Chelsea

“And this you can know—fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe.”
― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

“Noah asked, “What you two fellas talkin’ about?” Tom and Al went silent, each waiting for the other. “You tell ‘em,” Al said finally. “Well, maybe it’s no good, an’ maybe it ain’t the same thing Al’s thinking. Here she is, anyways. We got a overload, but Mr. and Mis’ Wilson ain’t. If some of us folks could ride with them an’ take some a their light stuff in the truck, we wouldn’t break no springs an’ we could git up hills. An’ me an’ Al both knows about a car, so we could keep that car a-rollin’. We’d keep together on the road an’ it’d be good for ever’body.”
― John Steinbeck, THE GRAPES OF WRATH

“Love is also, and equally, about weakness, about being touched by another’s fragilities and sorrows, especially when—as happens in the early days—we ourselves are in no danger of being held responsible for them. Seeing our lover despondent and in crisis, in tears and unable to cope, can reassure us that, for all their virtues, they are not alienatingly invincible. They, too, are at points confused and at sea, a realization which lends us a new supportive role, reduces our sense of shame about our own inadequacies, and draws us closer to them around a shared experience of pain.”
― Alain de Botton, The Course of Love