the breaking point

I was talking to my daughter the other day and she asked me how I kept my shit together (only she didn’t say “shit” because she still respects me as an authority figure not to swear in front of me). And I paused, pondered, and decided to burden her with my rather bleak outlook on life: I told her that I’d made the deliberate decision to surrender emotion.

Now, don’t get me wrong; I’m not admitting to being a sociopath. All I’m saying is that there comes a certain point in life when caring too...