Love Or Liberation

Chapter 12

They were in another diner for a late afternoon meal after having seen The Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. They took off their coats and sat in a booth. They didn't see a waitress.

Elaine asked, "Why did we have to see that instead of Dr. Zhivago?"

Jack answered, "Dr. Zhivago is about an adulterous affair. The Taming of the Shrew was written by Shakespeare."

"Are you trying to say this was wholesome?" Elaine had been meeting with Donna and other Barnard students and discussing women's issues. She was becoming very sensitive to insults to women and to not being treated as a full human being.

"It was good comedy."

"I was personally offended by it."

"You can't argue with Shakespeare."

"It suggests that women's minds and intellects aren't important and that women should completely submit to their husbands. Women in Shakespeare's time had no rights, except of course, Queen Elizabeth."

"It was for entertainment. You shouldn't take it so seriously."

The waitress appeared with a pad and pen. "What would you like to order?"

Jack ordered a cheeseburger deluxe and a chocolate milkshake, like always. Elaine ordered a tuna salad sandwich and a soda.

After the waitress took their order and left them alone again, Elaine said, "So are you saying that you liked the movie, but don't think women should be completely submissive intellectually?"

"I guess so. I hadn't thought about it much. I just enjoyed the movie. Didn't you like the costumes, anyway?"

"It wasn't your intellect that was insulted. It didn't matter how they dressed the actors."

"I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the movie. I thought you had a better sense of humor."

Elaine thought to herself, "This isn't going well." She had wanted to show Jack the Port Huron Statement, the founding document of the national SDS. It meant a lot to her. Now she wondered if anything she might think would matter to Jack. She had thought he was attracted to her intelligence.

She said, "I do have a sense of humor, but that movie was in bad taste."

"Don't Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton make a beautiful couple?"

"They are attractive people, but that relationship was sick."

"Are you sure you don't identify with Elizabeth Taylor's character?"

"If that is what you think, we have nothing else to talk about."

Elaine got up to go and started putting her coat on.

"Oh, no, don't take it like that."

"How else am I to take it?"

"I was only teasing. You have a pleasant demeanor. You just have some ideas that are, well, strong."

"Yes, I have a few strong opinions. That is human. That is a healthy human."

"Well, I'm sorry I offended you. I meant no disrespect. Please sit back down with me. We could have a nice lunch."

Elaine took her coat back off. She said, "I hope I don't regret not leaving now."

"What's to regret? We don't have to agree on everything to get along together, don't you think?"

Elaine sat back down. "I don't know. I identify with my mind and intellect, and what that movie showed goes against my whole being."

"Let's forget the movie, why don't we? I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it. I thought Shakespeare would be above reproach. I was wrong."

The waitress came back with Jack's milkshake and Elaine's soda. Neither of them reached for their drinks.

Jack said, "Besides, we already placed our orders. That suggests a commitment to having lunch. Why don't we just talk about something different."

"I don't know if placing our order is a good reason to go through with the lunch, but okay, changing the subject sounds like a good idea to me."

Jack asked, "How have your classes been going?"

"My classes have been going well. I'm learning a lot, but the whole university has been brought into question for me."

Jack asked, "How is that?"

"I went to an SDS meeting."

"Oh, not that! They're hooligans. Several of them got arrested Tuesday night for causing a disturbance. They do nothing but stir up trouble."

"But the Vietnam War is a real problem that needs to be solved. It has to end. The war isn't right."

"I don't know about that, but if so, how does that bring the university into question?"

"The university is supported by defense and foreign affairs contracts with the government. Close to half the budget comes from such contracts."

"What do you care where the budget of the university comes from? You make it sound like Columbia might lose its accreditation, and that isn't the case."

"It brings to question the university's role in society."

"How is that?"

Elaine reached into her purse, pulled out some paper.

"I have the Port Huron Statement here, the founding document of SDS. Listen: 'We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit...'

Jack interrupted, "I don't want to hear what they have to say. They are criminals. They do nothing but disrupt the peace."

Elaine said, "They have legitimate concerns!"

She got up again and put her coat back on. This time Jack didn't tell her to sit down. The waitress came back with their food.

Jack said to the waitress, "Maybe you could wrap that up to go. Put them in separate bags."

To Elaine he said, "I know we don't see eye to eye, but I'll accompany you back to the Barnard campus, and the tuna sandwich is yours."

Elaine was upset, but waited as Jack suggested while the waitress wrapped the food and took Jack's payment. Jack gave the bag with the tuna sandwich in it to Elaine. He put on his own coat. As they walked back to the subway, he put his arm around Elaine's shoulders again. She didn't know why it felt so right to be with him when he put his arm around her, but it did. She wondered if it was over between them, and was mad at herself for not wanting to be over.