Though all humans need both intimacy and independence, women tend to focus on the first and men on the second. It is as if their lifeblood ran in different directions.

Our daily existence requires both closeness and distance, the wholeness of self, the wholeness of intimacy.

Hillary lies sleepless in her bed. It's spooky in here, she thinks, and she turns on the ceiling light to supplement the night light. Jonathon whickers in his sleep, and reminds her of his guinea pig.