Learning how to think in the midst of fear is a lesson that everyone needs to learn.

Knowledge is power. Power to do evil...or power to do good. Power itself is not evil. So knowledge itself is not evil.

I wipe my face with my sleeve, laughing so hard my stomach hurts. If my entire life is like this, loud laughter and bold action and the kind of exhaustion you feel after a hard but satisfying day, I will be content.

I have done bad things. I can't take them back, and they are part of who I am. Most of the time, they seem like the only thing I am.

When her body first hit the net, all I registered was a gray blur. I pulled her across it and her hand was small, but warm, and then she stood before me, short and thin and plain and in all ways unremarkable- except that she had jumped first. The stiff had jumped first. Even I didn't jump first. Her eyes were so stern, so insistent. Beautiful.

Part of me wonders if this is a suicide mission disguised as a game.

But maybe what I saw as fearless was actually fear under control.