Say Goodbye for Now

by Catherine Ryan Hyde

“Almost everything is easier to get into than it is to get out of.”

But most really smart people have no sense. They value their brains too highly. I’d rather have someone with sense. And a little heart.

But upset is a funny thing. It looks for places to direct itself. It’s an emotion given to action, and it needs somewhere to go. Even if it has to make something up as it goes along.

But what you don’t realize, until you have to live it, is that it’s the absence of the person that’s the trouble. The ongoing absence. And when you’re missing someone, a longer time without them doesn’t solve the problem. The longer you don’t see someone, the more you miss them.”

“No,” he said. “I don’t think it’s better for grown-ups. I think you were right the first time. Being a person is just hard.”