Sublime

Any slight conflict, any alleged insult, any vague whim, any unrelated frustration, may bring down upon the head of the defenseless the full weight of naked physical violence. Even in such a circumstance it is not the fear of death that is most often at work; it is the deep humiliation arising from dying without benefit of cause or purpose. No high

At the heart of mental illness is a loss of control over our own better thoughts and feelings.

I dropped that apple, and, lo, it was putrid and full of worms. Then he spoke the truth: we didn’t have death. We had dead people. We had casualties and we had victims. We had more or less innocent bystanders. We had body counts and sometimes even photos in the newspapers of body bags, though many felt it was wrong to show them. We had “unequal hea

AFTER HE LEFT THE HOSPITAL, WILLIAM LIVED THE WAY HE imagined drunks did after they stopped drinking: carefully, and one day at a time.

Psychological observations of the prisoners have shown that only the men who allowed their inner hold on their moral and spiritual selves to subside eventually fell victim to the camp’s degenerating influences.

She studied the illness desperately, as if understanding it would make any difference. It didn’t, of course.

And so we came forth, and once again beheld the stars.