“Real courage is knowing everything that can go wrong, all the possible dangers and consequences, feeling the fear, and still acting on your principles or your gut, still doing what you think is right.” CourageBraveryBraveConsequences Book:Fall from Grace Source: Fall from Grace
“There is so much we do not know about the people we think we know, he thought.” PeopleRelationshipsFriends Book:When We Lost Touch Source: When We Lost Touch
“People dying of COVID can be 'dying' for a long time. People dying of cancer often are dying for a long time. But with cancer, and other terminal illnesses, it's acceptable to move from treatment into hospice...We give them morphine...we meet death half-way.” DeathDyingCancerCovidHospice Book:When We Lost Touch Source: When We Lost Touch
“Molly was relieved that the winter break was over. She dropped her son, Max, at school and then celebrated by going straight to a coffee shop and ordering a mocha grande. She slid into a booth in a back corner, closed her eyes, and inhaled the coffee. Then she sat, both hands on the large, warm cup and smiled. 2020, she’d decided, was going to be the best year ever.” SchoolParentParentingCoffee2020Covid Book:When We Lost Touch Source: When We Lost Touch
“Grace had always imagined that she would feel some sense of warning, at least for a millisecond before her life was transformed. She fancied that she was possessed of a hyper-vigilance, an awareness of a change in the cosmic field, much as animals can sense the coming of storms and earthquakes.” ChangeMetaphorQuotableIntrospective Quote Book:Fall from Grace Source: Fall from Grace
“There was no time for self-reflection in the ER, or on any COVID unit. It was like telling a soldier to take a break and think it through before he shot back.” WarSoldierMetaphorHospitalCovidEmergency RoomEr Book:When We Lost Touch Source: When We Lost Touch
“So, if there was sex on a first encounter—and most of these weren’t even dates, just parties—you couldn’t convince a jury it was rape, not get to beyond a reasonable doubt.” SexRapeSexual AssaultTrigger WarningHookupHookup Culture Book:Insufficient Evidence Source: Insufficient Evidence
“Across the world, a virus was gathering strength, invisible tentacles reaching out across countries, continents, oceans and borders. It originated in Wuhan, China, a city of 11 million people that most Americans, nationalistic and self-absorbed as we tend to be, had never heard of.” AmericaUnited StatesChinaCoronavirusCovid19Covid Book:When We Lost Touch Source: When We Lost Touch
“Yes,' agreed Mike. 'Not forever. But it's your family that has turned this into two worlds. With me he'll have a choice. I will do everything in my power to give my son a choice.” FatherParentParentingChoiceSingle ParentChildrens Rights Book:All God's Children Source: All God's Children
“In the last two months, Mike had seen her at her worst. They’d ‘Zoomed’ through her snot-dripping crying jags of hopeless angst, and post-paper-writing-all-nighters when she hadn't taken a shower in two days and was sure she smelled all the way to Florida.” LoveRelationshipsCovidQuarantineZoomVideo Call Book:When We Lost Touch Source: When We Lost Touch
“Grace told her to stock up on toilet paper, that she’d read there might be a shortage. Toilet paper? Seriously? Sometimes her mother was so over the-top in the worry department.” ShortageCovidQuarantineToilet PaperSupply Chain Book:When We Lost Touch Source: When We Lost Touch
“Human ‘senses’ have a hierarchy as far as loss, and taste and smell rarely made the news or a made-for-TV movie. Most people are terrified of losing sight or going deaf. Losing the ability to touch is a horrible part of paralysis. But smell and taste? Not newsworthy.” SightSmellSensesParalysisCovidDeafnessLoss Of TasteLoss Of Smell Book:When We Lost Touch Source: When We Lost Touch
“Everyone in the United States of America had an opinion on the Westboro Baptist Church and anyone who said they didn't was lying.” ReligionChurchFundamentalismFundamentalistWestboro Baptist Church Book:All God's Children Source: All God's Children
“If they want me to work remotely,' Molly had said after just one week of the new system, 'they damn well better come up with a remote location. Like, maybe, the roof? And send over a homework fairy while they’re at it.” ParentingCovidQuarantineOnline SchoolRemote School Book:When We Lost Touch Source: When We Lost Touch