The paper, the stapler, the staples, the tape. It makes me sick. Physical things. Forty years of loving someone becomes staples and tape.

That’s all anyone wants from anyone else, not love itself but the knowledge that love is there.

Darling, You asked me to write you a letter, so I am writing you a letter. I do not know why I am writing you this letter, or what this letter is supposed to be about, but I am writing it nonetheless, because I love you very much and trust that you have some good purpose for having me write this letter. I hope that one day you will have the experience of doing something you do not understand for someone you love. Your father

I could not believe in a God that would challenge faith like this.

It was terrible. All of the things we couldn't share. The room was filled with conversations we weren't having.

She repeats things until they are true, or until she can't tell whether they are true or not. She has become an expert at confusing what is with what was with what should be with what could be.

Something having been done just about everywhere just about always is no kind of justification for doing it now.