The Glass Ocean

by Beatriz Williams

“It’s easy to love someone you can’t have. There’s no risk in it.”

“Oh, but it’s never a question of what we deserve, Sarah. It’s a question of what we can bear.

You absolutely cannot redeem another human being. You just can’t. Only God can do that, I suppose, God or whatever it is you believe in. The only person whose behavior—whose goodness—you can control is yourself. You just get up every day and do the best you can.”

I’m not saying you shouldn’t reach out and help others. Listen and love and support and whatever you can. But you can’t expect to save them. You can’t hold yourself responsible for their choices.”

You can’t change one thing without changing everything. We all exist on this planet, each of us, because of an extraordinary, improbable, random series of coincidences that can’t be repeated. And everything you do affects everything that happens after.