Rachel Cohn

One part of Judaism called tikkum olam. It says that the world has been broken into pieces. All this chaos, all this discord. And our job _ everyone__ job _ is to try to put the pieces back together. To make things whole again ... Maybe we__e the pieces. Maybe what we__e supposed to do is come together. That__ how we stop the breaking.

The Beatles.___hat about The Beatles?___hey nailed it.___ailed what?___verything.___hat do you mean?__ev takes his arm and puts it right against mine, skin to skin, sweat on sweat, touch on touch. Then he glides his hand into mine and intertwines our fingers.__his,_ he says. __his is why The Beatles got it._____ afraid I__ not following___ther bands, it__ about sex. Or pain. Or some fantasy. But The Beatles, they knew what they were doing.You know the reason The Beatles made it so big?___hat?___ Wanna Hold Your Hand._ First single. Fucking brilliant. Perhaps the most fucking brilliant song ever written. Because they nailed it. That__ what everyone wants. Not 24-7 hot wet sex. Not a marriage that lasts a hundred years. Not a Porsche or a blow job or a million-dollar crib. No. They wanna hold your hand. They have such a feeling that they can__ hide. Every single successful love song of the past fifty years can be traced back to __ Wanna Hold Your Hand._ And every single successful love story has those unbearable and unbearably exciting moments of hand-holding.

What do you want ?"It was a hard question, especially if I had to bat en down the sarcasm. I mean, there was the beauty pageant answer of world peace, although I__ probably have to render it in the beauty pageant spelling of world peas.

I'm liking that I can throw any kind of sentence at her without worrying it's too out there.

It's hard to show you that I tried unless you end up succeeding.

It's bullshit to think of friendship and romance as being different. They're not. They're just variations of the same love. Variations of the same desire to be close.

I love snow for the same reason I love Christmas: It brings people together while time stands still. Cozy couples lazily meandered the streets and children trudged sleds and chased snowballs. No one seemed to be in a rush to experience anything other than the glory of the day, with each other, whenever and however it happened.

You should never wish for wishful thinking.

The handwriting was a girl__. I mean, you can tell. That enchanted cursive.

From a distance, a clone's luminous eyes are meant to draw in humans and make them feel safe. Up close, the eyes appear hollow. Because of that, humans tend not to look into our eyes too closely, which I've been told is socially preferable, as eyes without souls behind them can be frightening.

Goodwill to all.' I know it's techinically 'goodwill to all men,' but in my mind, I drop the 'men' because that feels segregationist/elitist/sexist/generally bad ist. Goodwill shouldn't be just for men. It should also apply to women and children, and all animals, even the yucky ones like subway rats. I'd even extend the goodwill not just to living creatures but to the dearly departed, and if we include them, we might as well include the undead, those supposedly mythic beings like vampires, and if they're in, then so are elves, fairies, and gnomes. Heck, since we're already being so generous in our big group hug, why not also embrace those supposedly inanimate objects like dolls and stuffed animals. I'm sure Santa would agree. 'Goodwill to all.

I walked inside Macy__ and faced the pathetic spectacle of a department store full of shoppers, none of whom were shopping for themselves. Without the instant gratification of a self-aimed purchase, everyone walked around in the tactical stupor of the financially obligated.

I'm mad at global warming for all the obvious reasons, but mostly I'm mad at it for ruining Christmas. This time of year is supposed to be about teeth-chattering, cold weather that necessitates coats, scarves, and mittens. Outside there should be see-your-breath air that offers the promise of sidewalks covered in snow, while inside, families drink hot chocolate by a roaring fire, huddled close together with their pets to keep warm.

I've always resented Hermione, because I wanted to be her so badly and she never seemed to appreciate as much as I thought she should that she got be her. She got to live at Hogwarts and be friends with Harry and kiss Ron, which was supposed to happen to me.

I don__ know what boldness came over me, but the resolute heaviness of Dash__ demeanor threatened to crush my soul. My pinky finger crept over and nestled against his, for comfort. Like a magnet, his pinky finger latched onto and intertwined with mine. I like magnets a whole lot.

We're better off. But I don't know if the world's better off. I don't know if the two are the same thing.

The humans create life, and senselessly cause death. For nothing.

Know what the best thing your true love can give you is?_ I asked him.__hat?_ said Dash.__rue love.