Instead, we linger over a luxury that costs nothing: Imagining what may be.

You show you care, you die.You show you fear, you die.You show nothing, maybe you live.

Sometimes when we’re in situations where we feel we’re not in control, we do things, especially things that take a lot of energy, as a way of making ourselves feel we have some power.

Trying to remember, I have learned, is like trying to clutch a handful of fog. Trying to forget, like trying to hold back the monsoon.

Look. I have a strategy. Why expect anything? If you don’t expect anything, you don’t get disappointed.

Simply to endure is to triumph.

Then I placed the blade next to the skin on my palm. A tingle arched across my scalp. The floor tipped up at me and my body spilled away. Then I was on the ceiling looking down, waiting to see what would happen next.