whole thing is death itself.
W. I can't accept that. I'd rather die...
M. ...stupidly destroying the life that is you.
N. Woman cannot decide between getting the whole love and reconstructing it from pieces as they would be coming in. Man is just offering to bring it on.
M. Fragments and pieces... I know where they are coming from and where they fit - usually I know...
W. Mere fragments and pieces - not enough to reach me...