Kind of a rough topic. All of the serious replies from the women basically include a guy giving her his entire heart, soul, and attention. This seems hard to me because I feel that it is extremely important for me to receive all of these. You say that there can be "mutual giving"? Well in my last relationship, I gave all of this and was basically thrown out because she thought I was desperate (she never said this, but it's what I have put together). I gave her my my love and attention that many you say is important to receive, and instead of cherishing what I gave her, she chose to suck it all in, dominate me for a while, then spit me out and move on as if she never knew me.And no, I never gave any love away because of desperation. I 'm a very caring person in general and love to tuck my lover into bed and make sure I let her know that I care for her, but I call some of you hipocrates (sp) because while some of you do "want" and "need" this kind of attention, most of you don't know how to handle it and seem to let the potential for taking the upper hand get to your heads....
I remain close friends with my ex girlfriend, however sometimes I think the fact that she keeps me around stregnthens my arguement; She knows that I truly love her and still has lots of love for me, but she's young and sometimes looks at me as "been there, done that". I understand this behavior and would love for her to date around so she can grow even more even if she still loves me as a lover, however I recomend to most guys to be extremely cautious in giving away their heart, even if it's mutual for the time being... you never know what she might chose to do with it.