From Apocalypse, one of nine stories in Resistance by Barry Lopez

“And here is nearly the bitterest of blunt issues for us: What can love offer that cannot be rejected? What gesture cannot be maligned as witless by those who strive for every form of isolation? When we were young, each of us believed that to love was to die. Then we believed that to love was essential. Now we believe that without love our homeland – perhaps all countries – will perish. Over the years, as we have learned what it might mean to love, we have generally agreed that we’ve better understood the risks. In our nation, it is acceptable to resent love as an interference with personal liberty, as a ruse the emotions employ before the battlements of reason. It is the abused in our country who most weirdly profess love. For the ordinary person, love is increasingly elusive, imagined as a strategy.”