I came to the US as an immigrant and I recall vividly those first few years in California, the brief time we spent on welfare, and the difficult task of assimilating into a new culture.

Her eyes, walnut brown and shaded by fanned lashes, met mine. Held for a moment. Flew away.

Beauty is an enormous, unmerited gift given randomly, stupidly.

Whether you do something or decide to do nothing, either way, you are making a moral choice. And I hope people make the right one.

yet love can move people to act in unexpected ways and move them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with startling heroism

It would be erroneous to say Sohrab was quiet. Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life. Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it. Sohrab's silence wasn't the self imposed silence of those with convictions, of protesters who seek to speak their cause by not speaking at all. It was the silence of one who has taken cover in a dark place, curled up all the edges and tucked them under.

i want to give up my bearings, slip out of who i am, shed everything, the way a snake discards old skin.