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1 " That's how memories work, I suppose; you just go through life collecting them, never letting go of the precious ones but leaving room in your heart for more. "
― Dan Gemeinhart , Some Kind of Courage
2 " Mama said that if someone's putting ugliness into the world, you can't be ugly back; you gotta put a little bit of sunshine into the world to even things out. "
3 " I was alone alright. And life surely had been a hard trial for me, so far. From the time mama and Katie fell sick, life had been one misery after another.But here I was. Still with breath in my lungs. And blood in my veins. And memories and voices in my heart. Good ones. And life was going on, all around me. With or without me, it was going on.It weren't a matter of the whole thing stopping or the whole thing going on. The whole thing was going on. It was only a matter of me standing up and deciding what part I had to play in it all.I could be the quitting kind. Or not. I could be the kind of man my mama and papa had raised, or not.I rose to my feet and did the best I could to scrape the worst of the mud off my coat and pants."Sarah's going to be somebody's horse," I said to myself. "And I'm sure as hell gonna make sure she's mine. "
4 " I missed 'em, sure enough, true and deep and hard, but the loving was stronger than the missing.--Joseph Johnson on p. 233 Some Kind of Courage "
5 " I was strong from losing them, maybe, but any goodness in me came from having them." (p. 124) "
6 " had stolen my horse. We sprinted through the rain, mud flying up from under the stallion’s hooves. I had to wipe with my sleeve to keep from getting blinded by the falling rain. But my teeth were set hard, and all the determination in my heart left no real room for fear. I sharpened my eyes and readied my shooting hand as we dropped down into the draw, but the trail ahead stayed empty. Up the draw we ran, the sound "
7 " We both held our memories tight in our hands, not trusting our pockets with something so important. "
8 " We looked at each other a minute, then we both put the other's memory into our own pocket. They were new memories, now, but they were tied up and bound to the old. That's how memories work, I suppose; you just go through life collecting them, never letting go of the precious ones but leaving room in your heart for more. "
9 " Taking care is what we do, I s'pose. It's all we can do, really. All we can do is be there. And sometimes that's enough. "
10 " Any word can be an ugly word if you say it ugly. "