Flashes of anger/ Paul Kalanithi
The truth that you live one day at a time didn’t help: What was I supposed to do with that day? At some point, then, I began to do a little bargaining—or not exactly bargaining. More like: “God, I have read Job, and I don’t understand it, but if this is a test of faith, you now realize my faith is fairly weak, and probably leaving the spicy mustard off the pastrami sandwich would have also tested it? You didn’t have to go nuclear on me, you know…” Then, after the bargaining, came flashes of anger: “I work my whole life to get to this point, and then you give me cancer?” And now, finally, maybe I had arrived at denial. Maybe total denial. Maybe, in the absence of any certainty, we should just assume that we’re going to live a long time. Maybe that’s the only way forward.
On bad days/ Allison Pataki
“Enough of that rotten ink,” he declared, rolling up his sleeves as he turned his focus toward me.
“Not going to let that poison stick. We Posts never stay down for long. We always get back up to go another round. Now, how are you, Budgie?” I squared my shoulders as I answered,
“I’m good, Papa.”
With Papa, there were only good days and great days. On bad days, he wanted to know how I aimed to turn things around to finish out with some good.
It is understandable that many readers may find it difficult to love Marjorie Post, as it may seem that everything she touches turns to gold. She possesses an abundance of luck we ordinary mortals rarely experience.
