And so The Snow Queen also became a story about the need to seek equilibrium, in our own lives, with the natural world, even within the universe at large.

It doesn't matter. I'm not asking forever of you...just let me love you now.

Life scars us with its random motion, he thought. Only death is perfect.

Humans may be the only creatures on Earth who spend significant time thinking about the fact that someday their lives will end.

Humans are upsetting a fragile balance that their own human ancestors established.

But what force in the galaxy is stronger than she is?" "Indifference." Jerusha surprised herself with the answer. "Indifference, Gundhalinu, is the strongest force in the universe. It makes everything it touches meaningless. Love and hate don't stand a chance against it. It lets neglect and decay and monstrous injustice go unchecked. It doesn't act, it allows. And that's what gives it so much power.

Studying anthropology, I developed a kind of holistic view of human existence, in which the dichotomies you listed are all necessary and vital aspects of life.