O, lente, lente currite noctis equi!
Money was the only measure of worth, for everyone, they got no respect as mothers.
And they’re smiling at her, not half-smiles either, but full-on total-face smiles that are only partly fake.
Oh God. It’s no joke. Oh God oh God. How can I keep on living?
The Human Words of God speak of the Creation in terms that could be understood by the men of old. There is no talk of galaxies or genes, for such terms would have confused them greatly! But must we therefore take as scientific fact the story that the world was created in six days, thus making a nonsense of observable data?
I don’t feel pleased with myself while recording this cruelty, even though it was only a cruelty to a doll. It’s a vengeful side of my nature that I am sorry to say I have failed to subdue entirely. But in an account such as this, it is better to be scrupulous about your faults, as about all your other actions. Otherwise no one will understand why you made the decisions that you made.
Temptation comes next. At the Center, temptation was anything much more than eating and sleeping. Knowing was a temptation. What you don’t know won’t tempt you, Aunt Lydia used to say. Maybe.
Becka had a lot of these control-yourself techniques. I tried to practise them. They worked some of the time.
He has something we don’t have, he has the word.
She’s truly a woman?” said Aunt Gabbana, eyeing me shrewdly. “Of course,” said Paula. “None of that’s padding?” said Aunt Gabbana, nodding towards my chest. “Certainly not!” said Paula. “You’d be amazed at what some families try. She has nice wide hips, none of these narrow pelvises. Let me see your teeth, Agnes.
With no orders to follow, she occupies her mind by painting her nails, which is a very soothing thing to do when you’re anxious and keyed up. Some people like to throw objects, such as glasses of water or rocks, but nail painting is more positive. If more world leaders would take it up there would be less overall suffering, in her opinion.
Maybe they’ll just take her someplace else, like an island, with the other people on it who are like her. People who don’t fit in, but not criminal elements. Surely that’s what they’ll do.
Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it.
But compassion takes work, and we were young.
The answer can only be that God has given Adam free will, and therefore Adam may do things that God Himself cannot anticipate in advance.
As a species we’re doomed by hope, then?
Why do you want to talk about ugly things?” she said. Her voice was silvery, like a music box. She waved one hand in the air to dry the nails. “We should think only beautiful things, as much as we can. There is so much beautiful in the world if you look around. You are looking only at the dirt under your feet, Jimmy. It’s not good for you.
When it came to love, wasn’t believing the same as the real thing?
Alcohol’s a depressant, it will let me down later.
Then she lent me her red flannel petticoat until I should get one of my own, and showed me how to fold and pin the cloths, and said hat some called it Eve’s curse but she thought that was stupid, and the real curse of Eve was having to put up with the nonsense of Adam, who as soon as there was any trouble, blamed it all on her.