Case and the Dreamer

Case and the Dreamer was written by Theodore Sturgeon and was originally published in 1972.  It's kind of a SciFi love story with a pinch of Jesus themes (resurrection, love) and a touch of Castaway, as in the Tom Hanks movie where he learns to catch fish, climb hills, and create schemes to escape, but on a hostile planet 1000 years in the vague and sad future where humanity has evolved into something "else":

     So Case looked on Earth as a contemporary, ten centuries past his death, and wagged his head slowly.  "It shouldn't have come to this."
      "It had to.  It was that or die," said the blue man; and Case thought a bit and saw that it was so.

     "You see, Case, primitive as you may seem to some of us, you have a quality which we lack and admire--a willingness to go out, to do, to explore and discover and find, actually and physically, and not in theory or in extrapolation or imagination... "

At 60 pages, Case and the Dreamer is a real gem of a story about what love does:  "Frees the slaves.  Damns the consequences," and what is truly important, "finding meaning, making memories." 

Oh, and what is the 2nd most precious and rare thing on Earth 1000 years from now?  Privacy!