A Fraction Of The Whole

by Steve Toltz

‘Never meet people at 7:45 or 6:30, Jasper, but pick times like 7:12 and 8:03!’

We all crawl feebly away from our grandparents’ graves with their sad act of dying ringing in our ears, and in our mouths we have the aftertaste of their grossest violation against themselves: the shame of their unlived lives. It’s only the steady accumulation of regrets and failures and our shame or our unlived lives that opens the door to understanding them.

Amen’ is like the Send button on an email.)

‘I could do worse,’ one of the most ostensibly benign though chilling phrases in any language.

When people think your days are numbered, they’re really very nice to you. It’s only when you’re trying to get on in the world that they bring their claws out.

Terry finally saw me for what I was: an eleven-year-old grump, a sour, depressive, aggressive, proud, ugly, mean, myopic, misanthropic kid – you know the type.

I’ll tell you what’s out there: a bunch of slaves in love with the freedom they think they have. But they’ve chained themselves to some job or another, or to a squad of rug rats.

Nothing chews at a man’s soul more ravenously than guilt.

It’s a bad thing to come to the end of your life and discover you are not brave.

Above all I will strive to raise a being that understands itself.

Dad always liked to pay before he ate so the second he finished swallowing he could leave. There was something about sitting in a restaurant not eating that he just couldn’t stand. Impatience seized him like a fit. Unfortunately, some restaurants make you pay at the end no matter what. In those situations Dad stood next to the table to show that he no longer wanted anything to do with the table. Then he called for the bill as if he were pleading for mercy.

And it’s okay to love God because you appreciate the artistry of his creation, but you don’t have to believe in a character because you’re impressed by the author.