"It's like you're screaming, and no one can hear. You almost feel ashamed, that someone could be that important - that without them, you feel like nothing. No one will ever understand how much it hurts. You feel hopeless; like nothing can save you. And when it's over, and it's gone, you almost wish that you could have all that bad stuff back - so that you could have the good."

"Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now that’s a real treat." - Joanne Woodward

Courage

"Courage is the great enabling virtue that allows one to realize other virtues, like love, hope and faith.

To have courage is to be willing to look unflinchingly at catastrophic circumstances and muster the will to overcome the fear; never to fully erase or eliminate the fear but to overcome the fear so that fear does not have the last word, so that fear does not push one into conformity, complacency, or cowardice.

For me, in many ways, the opposite of courage is not simply cowardice, but it is even worse than that – it is indifference, and indifference to evil is more invidious than evil itself precisely because evil is contagious.  The great Abraham Joshua Heschel used to make this point in almost every text and he is absolutely right. 

Courage for me is always a difficult thing to discern and find.  There is always not enough courageous folk around.  There are too many folk that want to fit in.  There are too many folk that want to just go with the grain.  There are too many folk that want to simply opt for the seductions and temptations to become drunk with the wine of the world, intoxicated with the felicities of bourgeoisie existence. 

Courage says ‘No, I will think critically.  I will love across borders, across races, across gender, across sexual orientation, across national boundary and I will hope I will never let despair have the last word, but I will recognize that he or she who has never despaired has never lived.  Never allow that despair to have the last word. 

Courage, to think critically!  Courage, to love!  Courage, to hope!  That, for me, sits at the very center of what the Socratic vocation and prophetic witness are all about." - Professor Cornel West

Our love is sweeter than strings
Our love is thicker than angel wings

But still sometimes I can't believe you're real
It's just that I've got diamonds in my eyes for you

Our love is simple
Our love is crystal

But still sometimes you cannot help yourself
You step outside and hear bells ringing
For you, for you

Trying my best to love you
Trying my best to love you
Trying my best to love you
They make it so hard on us, baby
It's so hard on us, baby

I want you back my baby
I want you back in my arms
I want you back right now
They make it so hard on us, baby
It's so hard on us, baby

Trying my best to love you
Trying my best to love you
Trying my best to love you
They make it so hard on us, baby
It's so hard on us, baby
It's so hard on us, baby
It's so hard on us, baby

"My mind, I know, I can prove, hovers on hummingbird wings. It hovers and it churns. And when it's operating at full thrust, the churning does not stop. The machines do not rest, the systems rarely cool." - Dave Eggers You Shall Know Our Velocity!

You had a lot of crooks tryna steal your heart
Never really had luck, couldn’t never figure out
How to love
How to love

You had a lot of moments that didn’t last forever
Now you in the corner tryna put it together
How to love
How to love

For a second you were here
Why you over there?
Its hard not to stare, the way you moving your body
Like you never had a love
Never had a love

When you was just a young’un you’re looks but so precious
But now your grown up
So fly its like a blessing but you can’t have a man look at you for 5 seconds
Without you being insecure
You never credit yourself so when you got older
It’s seems like you came back 10 times over
Now you’re sitting here in this damn corner
Looking through all your thoughts and looking over your shoulder

See you had a lot of crooks tryna steal your heart
Never really had luck, couldn’t never figure out
How to love
How to love

See you had a lot of moments that didn’t last forever
Now you in the corner tryna put it together
How to love
How to love

For a second you were here
Why you over there?
Its hard not to stare the way you moving your body
Like you never had a love
Had a love

You had a lot of dreams that transform to visions
The fact that you saw the world affected all your decisions
But it wasn’t your fault
Wasn’t in your intentions

You the one here talking to me
You don’t wanna listen
But I admire your poppin bottles and dippin’
Just as much as you admire bartending and stripping
Baby, so don’t be mad
Nobody else trippin
You see a lot of crooks and the crooks still crook

See You had a lot of crooks tryna steal your heart
Never really had luck, couldn’t never figure out
How to love
How to love

See you had a lot of moments that didn’t last forever
Now you in the corner tryna put it together
How to love
How to love

Oooh,
See I just want you to know
That you deserve the best
You’re beautiful
You’re beautiful
Yeah

And I want you to know, you’re far from the usual
Far from the usual

You see you had a lot of crooks tryna steal your heart
Never really had luck, couldn’t never figure out
How to love
How to love

See you had a lot of moments that didn’t last forever
Now you in the corner tryna put it together
How to love
How to love

See you had a lot of crooks tryna steal your heart
Never really had luck, couldn’t never figure out
How to love
How to love

See you had a lot of moments that didn’t last forever
Now you in the corner tryna put it together
How to love
How to love