The obstacles to ‘Project Love’ are formidable. Chief among them is our obvious and nearly universal propensity to care for ourselves alone, or to care for others only if the benefit outweighs the cost. It may be too strong to say that we are wired for selfishness; but it is astounding how easy it is for us — upstanding sons and daughters, husbands and wives, workers and leaders- to turn into what Philip Roth has called ‘black holes of self-absorption’: manipulating, cheating, deceiving and exploiting others — and all with a clear conscience. That inner pull toward self-absorption and away from care for others is reinforced by a culture stripped of grace. In this market-driven and market-saturated world in which we live, it makes less and less sense to give — to impart even a tad bit more than we expect in return.
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