A teacher’s shadow can hover for life. - Mitch Albom

"fairness," he said, "does not govern life and death. if it did, no good person would ever die."

"Strangers," the Blue Man said, "are just family you have yet to come to know."

"sacrifice is a part of life. it is supposed to be. it's not something to regret. it's something to aspire to. little sacrifices. big sacrifices. a mother works so her son can go to school. a daughter moves home to take care of her sick father. Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you're not really losing it. you're just passing it on to someone else."

but then she did. she died. no more visits, no more phone calls. And without even realizing it, I began to drift, as if my roots had been pulled, as if I were floating down some side branch of a river.

It was sad, the imbalance of it all. Why do kids assume so much from one parent and hold the other to a lower, looser standard?