If you asked me, denial was the best stage of grief. If prompted, the Wicked Queen’s mirror would definitely say it was the fairest of them all.

Being near him was like being in a cloud, making my vision blur and taking away some of reality's harshness with its mist.

For such a strong, physically intimidating guy, he was so freaking soft. So playful, so generous with affection. So everything I wanted. And everything I didn't think I could handle.

...This is the arena in which a spiritualized disobedience means most. It doesn't mean a second New Deal, another massive bureaucratic attack on our problems. It doesn't mean taking to the streets, throwing bricks through the window at the Bank of America, or driving a tractor through the local McDonald's. It means living differently. It means taking responsibility for the character of the human world. That's a real confrontation with the problem of value. In short, refusal of the present is a return to what Thoreau and Ruskin called "human fundamentals, valuable things," and it is a movement into the future. This movement into the future is also a powerful expression of that most human spiritual emotion, Hope.
p.124

He has done a good job. Curtis is tough. He battles and is one of our hardest workers. He works hard at his craft.

You know a guy a longtime, and I mean really know him, you don't get used to the idea that he's dead just overnight.