Can you love something or someone forever?

I used to be madly in love with Moscow, my home city. With Russia too. Now there is emptiness and fear. I will never be back.

I started my career in investment banking (Morgan Stanley!) and I loved my job. Now it feels trivial at best. Now I look back and realize how much bullshit there was in the “advice” we gave our clients.

My parents were together for twenty years and then they broke up in the ugliest of ways. My Mom passionately loved my Dad but it all ended up in anguish and hatred.

So I sometimes ask myself, with fear: what if all “loves” end?

I’ve been with my wife for over twenty years. We experienced true love, no doubt and we’re together after many years. We’ve been through many struggles. Will our love last? I hope so, but I don’t take our long-lasting union for granted. I worry sometimes.

I love California! No matter where I travel, I have special feelings for California. But will they last? Or will one day look back at California the way I look back at my investment bank years?

I love America! Yes, I do. I know America’s problems and struggles, but I’ve not experienced a place as free, vast, and entrepreneurial as America. Will my love for America last or will I get fatigued of the country? Will I find a cozier place and think back of America as a place too wild, too violent, too cruel?

I love my kids.