A girl does not treat a possible lover with unvarying simplicity and directness. In all its phases, love is complex; friendship is not.

When Lincoln was asked if God was on the Union's side, Lincoln's unvarying response was that what was really important was whether they were on God's side.

The nature of catastrophe is after all reasonably unvarying in the way it ruins destroys wounds and devastates. But if something can be learned from the event - not least something as profound as the theory of plate tectonics - then it somehow puts the ruination into a much more positive light.