Lost and Wanted

by Nell Freudenberger

but the fact is that I like doing things the hard way. I’d turned down an epidural at the birth for the same reason: not because I thought the anesthesia would be any danger to Jack, but because I wanted to prove something to myself.

was the way people describe falling in love but it was so much better than the reality of that. The model gave me a kind of happiness that didn’t depend upon anyone else; it could be carried with you.

love was particular even though it was directed at the same person, that we hadn’t lost just one Charlie but as many as the number of people who were seated here today.

The mania to perfect things that are by their nature imperfectible is one of those areas in which I most frequently make a wrong turn.