I don't know. Maybe we're all chaos theorists. Lovers of pattern and predictability, we're scared shitless of explosive change. But we're fascinated by it, too. Drawn to it. Travelers tap their brakes to ogle the mutilation and mangled metal on the side of the interstate, and the traffic backs up for miles. Hijacked planes crash into skyscrapers, breached levees drown a city, and CNN and the networks rush to the scene so that we can all sit in front of our TVs and feast on the footage. Stare, stunned, at the pandemonium--the devils let loose from their cages.

When I was a kid... I needed to belong.

If you want your prayers answered, get up off your knees and do something about them.

But what are our stories if not the mirrors we hold up to our fears?

I like to write first-person because I like to become the character I'm writing.

If you risked love, it took you wherever you wanted to go. If you repressed it, you ended up unhappy.

The point is this: that the stream of memory may lead you to the river of understanding. And understanding, in turn, may be a tributary to the river of forgiveness.