It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace. - Chuck Palahniuk

Young people want mirrors. Older people want art.

People fall so in love with their pain, they can't leave it behind. The same as the stories they tell. We trap ourselves.

Music is crucial. Beyond no way can I overstress this fact. Let's say you're southbound on the interstate, cruising alone in the middle lane, listening to AM radio. Up alongside comes a tractor trailer of logs or concrete pipe, a tie-down strap breaks, and the load dumps on top of your little sheetmetal ride. Crushed under a world of concrete, you're sandwiched like so much meat salad between layers of steel and glass. In that last, fast flutter of your eyelids, you looking down that long tunnel toward the bright God Light and your dead grandma walking up to hug you — do you want to be hearing another radio commercial for a mega, clearance, closeout, blow-out liquidation car-stereo sale?