Surviving Savannah

by Patti Callahan Henry

But no one, even if they believe they have, moves past the past. It follows; it shadows; it breathes quietly in the dark corners.

“Words like ‘know the ropes’; ‘slush fund’; ‘close quarters’; ‘batten down the hatches’; to be ‘in deep water’; ‘high and dry’—we use these phrases without realizing they come from our long and perilous connection with the sea. They came out of our need to conquer what can never be conquered, only respected and discovered.”

“You and I both know there’s a difference between prejudice and obliviousness but sometimes it can have the same result.”