"Why do you think I want you for my wife?...Because you're some kind of baby factory? What kind of man do you think I am? I love you, not your procreating ability. So we have a problem. Well, we'll learn to deal with it, on eway or another."
The above lines are Kai's response after learning that the one he loves is unable to bear children. Faye, his love, continues, quite forcefully, to deny him marriage and a life of love with her. Still Kai responds,
"Don't you know? Don't you see? I don't have a choice. I never did have a choice, or a chance. Not since I met you and fell in love with you. I don't want anybody else, don't you understand that? I want you, only you."
..."Look at me, Faye. No other woman can give me what you can - yourself, your love, your warmth, your sense of humour. All the facets of your personality that make up the final you. I've known other women, Faye, but none of them have ever stirred in me any feelings that come close to what I feel for you. You're an original, remember? There's no replacement for an original. There are only copies, and I don't want a copy. To me you're special, and you'll have to believe it, take it on faith. That's what love is all about."
The entire selection is drawn from the tenth chapter of Karen van der Zee's novel A Secret Sorrow. In the selection there are different points of interest. Kai begins by underscoring the fact that he loves her and not her baby producing abilities. Then he observes that his love for her was, in a way, irresistible. He had no choice (or chance). Neither did he want a choice or chance, actually he was quite willing to surrender himself for this love - he wanted to love her. Then, in the final paragraph of our selection, he observes that she is not only irresistible. She is also, which is more important, also irreplaceable. He then tries to pinpoint those things about her that make him love her or draw him to her. He concludes by saying that it is the combination of all the facets of her personality. In other words, it's her. There is nothing in particular attractive about her for him, but rather she is wholly attractive to him. Then he closes the paragraph stating an omniscience on what love is really "all about."
I've come to notice again and again that true love does not focus on any particular facet or quality but rather loves wholly. This is true love because in this love inevitably the faults of the one beloved must be included, as are, of course, their virtues. It is easy, perhaps necessary, though, to observe those qualities and facets which are most forceful in the crossfire of attraction.
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