Reviews and Comments

"There was an opportunity to advance the ball, but we failed to do it as a state, collectively,” a frustrated McCalley says. “Persons with disability are still out of sight, out of mind, in this society."

"Nunca sé si estamos en México o La USA. Los dos tienen los mismos arbustos, hay Solitarios y algunos Peluches. En vez de árboles hay piedras..."

"Parecemos pura caja de fósforos. Palitos encima de otros palitos. Un pastel de gente. Yo soy la candela de arriba. El más chiquito de todos que va encima de la alfombra mágica. Soy Aladino y al fin crucé el desierto."

"“migrantes”, como nos llama la gente de acá. Es una palabra que cuesta decir. De “gran” a “tes” hay como una montaña que a mi lengua le cuesta escalar. Es una palabra que cae como agua salada en mi garganta. “Ustedes los migrantes son así”, “esos migrantes son asá”, migrantes, migrantes."

"Trato de recordar a qué olía Mamá Pati, pero no me acuerdo. Es lo que más me emociona de verla otra vez: recuperar su olor."

"Any precise meaning of self-governance is necessarily contextual, depending on who is involved and what kinds of say they seek. Likewise, I claim no fixed definition for democracy. I understand it as always a horizon, a longing for power shared equitably among participants, a destination that moves depending on where one stands."

"... tudo já estava de alguma forma em nossa mente, naquele galpão às escuras. A imaginação é o facho de lanterna que o percorre e revela o que está amontoado lá dentro."

"Your absence has made the life I have now possible. I'm which case, thank you. I didn't ask for more pain, but I received it -- you sent it -- and it changed me. Thank you."

"The thing about birds: If we knew nothing about jays or wrens or sparrows, we'd believe the trees were singing, as if each tree has is own song. The thing about this life: If we knew nothing of what was missing, what has been removed, it would look full and beautiful."

"A scar is a story about pain, injury, healing. Years, too, are scars we wear. I remember their stories."

"(Is that what a memoir is - a ghost tour? I'm confronting what haunts me. I'm out with lanterns, looking.)"

"if you're going to try, go all the way. there is no other feeling like that. you will be alone with the gods and the nights will flame with fire."

"To achieve true greatness, genuine freedom, you must be like the sculptor who sets aside her ego before chiseling a statue..."

"When we reconfigure society to put exchange at the center, we violate our nature. Humans thrived by hunting together, cooking communally, making music and telling stories around a blazing fire at night."

"Time and again over the course of the twentieth century the Technostructure grew beyond our control, overwhelming any notion of market discipline or public virtue. Like a virus, it has repeatedly sickened its host."

"The moment we allow someone who doesn't work in the cafe to buy into it, it's finished. It'll close or end up as another miserable Starbucks, an appendage of the Technostructure."

"It's painful to believe that the would be 'public servants' you're forced to choose between are all phonies whose only real concern is their own care and feelings (...) who wouldn't fall all over themselves for a top politician who actually seemed to talk to you like you were a person, an intelligent adult worth of respect?" -- David Foster Wallace (2000) About a far far away presidential election...