am prone to that human—but inhumane—failing of defining and categorizing people according to our interpretation of their behaviors. Our ideas and feelings about a person congeal around our limited experience of them, and around our judgments. In my eyes, Serena was reduced to an addict who inconvenienced me by wanting more drugs. I didn’t perceive that she was a human being suffering unimaginable pain, soothing it, easing it in the only way she knew how.
