The best defenses against the terrors of existences are the homely comforts of love, work, and family life, which connect us to a world that is independent of our wishes yet responsive to our needs…. Love and work enable each of us to explore a small corner of the world and to come to accept it on its own terms. But our society tends either to devalue small comforts or else to expect too much of them. Our standards of “creative, meaningful work” are too exalted to survive disappointment. Our ideal of “true romance” puts an impossible burden on personal relationships. We demand too much of life, too little of ourselves.