Ask Him Why

by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Except in another way they’re not the problem, at least not the start of it and not on purpose, because they likely grew up the same. They didn’t get what they needed from their folks, so now they can’t give you kids what they don’t have. They’re the victims and the perpetrators, both, and the cycle just keeps going around and around.

You can heal your own self first, but most people never do. Maybe because you have to start by admitting you’re broken.”

“Nothing in this life is simple,” he said. “And all the troubles o’ the world come in because people can’t abide that. They have to try to make things black and white, but nothing ever will be. It’s where all the bad stuff gets its start.”

“The point is that it’s you being destroyed by your hate. Not him. This is what the Buddha called picking up a hot coal to hurl at your enemy.”

People can bear almost any amount of pain if they think there’s an end to it. So suddenly something happens that they never could have imagined: a daft old man invites them in for a nice hearty meal. It’s not the man or the meal that convinces them. It’s that they forgot how at any moment something can always happen that you never expected. Something better. Once they remember that, it’s a whole new ball game.”

“Everything grows best in oxygen and sunlight except secrets and guilt and regrets. They like the dank spaces. Drag them out into the light and they fail to thrive.”

this was his single greatest quality: he made everybody feel dear. And the sad truth of this world is that not many people feel that way, and not much of the time.

the problem with people is that we forget that something unexpected can happen at any time.”