I know from experience that those least capable of truly assessing any marriage are the children who come out of it. We style them as we need them, t… - Anna Quindlen

I am not alone. I am surrounded by words that tell me who I am, why I feel what I feel.

People have writer's block not because they can't write, but because they despair of writing eloquently.

How many times in the past three months have I been reminded of Ruby's two selves, the careful courteous young woman who spoke so sweetly to strangers and the person she let loose at home, where she was safe, where she could be spiky and harsh and uncertain and at sea? I have two selves now, too, the one that goes out in the world and says what sound like the right things and nods and listens and sometimes even smiles, and the real woman, who watches her in wonder, who is nothing but a wound, a wound that will not stop throbbing except when it is anesthetized. I know what the world wants: It wants me to heal. But to heal I would have to forget, and if I forget my family truly dies.