Mark Phillips' Pages: Workbook: 1/8/11: I'm coming to believe that metabolism played a big part in our incompatibility.

Jacob Lawrence, "The Lovers," 1946 — Jacob Lawrence, *The Lovers* (1946)

January 8, 2011:

I'm coming to believe that metabolism played a big part in our incompatibility.

She'd drink and fall asleep; I'd drink and stay up. My journals are full of complaints that she wanted to make love only once a night. She wanted to get up in the morning, I wanted to sleep till three.

That and my learning disability. She'd read the chapter and want to socialize. I'd be one quarter done and needed to read the whole thing twice more to feel comfortable. She frequently complained that I was unsociable but I could barely keep up in school.

We weren't experienced or skilled enough to think in these terms. We interpreted these conflicts as willful: stubbornness, selfishness, lack of consideration. This is all wrong. We were just different.

These differences doomed us from day one. Love isn't enough. I understand this better now.