The adult world that runs our school considers this a teachable moment (a new phrase for our era) where children will learn to process loss and grief and loneliness by sitting in the football bleachers and being presented with the truth of mortality. There's nothing to be taught. Only something to be felt.

I won't do that when I'm a parent. I'll make different mistakes, of course.

I found Bill in the sky. In the stars. Like on your ceiling.

It's hard to tell the difference between how we want someone to feel about us and how we actually feel about them. If the person is attractive, we always want them to want us, and sometimes we get so busy trying to make that happen, we forget to keep track of whether we actually want them or not. Plus, we always want what we're afraid we can't get.