The Measure

by Nikki Erlick

She knew that the world liked to praise the saintly, those who accepted their hardships with peace, rather than rage or complaint. But

We already put the art first, the food first, the passion first,” she explained, a sweep of her arm encompassing the entire shop. “And we already put the family first. We did not need the strings to tell us what is most important.”

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world. That makes it hard to plan the day.

That the beginning and the end may have been chosen for us, the string already spun, but the middle had always been left undetermined, to be woven and shaped by us.