But hope is no less realistic than despair. It is still our choice whether to live in light or lie down in darkness.

Light isn't always buoyant and shadows aren't always despair; yet both, I believe, are limitless in lessons that they share.

In the midst of my despair I find myself frantically looking for any flicker of light Even if it comes from hope,a whisper or a prayer

O! Wanderers in the shadowed land depair not! For though dark they stand, all woods there be must end at last, and see the open sun go past: the setting sun, the rising sun, the day's end, or the day begun. For east or west all woods must fail...

I would just have to find a hog, slaughter it, butcher it, cure the meat, then fry it up. Thinking about the bacon—the potential of bacon—gives me hope. Not all is lost if bacon isn't. Seriously.

But I don’t panic. I don’t bolt like a frightened gazelle. I am more than the sum of my fear. It isn’t fear that will defeat them. Not fear or faith or hope or even love, but rage.