He still has the dream in which he’s continued working on his long-abandoned novel and only now, after all these years, realizes he will have to start over. He always wakes with a heaviness in his chest. It wasn’t until after his father died that he recognized the feeling. He’d always sensed life had a plan for him, and he’d been right. There just aren’t any words for it.

The more complex the organism, the more putrescent in decay. Also, the more difficult to love.

Another day, another pithy aphorism.

 “I have a Russian soul” = code for “I drink a lot”

As his senses aged and became less acute, they also became less convincing.

He came roaring out of school and hit a 50 year wall of indifference. Life, baby.

The symbol of the cross, which refers to the indivisible nature of the spirit and the incarnate existence it is nailed to.

Man was created in order to manage the litter box in order for the cat to fulfill its destiny.

The self-consciously Dad things you attempted to pass on to your family—arbitrary techniques, fetishistic naming of parts and categories, unexamined dictums—mattered less than the unacknowledged resentment, grievance, and rage.