Nothing Is Ever Quite As Bad As

I Probably Have Less Revision Than Those Who Have That Wonderful Rush Of Story To Tell - You Know, I Can't Wait To Tell You What Happened The Other Day. It Comes Tumbling Out And Maybe Then They Go Back And Refine. I Kind Of Envy That Way Of Working, But I Just Have Never Done It.

The Worst Of It Is Over Now, And I Can't Say That I Am Glad. Lose That Sense Of Loss—you Have Gone And Lost Something Else. But The Body Moves Toward Health. The Mind, Too, In Steps. One Step At A Time. Ask A Mother Who Has Just Lost A Child, How Many Children Do You Have? "four," She Will Say, "—three," And Years Later, "three," She Will Say, "—four.

I Exaggerated Even Before I Began To Exaggerate, Because It's True — Nothing Is Ever Quite As Bad As It Could Be.

Maybe This Is Not A Come-down-from-the-ledge Story. But I Tell It With The Thought That The Woman On The Ledge Will Ask Herself A Question, The Question That Occurred To That Man In Bogota. He Wondered How We Know That What Happens To Us Isn't Good?

What I Think," Chatty Says, "is That If A Man Loves A Woman More Than A Woman Loves A Man, Then They're Even.