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“Love can only be found through the act of loving.”
― By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
― By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
“Wait. This was the first lesson I had learned about love. The day drags along, you make thousands of plans, you imagine every possible conversation, you promise to change your behavior in certain ways -- and you feel more and more anxious until your loved one arrives. But by then, you don't know what to say. The hours of waiting have been transformed into tension, the tension has become fear, and the fear makes you embarrassed about showing affection.”
― By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
― By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
“People who knew me and sympathized with me were determined to set me up with the other people they sympathized with and were always surprised when I would turn down their offer of what they thought of as romantic charity. “What’s the harm?” they would ask me, truly surprised. The harm, besides those hours that actually do matter when you barely have one night off every couple of weeks, is the little mark you get on you every time you open up a door to a hope and then close it fast in disappointment. It leaves a nick, or a dent, and those nicks and dents are not invisible. I used to see them all the time.”
― One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories
― One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories
“I can’t even handle love, there’s no way I can handle it being taken away. I won’t survive it. Please. Please. Please!”
I said that I had something to say to her, which made her listen in a way that she didn’t when I simply said things without the preface. Even though the preface meant nothing, it calmed her, just as it calmed real people, for the same no-reason.
I told her what people tell people. That this was what it felt like when love was taken away—but that it wasn’t the truth, it was just a feeling. It would pass. It would take time.
She would recharge.
She didn’t believe me.
No one ever believes it, I said. That’s part of what the feeling is.”
― One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories
I said that I had something to say to her, which made her listen in a way that she didn’t when I simply said things without the preface. Even though the preface meant nothing, it calmed her, just as it calmed real people, for the same no-reason.
I told her what people tell people. That this was what it felt like when love was taken away—but that it wasn’t the truth, it was just a feeling. It would pass. It would take time.
She would recharge.
She didn’t believe me.
No one ever believes it, I said. That’s part of what the feeling is.”
― One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories
“In my opinion, there are two types of perfect. The first is the type that seems so obvious and intuitive to you and everyone else that in a perfect world it would simply be considered standard; but, in reality, in our flawed world, what should be considered standard is actually so rare that it has to be elevated to the level of “perfect.” This is the type of perfect that makes you and most other people think, “Why isn’t everything like this? Why is it so hard to find …” a black V-neck cotton sweater, or a casual non-chain restaurant with comfortable booths, etc.—“that is just exactly the way everyone knows something like this should be?” “Perfect,” we all say with relief when we finally find something like this that is exactly as it should be. “Perfect. Why was this so hard to find?”
The other type of perfect is the type you never could have expected and then could never replicate.”
― One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories
The other type of perfect is the type you never could have expected and then could never replicate.”
― One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories
Shirley’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Shirley’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
1,047 books
|
74 friends
922 books
|
122 friends
1,614 books
|
80 friends
662 books
|
246 friends
324 books
|
115 friends
85 books
|
27 friends
58 books
|
43 friends
0 books
|
312 friends
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