But as he grew older, he learned that a word was a powerful thing. An insult didn't have to be shouted to bleed; a vow didn't have to be whispered to make you believe. Hold a thought in your head, and that was enough to change the actions of anyone and anything that crossed your path.

Sometimes you can see things happen right in front of your eyes and still jump to the wrong conclusions.

Instead of plotting the demise of the traditional family, as some politicians and religious leaders would have you believe, gay people mow their lawns and watch 'American Idol' and video their children's concerts and have the same hopes and dreams that their straight counterparts do.

Heroes didn't leap tall buildings or stop bullets with an outstretched hand; they didn't wear boots and capes. They bled, and they bruised, and their superpowers were as simple as listening, or loving. Heroes were ordinary people who knew that even if their own lives were impossibly knotted, they could untangle someone else's. And maybe that one act could lead someone to rescue you right back.

It's crazy, right? To love someone who's hurt you? It's even crazier to think that someone who hurts you loves you.

You didn't get past something like that, you go through it -- and for that reason alone, I understood more about her than she ever would have guessed.

Sometimes all you need to live one more day is a good reason to stick around.