People with self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called *character,* a quality which, although… - Joan Didion

Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life — is the source from which self-respect springs.

The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs.

When we talk about mortality we are talking about our children.

The wind shows us how close to the edge we are

Visible mourning reminds us of death, which is construed as unnatural, a failure to manage the situation. “A single person is missing for you, and the whole world is empty,” Philippe Ariès wrote to the point of this aversion in Western Attitudes toward Death. “But one no longer has the right to say so aloud.