I had ancestors who were slave-holders, which is a difficult piece of family history to say the least. In a recent New York Times article on the subject of modern attitudes toward our slave-holding past, the writer noted that we all want to be from "innocent origins." I _know_ I'm not. Then again, I suspect most of us are not.

I'm a morning person, which is a hideous thing to be. No one likes morning people, not even other morning people.

I've gotten to do a lot of stuff, traveled, worked hard at my career.

The past was worth remembering and knowing in its own right. It was not behind us, never truly behind us, but under us, holding us up, a foundation for all that was to come and everything that had ever been.

There are, of course, an infinite number of places where one is not, yet only one place where one actually is.

I think Baltimore suffers from nostalgia and it keeps us from being honest in talking about what really happened here. A place doesn't have to be perfect to be beloved, and I love this city and I love it better for seeing its flaws.

it's smarter to be lucky than it's lucky to be smart.