“Yet we always envy others, comparing our shadows to their sunlit sides.”

“Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.”

“Always there are walls, Rachael, she persisted. Walls that block our path. Too high, too hard. We stop to rest, to gather strength, and before we know it we have lived whole lives in their shade. In time, we cease to even see them there, casting their long shadows, blocking our path. We cease to yearn for the other side.”

“Contentment can only be found in not envying others or comparing yourself to them but in being satisfied with what you have.”

“Maybe, just maybe, when this is all over and we meet on the other side we’ll just compare notes on how we did and have a big laugh.”

“We love WWII because the cause was so obviously just, because you can't be a good person and say you wouldn't fight against an evil like that. It was so black and white on our side, and on our side so few died. (Our side meaning the lantern-jawed John Wayne Greatest Generation constantly canonized soldiers who strode in late to the graveyard that was Europe. Compared to Jewish, Russian, Roma, and other casualties, our losses were minimal.) We felt so strong. In some ways I think we're always trying to recapture that feeling of being a country of superheroes. With every war we invoke that one, we hope it will be that good. -from her blog”