Happy-Go-Lucky

by David Sedaris

Seek approval from the one person you desperately want it from, and you’re guaranteed not to get it.

I mean, the one thing you’re really not allowed to bring up in this world is your generosity. Because the moment you do, it’s not generosity anymore—by bringing it to light, you’ve killed it. Plus, it makes the people you tell feel ungenerous, and they wind up hating you.”

Don’t people who feel vaguely unfulfilled in their relationships just have too much time on their hands?

And that, I think, is the number one reason so many relationships fail. Too much free time, and too much time together.

Saul Bellow wrote, “Losing a parent is something like driving through a plate-glass window. You didn’t know it was there until it shattered, and then for years to come you’re picking up the pieces.”