Sacrifice is the law. Does not every creature, each bug, blade of grass, or gazelle — taken in as food by the one who consumes it — say, as it’s being swallowed: “Here I am; take me. I give myself up to you, so that you may flourish”?

All creatures speak thus in their life and death, none may say otherwise; it’s nature; it’s law.

Even the sun sends down its light to be consumed and transformed, content to give itself up — to shine upon “good and evil” alike — so that a relatively timeless genesis goes on. This is love in action, seamless and selfless.

It may be said that free will amounts to this: it is our choice — as beings somewhere between matter and immortality — as to whether we live to give ourselves up to this greater law… or choose, instead, to serve a sense of self that is as temporary as the passing desires that drive it along.