From Meredith Maran’s essay “Till Life Do Us Part,” featured in the anthology One Big Happy Family:
My lover and I were in the center of our lives when we met. We’ve both been dancing now – with others, with ourselves, with each other – a long time. We spin each other tenderly, lift each other with strong arms, catch each other with tenderness, but with precision too. If any couple could be invincible it would be us, but we’re grateful, not foolish: we know that even our magic, our luck, our hard-won wisdom cannot protect us if we slip, if we slide, if we fail to protect ourselves. We’ve both stood alone, dazed in the rubble. We know the stage we are dancing on could collapse if we come down on it too hard. We know we are inventing our own pas de deux with each step we take. And so we dance on with wild abandon.
And with terrible care.
dance on, girly. the stage ain’t that weak.