Good Bones - Maggie Smith

"Life is short, though I keep this from my children.

Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,

a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways

I’ll keep from my children. 

The world is at least fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative estimate, 

though I keep this from my children.

For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.

For every loved child, a child broken, bagged, sunk in a lake. 

Life is short and the world is at least half terrible, and for every kind stranger, there is one
who would break you, though I keep this from my children.

I am trying to sell them the world. Any decent realtor, walking you through a real shit hole,
chirps on about good bones: 

This place could be beautiful, right? 

You could make this place beautiful."