Men vs. Women

George Steiner describes one of the five most inherent conflicts as being men versus women (the others being age vs. youth, the individual vs. society, the living vs. the dead, and man vs. the gods.) In my life these conflicts certainly seem to hold true. Lately I have had some interesting conversations with some members of the opposite sex. Most of these conversations are a little personal, which is why I won't detail what exactly was said. Basically they have included conversations between me and a former high school sweetheart, an old flame, a flame that never was, and a new flame. In each of these conversations there was conflict, some to a greater degree than others. My high school sweetheart is now pregnant and living with a guy but made the assumption the I wanted to get back together with her, the old flame basically told me that if I still wanted her that she would be mine, the flame that never was is now engaged but told me she missed me, and the new flame and I had a complete miscommunication that led to a rather unpleasant result (by the way, the only one that also lives in the same town as me is the flame that never was, go figure.) Sometimes it is strange how these things work considering that I had hardly spoken to any members of the opposite sex for a while and then all these things happened within a week or two. Regardless, the eternal and inherent conflict between the sexes became a very tangible reality to me over the past two weeks.