I had begun to think my ripening body would wither untasted on the vine.
Pain redeems all. It is the awareness of life, a reminder of death.
We may not have demon fathers dangling offers of infernal power before us, but everyone understands what it means to struggle with temptation or resist the urge to give in to our baser natures.
Some chains are forged for us - those are the hardest to bear.
There is no folly like the folly of the wise.
Love is hard, harder than steel and thrice as cruel. It is inexorable as the tides, and life and death alike follow in its wake.