"I've grown so accustomed to mourning that funerals are rituals to me much like Christmas and Easter," says the narrator, Maceo Redfield, a neighborhood youth torn by his warring affections and conflicting allegiances to his do-right family and his high-flier friends.
While no deeper than they need to be, the secondary characters -- who include two nitwit relatives of Sonny's, two feisty women with conflicting claims on Ray's affections and an elderly farmer who takes Ray in and treats him like a good horse that needs mending -- are drawn in sharp, vivid strokes.
Thus, confronted with conflicting evidence about whether your affection is reciprocated you are far less likely to suspend judgement than to oscillate between full belief and full disbelief.
There, they meet Marsh, a young British journalist covering the conflict, whose affection for Anthony takes the form of brutal proddings.
A company directed by Judith Fugate and Medhi Bahiri that was formerly known as Dance Galaxy, opens its new year with a new name and the world premiere of Thaddeus Davis's "Vivaldian Chat," a study of conflicts between affection and power.
"The survivor may feel enormous shame, conflicts of affection and loyalty, or may feel pressure to 'forgive and forget' -- especially when the perpetrator is a minister, priest, rabbi, or counselor who the survivor has held in awe and for whom he/she still feels strong ties of affection or obedience," she told me.
One of the gang members, Thomas Kent (Gustav Diesel), is conflicted between his criminal work, which he needs to do for money, and his affection for a young woman named Lilli (Wera Liessem).
Drabble's intensely conflicted feelings about her own mother -- which, on the evidence of this book, lean more toward hostility than affection -- ripple throughout "The Peppered Moth".
As Mr. Simon's plays often do, it presents, with affection, the conflicts of close-knit people, people who essentially love one another, as they come to cross purposes.
Back up co-parenting doesn't have to be quick sand or breeding grounds for co-dependency, competition for affection or conflict.
It improved the relationship quality of couples in which both members were African American, leading to more support and affection, better conflict management, increased fidelity, and reductions in intimate partner violence.
