Compromise, if not the spice of life, is its solidity. It is what makes nations great and marriages happy. The only one who can tell you "you can't" is you. And you don't have to listen. I expect nothing. I fear no one. I am free. I prepared excitedly for my departure, as if this journey had a mysterious significance. I had decided to change my mode of life. "'til now," I told myself, "you have only seen the shadow and been well content with it; now, I am going to lead you into the substance." Love and magic have a great deal in common. They enrich the soul, delight the heart. And they both take practice. Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters. Marriage is the alliance of two people, one of whom never remembers birthdays and the other never forgets them. When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice. It is never easy to keep reaching for dreams. Strength and courage can sometimes be lonely friends. but those who reach, walk in stardust. How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one's culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light. | 
