My wife was the first romantic partner who understood both American and native parts of me - not so much the positive stuff, but the damage.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the deep understanding and connection in a romantic partnership, acknowledging both positive and negative aspects of one's identity.
In this quote, Sherman Alexie expresses the profound importance of being truly understood by a partner. He highlights that his wife has the unique ability to grasp the complexities of his identity, encompassing both his American upbringing and his Native American heritage, including the struggles and pain he has experienced. This emphasizes the value of empathy and connection in relationships, particularly when navigating personal challenges.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a discussion about the importance of empathy in relationships.
Gordie, the white boy genius, gave me this book by a Russian dude named Tolstoy, who wrote, 'Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' Well, I hate to argue with a Russian genius, but Tolstoy didn't know Indians, and he didn't know that all Indian families are unhappy for the same exact reasons: the frikkin' booze.
I draw because words are too unpredictable. I draw because words are too limited. If you speak and write in English, or Spanish, or Chinese, or any other language, then only a certain percentage of human beings will get your meaning. But when you draw a picture everybody can understand it. If I draw a cartoon of a flower, then every man, woman, and child in the world can look at it and say, "That's a flower.
We all have to find our own ways to say good-bye.
I write books for teenagers because I vividly remember what it felt like to be a teen facing everyday and epic dangers. I don't write to protect them. It's far too late for that. I write to give them weapons-in the form of words and ideas-that will help them fight their monsters. I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed.
A lot of people have no idea that right now Y.A. (young adult). is the Garden of Eden of literature.
I was studying the sky like I was an astronomer, except it was daytime and I didn't have a telescope, so I was just an idiot.
No one is more conventional than a woman who is falling out of love.
It was as if thousands and thousands of little roots and threads of consciousness in him and her had grown together into a tangled mass, till they could crowd no more, and the plant was dying. Now quietly, subtly, she was unravelling the tangle of his consciousness and hers, breaking the threads gently, one by one, with patience and impatience to get clear.
My mom was a little weepy. My dad was very logical about it. Once they realized you can't change, they wanted to know that you can be happy and be gay. Once they realized that, they were very cool about it.
Inviting others to help us with our work in the Church helps them feel needed and helps them feel the Spirit. When these feelings come, many people often then realize that something has been missing from their lives.
Death ends a life, not a relationship.
The value of marriage is not that adults produce children but that children produce adults.
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