Philosophical Question of the Day

"At the deepest of levels, is the parent caring for the ill or troubled child or the couple pledging mutual affection and support till death do them part going with the grain of the universe or acting in defiance of it? Is such love a flame that somehow begins and ends in a larger fire? Or is it a brief, bold flair that will ultimately be snuffed out in the darkness?"

--Peter Steinfels, from the New York Times, on Pope Benedict's recent encyclical on love as "primordial cosmic force."