Opening page…
What do you know about someone you love that you could never prove?
Intimacy can produce knowledge that is difficult to make available to an outsider.
Your answer
A little context
You know your father is frightened, though he is joking with the nurses. You know a friend has decided to leave their marriage, months before they say so. If anyone asked how you know, you could point to nothing a stranger would accept.
Nearby questions
- Can you choose who you love?Falling in love sounds like something that happens to you. Staying in love sounds like a decision. Arranged marriages bet on the second.
- Is anything unforgivable?Some people forgive a murderer in court. Others never forgive a friend who insists they did nothing wrong.
- Can you love someone you don't respect?Care, admiration and respect usually travel together. Sometimes you are left with only the first.
- Should you put your own people first?You can save someone you love or five strangers, but not both. Almost everyone would save their own; impartial arithmetic says five is more than one.
- If someone you love committed a serious crime, would you turn them in?The Duke of She boasted that in his country a son would testify against a father who stole a sheep. Confucius answered that where he came from, fathers cover for sons and sons for fathers, and that this is what uprightness looks like.
