"Why do you ask me, Peter? You are the professional in diplomacy."

      "I am asking you, because you are the living representative of the quality of grace in Moscow. Everything about you adds up to a rare spark of light that gives a bright new meaning to the concept of grace. If the imperials knew you, you would be in trouble." I raised my finger at her.

      Anton blushed for a moment. She didn't answer right away. Then she cautioned me not to be too optimistic. "The American gift to the world in Venice has been an honest one," she said. "I think that it was. Except that's not the way it was presented in our press. Of course your Ice Age Renaissance proposal wasn't mentioned at all. This means that the response you may have hoped for hadn't been forthcoming and might not be forthcoming here either."

      She spoke in a sad tone of voice now. "In any case, you're still a hero to me for having tried to save humanity from a terrible fate, and from a fate that may be worse if we keep on going as we are. Far too few people are willing to stick their neck out if their own life hangs in the balance. There are too few heroes left in the world that are willing to have their life count for something. Too many people are stupid, Peter. They put themselves asleep with their house being on fire. That's the kind of stupidity that we are trying to overturn at the conference, and yet, nobody will likely hear us. Our conference is an experiment, Peter. Are you willing to be daring, even if the odds are stacked against you? Do you have the grace to stand up for the truth, even if you know that you would likely fail? What we are trying to accomplish with this conference has never been attempted before. We have no real agenda and no real limits. We will most likely fail therefore, but we said to ourselves that we must try. We also knew that we must do this honestly. That's our goal."

      "That's grace," I said instantly and laughed. "You confirmed yourself that I was right in calling you an ambassador of grace and its patron saint. You are struggling to be a human being. You are fighting for a new renaissance in the world like Steve and I had done in Venice. A renaissance, Anton, is an expression of grace. The question that I should ask you, is, are you willing to stick your neck out and become a hero yourself?"

      She shook her head. "I am a coward when it comes to dangerous situations."

      "What if there were no dangers involved, Anton?"

      "There are always dangers involved in politics, Peter.

      "That's true, Anton, except for the kind of politics that can change the world. These kinds of politics are absolutely safe, especially when you win. And they are also most wonderfully pleasant, enriching, and uplifting."

      "And what might this be, Peter?"

      "That's the kind of politics that has been proven to work throughout history," I replied. "I am talking about the politics based on the Principle of Universal Love. That's the principle that every renaissance in history has represented to some degree. Those renaissance periods have all been periods of grace and peace built on universal love."

      "Now you are back into utopian dreaming again," said Anton and laughed.

      "No I am not dreaming," I countered her. "The people of the renaissance were dreaming. They had created a citadel of grace in the larger sphere of national politics, and to some degree in culture and art and science, but every renaissance in history collapsed. Some only lasted for a hundred years, but they all ended. I think they ended, because they were hollow inside. The grace that they were built on hadn't been brought down to the grassroots social level. The renaissance didn't reach that far. I think the Principle of Universal Love that stands behind any renaissance has so far been too challenging to be implemented on the social grassroots level. Too many myths stand in the way, and too little grace is found there."

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Stories about  Sex from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche