Cynicism is a luxury; hope is a necessity. (opens in new tab)

This morning went the way most of our mornings go, which is to say I barely noticed it. The lights came on when I asked them to. The water was hot. The coffee maker did the one thing it exists to do. My daughter found her shoes more or less where she had left them, the car started, the road to school was open, and by half past eight I was at my desk having given almost none of it much focused thought. A routine morning is a forgettable one. That is, in a sense, what makes it smooth. A working...