The River We Remember

by William Kent Krueger

A man made his own choices for his own reasons, and unless any of those choices put him in opposition to you, you simply let them be.

“In the end, a soldier kills because all the circumstances of a moment drive him to it. It isn’t for freedom or God or for the people back home. It’s because he has no choice but to kill. And in that moment, he’s not thinking of it as a good thing or a bad thing. He’s not thinking about ethics. He’s thinking about keeping himself alive and keeping his comrades alive. And in all that mess, the only thing he wants is for it to end and for him to be alive to see that end.”

They were Midwesterners in the courtroom, stolid folks normally about as emotional as tools hanging in a garden shed,

More than anything else, we’re made of mistakes. But you know what? We always have a second chance.”

Finally, she wrote: The most frightening thing we do in our lives is to love.

“I love you,” he said. And all the tears he could not cry were in those three words. “Still?” she asked. “Forever.” “You see,” she said. “We are not ruined.”

We all die, but some of us—those who are blessed or maybe just lucky—have the opportunity before that end to be redeemed. We can let go, forgive others, and also forgive ourselves for the worst of what we are or have been.