I learned about being wrong from the Hardy Boys, those famed teen-aged sleuths who starred in a series of sixty-eight books I started reading when I was in third grade. Actually, it was the Hardy boys' girlfriends who were central to the experience. These characters — burned into my third grade brain indelibly — became as alive for me as my own family

Sometimes our hearts get broken in the long-short span of our lives. Sometimes we get busted up on the rocks of love and disappointment. Sometimes our knees get skinned and bashed around, along with our hopes. Sometimes winter seems long and cold, too sour and slushy to bear. And then we--astonishingly--begin to recover.