Hang the Moon

by Jeannette Walls

because up here you have to pay attention to everything, you can’t take anything for granted, and every small step feels like a minor triumph.

legal and illegal and right and wrong don’t always line up.

Sometimes the so-called law is nothing but the haves telling the have-nots to stay in their place.

We pay him all these taxes and our hard-earned money goes into the pockets of politicians who dole it out to the fat cats who bribe them. Your Uncle Sam doesn’t look out for us, so we take care of our own around here.

maybe when we lose something, that’s our chance to replace it with something better.

There are two kinds of family, those you’re born into and those you put together from pieces that don’t go anywhere else, and this is one of those families. Five of us now. Like mismatched buttons that still keep your shirt closed.

SOME SAY THAT WHAT doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, but that isn’t always so. Many a time, what doesn’t kill you leaves you broken and crippled, unable to fight the next fight, or sometimes it leaves a wound in your heart so deep and ugly that it never truly heals, leaves you bitter and angry, unable to forgive the world for its cruelty.