Quiet Desperation:

Josh, Living Fossils:

"My friend Gabriel just had a baby girl, and as we caught up over the phone this week, he told me how overwhelmed he is by everything in his life—not just the newfound responsibilities of being a parent, but marital strife, a pending move, overinvolved parents and in-laws, and two jobs (one of which will hopefully wrap up soon). Now Gabe is a resourceful person, probably the most resourceful I know. Yet his voice had an unmistakable strain to it, which, he said, was the result of trying to keep everything together. "

"Staying exactly where we are, despite our best efforts, is what causes desperation. The longer nothing happens, the more desperate we become. We must finally ask why it is quiet. Well, if we are not quiet—if we spit and rage, break things and say stuff we can’t take back—then we have already chosen, haven’t we? We’ve already doomed, or at least dented, the ideal route toward which all this misery and sacrifice and tolerance has been building. And so we purse our lips. We shut our mouths—for now. A decision will be made, sooner or later. For the moment, we must hold on."