Despite the horror, we survivors were endowed with a will to survive. Or instinct. Or maybe it was faith.

Collaborative workshops and writers' peer groups hadn't been invented when I was young. They're a wonderful invention. They put the writer into a community of people all working at the same art, the kind of group musicians and painters and dancers have always had.

The Great stories give us the hope and the courage to survive life.

You are your own best teacher. ~Jimmy Buffett

Don't say that," he said harshly. Rowan studied Lily for a long time. "Do you know what it means to be a survivor? It means that not only do you have to live through things, you have to live with them as well. The second part is much harder and sometimes it takes the rest of your life to learn how to do it. But at least you have the rest of your life, Lily. And that's what's important to me.""Oh, I'm alive," she said ruefully, "Even if I am damaged.""You'll heal," Rowan replied confidently.

A mystery of the universe is how it has managed to survive with so much volunteer help.