Sane Love

"Men and women kill each other because of love . . . isn't that a contradiction, Rev'n'?"
"No.  You see, there're different kinds of love, young man -- how old are you?"
"I'll be fourteen next month and I don't want no love that make somebody want to kill me or me kill somebody and end up on death row . . ."
"Well, you're a little young for me to get into agape, and to paraphrase a great poet '. . . you still have miles to go before you sleep . . .' so I'll just say that there's strange love and sane love, and we humans can sometimes be whimsical, untrustworthy, and flighty in our love for each other.  But what about love for country, would you fight for your country knowing you'll have to fight or be killed?"
"Of course."

"Now, that's hard-nosed love, no wiggle room there.  You and your country are threatened by an enemy, what would you do?"
"I'd kill'em before they can kill me."
"But what if you wanted to be President of the country, you couldn't think about just saving your life . . . you'd be responsible for the lives of millions of people in your country and in allied countries.  Could you treat with Heads of State of other countries, you having no experience in that business?  You go all over the country making speeches to convince people how hard-nosed and firm you'd be as President and millions of people jump to their feet applauding and cheering you, loving what you're saying.  But they vote for another candidate and you're perplexed, can't figure out what happened.  It was the mild-mannered, soft-spoken way you came across, even when speaking bluntly, that overrode all the toughness you tried to portray.  And the people accepted you with sane love."