Let me just say that I am not often lonely in country places. In cities I am, like the writers of the letters. Nature doesn't break your heart: other people do. Yet, we cannot live apart from each other in bowers feeding on nectar. We're in this together, this getting through our lives, as the fact that we are word-users shows.

...friendship is something you do.

A bugler sounded the Last Post. Heartbreak made audible.

If there were nothing else, reading would--obviously--be worth living for.

Let me just say that I am not often lonely in country places. In cities I am, like the writers of the letters. Nature doesn't break your heart: other people do. Yet, we cannot live apart from each other in bowers feeding on nectar. We're in this together, this getting through our lives, as the fact that we are word-users shows.

The wait is long, my dream of you does not end.

Do the thing that's less passive. Do the active thing. There's more of the human in that.