The legalization of drugs, a proliferation of a public health approach to drug use and drug addition, a compassionate mental health system. And can we just say gender equality and the end of mass incarceration and the final shedding of the vestiges of a slave-based nation? Can we have that, too? Can I have it all?

Whatever my intentions, whatever the truth of my claim, I had no business giving a lecture to a total stranger.

If a good mother is one who loves her child more than anyone else in the world, I am not a good mother. I am in fact a bad mother. I love my husband more than I love my children.

Nothing makes me roll my eyes faster than a "Coexist" bumper sticker.

The thing I believe in most in the world is my own fallibility, so I am willing to believe that I may be wrong too.

I'm sure there are people who survive tragedy without humor, but I've never met any of them. Nor would I be particularly interested in writing about them if I did meet them.

I love my husband more than I love my children.