Howard Wakefield

I had quarreled with my wife. We did this thing where we would play at jealousy. But anyway... Or I played at it and she was my accomplice. After fifteen years of marriage jealousy was the reliable stimulant. Let's be honest. When your spouse gets jealous, it's flattering.

When you're tired and it's a long day and you're trying to get home you tend to feel all these little disconnects as the slow trajectory of a collapsing civilization.

In the suburbs, we live in nature... And you do see deer, rabbits, crows. But we don't live in nature. That's the point of the suburbs. You live apart from humans. And you're protected from what's wild.

But there are times when I feel I've spent my life just waiting for my wife to get ready to leave the house.

The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath... Your whole life you hear that quoted. I never got it till now. Mercy is not something you ever get to request. Not strained means not forced. It's given freely. No reason. Just a gift drops from the sky. Twice blessed. Blessing him that gives and him that takes.