It is not always wise to appear singular.

My childhood was appalling.

God's 'failures' are really man's failures.

I have been the victim of heartless malice.

I have always had a horror and detestation of poverty.

I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone. Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the world seemingly most indifferent. For this is still the time God chooses.

The world is a penal institution.