Kansas, 2011.

I wrote my letter of resignation today, using the same template I designed for a cover letter. Out one door, into another.

—

I was walking near the lake last weekend when a woman stopped me for directions. "Which way is the church?" she asked. I asked her if she was attending a wedding. A friend of ours was attending one nearby, I knew.

"No, a funeral. The other end of life, I'm afraid."

—

Sam has a line he uses, a line I like: "Life. It's just so . . . linear." But, really, it's all much more like the above. Up and down and around and back from where we came.