I live to collect information, and I am also a perfectionist.

'Hamlet' is the best description of grief I've read because it dramatizes grief rather than merely describing it.

One of the grubby truths about a loss is that you don't just mourn the dead person, you mourn the person you got to be when the lost one was alive. This loss might even be what affects you the most.

It's all too easy when talking about female gymnasts to fall into the trap of infantilizing them, spending more time worrying more about female vulnerability than we do celebrating female strength.

My theory is this: Women falter when they're called on to be highly self-conscious about their talents. Not when they're called on to enact them.

This is part of the complexity of grief: A piece of you recognizes it is an extreme state, an altered state, yet a large part of you is entirely subject to its demands.

One of the things about grief is that it can bring a deeper perspective into your life; in the end, it has, for me, though it's also brought sorrow.