I Hope I Get Married

Firemen Don't Talk About Whether A Burning Warehouse Is Worth Saving.

The Most Profound Question Is, "what Would I Risk Dying For?" The Natural Answer Is "for My Family." But For Most Of History, We Didn't Live In Families. We Lived In Small Communities That Gave Us Our Sense Of Safety And Place In The World, So The Natural Answer Would Be "for My People." The Blessing And The Tragedy Of Modern Life Is That We Don't Need Our Community To Survive Anymore. When We Lose That Idea, We Lose A Sense Of Who We Are.

All Journalists Hope That Their Work Will Inspire A Broader Conversation. I Think That's Just What Journalism Is.

One Interesting Thing I Found Was That If You Take An Affluent Modern Society And Collapse It During A Crisis, Like A War Or A Natural Disaster, People Begin Relating In A More Ancient, Organic Way. They're Functioning In Small Interdependent Groups And Putting Others First. And Another Irony Is That Even In Terrible Times, Cooperating Makes People Feel Good.

I Had Grown Up During Vietnam. I Had No Connections To The U.s. Military, And I Had A Pretty Cynical Default Opinion About The U.s. Military.