I felt darkness because I had been deep in the hollers, and I knew glory because I had stood on top of the beautiful mountaintops. More mountaintops please. More mountaintops.

I looked at Ruby now and I saw all of the things she knew. She knew how to do all kinds of things no one else knew how to do. She knew how to render lard and make soap. She knew how to make biscuits from scratch and slaughter a hawg if she had to. And she knew how to do things that are all forgotten now–things that people from Ohio buy because it says homemade on the tag. I looked at the quilt she was working on. The quilt wasn't a fucking symbol of anything. It was something she made to keep her children warm. Remember that. Fuck symbols.

I dreamed about Ruby and she was telling me it’s just one thing after another. Then she told me that some shit happens and then some more shit happens and then some more shit after that. There are floods, explosions, disasters, tornadoes and none of it makes any sense. It’s all just one big joke you have to laugh at. Are you laughing?