For all that our culture holds them up as the grandest of things, freedom and love are terrifying. Having enough freedom is like having enough rope. When we can do whatever we please, we often do incredibly stupid things--nobody can tell us no! (And we know this. Instinctively, we seek someone to tell us what to do, whether a friend, an authority figure, or a centuries-old magical alien.) And love? The horror. Someone loving you for who you are means that now *you* have to find a way to be okay with who you are. (How? I'm not ready! I'm not--just look at me!) It's a bit like water and oxygen: They're tearing everything in the world apart, catastrophically or by slow, incremental violence, but man oh man--try to live without 'em, and see how far you get.