“I was feeling sorry for myself and immediately assumed her life was going better than mine. Ridiculous, of course—no one can know what a stranger’s life is like. Often we don’t even know what a loved one’s life is like. We all keep so many things to ourselves.”

“I was feeling sorry for myself and immediately assumed her life was going better than mine. Ridiculous, of course—no one can know what a stranger’s life is like. Often we don’t even know what a loved one’s life is like. We all keep so many things to ourselves.”

“If his choice now was to risk either sunshine with a chance of rain or heatstroke with a chance of tornado, he’d go with the sunshine.”

“He didn’t fold his arms around her, and he didn’t hold her close. Instead, he gave her a kiss that suggested a future.”

“The ski club was a frugal and intergenerational group. It gave dime-store trophies for speed and agility within categories of gender, age, and experience, and so eventually everyone got a trophy.”