Ninja At First Sight (Knitting in the City, #4.75)

by Penny Reid

de vivre!

“You give me offense, and I take it. I take offense to the fact that you would stand here and belittle Simone’s beliefs and her work to correct what she feels are grave wrongs when you take no action to fight for your beliefs. It is one thing to compare or even belittle sacred truths when both parties are working toward rectifying wrongs. But it is quite another to rail against a person who is doing something when you do nothing.”

What good are convictions if you don’t fight for them? They’re nothing.”

People fill their minds with trivial things because they cannot face horrible truths.”

“Not everyone is capable of fighting the great fights. Not everyone is brave and strong and powerful. Let people have their causes. Allow them their victories, when victories can be had, without begrudging the wrongs that they right. Attending to injustice, no matter how small, is always a worthy cause.”

Obsessing about mistakes was counterproductive to success. I always learned from my mistakes. Then I moved on.

“‘Girls aren't beautiful, they're pretty. Beautiful is too heavy a word to assign to a girl. Women are beautiful because their faces show that they know they have lost something... and gained something else.’

“Vanity?” His answer surprised and confused me. “Yes. An aggrandized lack of self-awareness, a yearning to be coveted as the center of the universe. You’ve lost the desire for a self-centered manifest destiny.”

“Who wants creepy planets anyway? Planets are amoebas, circling mindlessly in the vacuum of space. They’re star stalkers of the worst sort.”

“Pribbling base-court varlots? What does that even mean?” “It’s a Shakespearean insult. Roughly translated, it means selfish twats.”

Competition was about skill and art, merit and talent, not about ego or unnecessary grandiose displays.

“We have forever, Darling. No need to climb the walls.”

“And the other part of your logic that isn’t accurate is your assessment of Greg. Greg is a person, not a spoon, or a saucepan, or a tea cup. He can’t be stolen. Men aren’t stolen. They’re responsible for their own actions and decisions—staying with a woman is a decision. Straying or leaving is a decision. You make it sound like men are mindless, powerless to temptation.” She snorted. “In my experience, they are.” “Then you’ve known only weak men. And weak men deserve conniving women.”

“I guess because soups are the food equivalent of a warm hug.”

“Yeah. Normal looking people. Every character, or actor, on Friends is too pretty. I can’t suspend reality for people that good looking—again it’s a fantasy. I keep thinking, where are their normal looking friends? Are they only willing to be friends with young, beautiful, thin people of average height? And why is their apartment so big? That’s a huge apartment for New York.” I shrugged. “It bothers me.”

Because a relationship is made up of many burdens, and the two people within the relationship have different strengths and weaknesses, abilities and talents.” “And your talent is having more money than I do?” I asked wryly. He nodded once. “For now. But later, your talent might be having more money than I do. And therein lies the beauty of partnering off with another human.” “The beauty of human relationships is sharing burdens?” “More or less. But burdens don’t grow lighter if both people are contributing equally. Life isn’t a fifty-fifty split, that’s just being lazy. Burdens are weightless, worlds change, and love endures when both people are contributing their maximum.”

“I think what you’re suggesting is the ideal. But it’s not very practical. Humans are fallible and selfish. They are lazy. And they so often take the road of least resistance. The idea of being at the mercy of another person’s decisions, trusting that person with my bank account and the money I earn, feels like dooming a relationship to failure. Wouldn’t it be better to split expenses from the start? So you don’t have to rely on anyone else? Plus, if things don’t work out, then you’d have to separate your finances. I’ve seen plenty of my friends’ parents get divorced and money is always the biggest point of contention.”

true. I think—unless you have some compelling reason to keep bank accounts separate—the separation of finances just in case dooms a relationship to failure. It’s like each person already has one foot out the door, like those people who get married and think to themselves, Oh, well if this doesn’t work out, I can always get a divorce.

“So, it’s possible? It’s possible to share everything, all burdens, including monetary ones? Be human, but not be selfish or lazy with your wife or husband or partner?”

“Because if it’s possible to have a partner who gives all of themselves without reservation, who looks forward to working and sacrificing for me just as I look forward to doing the same for her, who can’t help but love ferociously, brutally, and unconditionally—and even perhaps without reason or sound judgment—that’s what I want. Because that’s how I plan to love in return.”