When An Airplane's Engines Fail, It Is

She Was Struggling, As She Always Had Struggled, Not To Show What She Could Do But To Hide What She Couldn't Do. A Life Made Up Of Advances That Were Actually Frantic Retreats And Victories That Were Concealed Defeats.

But Then She Was Not Awkward, She Was Slow-flowing, Graceful, Seductive - A Seductiveness That Had Nothing To Do With Breast And Hips And Legs, But Was An Invitation To Forget The World In The Recesses Of The Body

Is This What Sadness Is All About? Is It What Comes Over Us When Beautiful Memories Shatter In Hindsight Because The Remembered Happiness Fed Not Just On Actual Circumstances But On A Promise That Was Not Kept?

As A Citizen And Someone Who Was A Judge On The Constitutional Law Court For 18 Years, I Feel Whenever I Can Raise My Voice With The Hope Of Being Heard I Need To Do It, But I Wouldn't Assign A Special Wisdom And Responsibility To Writers.

I Didn't Like The Way I Looked, The Way I Dressed And Moved, What I Achieved And What I Felt I Was Worth. But There Was So Much Energy In Me, Such Belief That One Day I'd Be Handsome And Clever And Superior And Admired, Such Anticipation When I Met New People And New Situations. Is That What Makes Me Sad? The Eagerness And Belief That Filled Me Then And Exacted A Pledge From Life That Life Could Never Fulfill? Sometimes I See The Same Eagerness And Belief In The Faces Of Children And Teenagers And The Sight Brings Back The Same Sadness I Feel In Remembering Myself.