All I could say was, "I don't know what to do." I remember her taking me by the shoulders and looking me in the eye with a calm smile and saying simply, "Tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth.

معظم البشر أعينهم مغلقة بغبار الخيبة إلى حدّ يمنعهم من رؤية الحقيقة

Man is a demon, man is a god. Both true.

To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow - this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.

Truths turn into dogmas the minute they are disputed.

My husband is not American. He was born in Brazil, where he grew up under a filthy, corrupt dictatorship. In his twenties, he moved to Europe, where he lived for a while under various socialist democracies. He spent a few years on a kibbutz in Israel, living out a utopian experiment in communal existence.