ABSTRACT
A love relationship is a thing with a history, and the consciousness of loving and of being in love are pervasively temporal phenomena, directed in large part toward that history. The behavior, desires, and feelings of lovers simply cannot be understood if people neglect, or misunderstand, its temporal nature. The idea of a love relationship’s “having a future” combines an inherently conservative thought with an inherently progressive thought. The conservative thought is that the parties will continue as participants in the current relationship; thus, in this respect, the future will resemble the past. The progressive thought is that in other respects, the future should not resemble the past: although the relationship will persist, the parties will change how they relate to one another in various ways, altering their lives and, to some degree, their very selves, not only to accommodate themselves to their partners but also to permit the relationship to pass through the expected stages.
