To assign unanswered letters their proper weight, to free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves — there lies the great, th… - Joan Didion

To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves — there lies the great, singular power of self-respect.

"To do without self-respect, on the other hand, is to be an unwilling audience of one to an interminable documentary that details one's failings, both real and imagined, with fresh footage spliced in for every screening. (...) To live without self-respect is to lie awake some night, beyond the reach of warm milk, phenobarbital, and the sleeping hand on the coverlet, counting up the sins of commission and omission, the trusts betrayed, the promises subtly broken, the gifts irrevocably wasted through sloth or cowardice or carelessness. However long we postpone
it, we eventually lie down alone in that notoriously uncomfortable bed, the one we make ourselves. Whether or not we sleep in it depends, of course, on whether or not we respect ourselves."
To protest

It is easy to see the beginnings of things, and harder to see the ends.

That no one dies of migraine seems to someone deep in an attack as an ambiguous blessing.