Monogamy

"It is not merely the exercise of the common virtues that marks the High Monogamist but rather a sort of towering, vertiginous daring. For this state requires that we look directly and unflinchingly at our every weakness and flaw, straight down through layer after layer of cowardice and self-deception to the very heart of our intentionality. 

And in High Monogamy we are forced, as well, to confront something even more terrifying: our beauty and magnificence, our potential to love and create and feel deeply. We are forced to acknowledge the daily, hourly, moment-by-moment waste of that potential. And when we achieve the unnerving clarity that High Monogamy demands, we must either beat a fast retreat or undertake to transform ourselves.

(...)

After superficial erotic novelty has faded, after ego has had its full run (all the life stories told, all the sexual tricks displayed), then the adventure of transformation and a deeper eroticism can begin. But it is precisely at this point that most of us are likely to lose our nerve and leap into another bed, where we can once again tell our stories, display our tricks, do anything rather than see ourselves clearly and start doing something about it.

(...)

High Monogamy, merciless in its presentation of self-knowledge, demands that we change, that we have the courage to lead an essentially unpredictable life.

(...)

Life's feast is available only to those who are willing and able to engage life on a deeply personal level, giving all, holding back nothing."

(by George Leonard in his essay 'The End of Sex' in the magazine Esquire, who, after these lines, states his awareness that this ideal of 'High Monogamy' is exactly that - an ideal - that he is very thankful for the sexual revolution and that there is no guarantee in love)