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“I’m saying the world takes you at your word. Make sure the thing you’re telling them is what you want them to hear.”
If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them,’” he said as if reciting a quote. It only took me a second to realize that a quote was exactly right. “‘The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places.’”
Books were always trying to teach us that the power of love could overcome any hardship and that money didn’t buy happiness.
It was too quiet. Those kids were never quiet. Between the dog barking, the television playing at full volume, the occasional explosions that rocked the whole neighborhood, and always—always—the Frisbees whizzing into his quiet retreat, it was like living next to an active volcano.
He’d forgotten how it felt. To hold a book in your hands and know that everything would turn out okay in the end, to lose yourself in someone else’s story… That was a joy he hadn’t allowed himself to indulge in for a very long time.
In many ways, books were more alive than most of the people he knew. They were living, breathing entities that changed each time you picked them up.
He likes knowing how close he is to the things that make life brighter, and he likes being a few steps away from happiness. He also likes not ever actually getting there. It’s okay, because I understand. I understand a lot more than anyone thinks.
Because what happens if you reach the thing and you still aren’t happy? What happens if you try to do better, but no matter how much of yourself you put in, you’ll never be what the teachers and bosses and people in the grocery store want?
“Everyone’s heart breaks at least once in a lifetime,” she said, determined, as ever, to go her own way. “It’s as inevitable as falling in love. The real challenge is deciding what you plan to do about it.”
I wasn’t crying for myself so much as for all the things that had been given up in this place of shattered dreams and broken hearts. Catherine, walking away from the man she loved for the sake of both their futures. Jasper, spending sixty long years believing himself to be alone in the world. My mom, unable to find happiness in her own children. Me, trying desperately to find happiness in them for her.
