A Different Kind of Gone

by Catherine Ryan Hyde

“I figure nobody ever changes anybody else’s mind about anything. Why get invested? Tell an idiot they’re an idiot and they don’t straighten up and fly right. They just keep being an idiot. I figure I’ll just live my life and stay out of their way.”

Then she decided all her misgivings were of no use to her now, and it was time to put them away. Put them to bed once and for all. When you’re deciding, they serve a very important purpose. Once you’ve decided, they’re of no use to you. Even if what you’ve decided is a mistake.

You want somebody to respect you? Tell ’em you messed up.

“But that’s a good thing, when your character is rigid. The last thing the world needs is more people whose sense of integrity flip-flops all over the place.

Why, people don’t even understand their own damn selves and they think they know everybody and everything else.

Here I am trying to understand human nature and I forgot that in a million years I never will.

When I was growing up we had Walter Cronkite. He didn’t tell us what other people were thinking. He told us what was going on, and for exactly half an hour a day. Because, guess what? That’s about how long it takes to report the facts without having to stick microphones in people’s faces and hear all about what they think happened.

nobody knows the difference anymore between what’s true and what they think is true.

“You’re being a human person,” Norma said. “It’s not like you’ve got a bunch of other choices.”

“What is this world we’re living in, Norma?” “It’s what we have to work with,” Norma said. “It’s the only world we’ve got.”

Then she decided that what she was thinking was better said than unsaid. Even though not saying a thing is almost always easier.

You grew up to have genuine empathy. Genuine empathy extends to everyone in a given situation. The non-genuine variety is mostly reserved for yourself and people just like you.”

Never pick up some guilt that’s not yours. Bad enough we’ve got to deal with our own our whole lives.”

But ever since I almost died, everything looks different to me. It’s weird, and I’m not quite sure how to explain it. But now I just look at everybody and figure they’re probably doing the best they can.

Everybody seemed to want to chase the darkness away, like it was some sort of disease and not just half of a normal day.