eli

Life is full of screwups. You're supposed to fail sometimes. It's a required part of the human existance.

Why should I even bother? What's the point, really?"He thought for a moment. "Who says there has to be a point?" he asked. "Or a reason. Maybe it's just something you have to do.

I hadn__ gone to Andover, or Horace Mann or Eton. My high school had been the average kind, and I__ been the best student there. Such was not the case at Eli. Here, I was surrounded by geniuses. I__ figured out early in my college career that there were people like Jenny and Brandon and Lydia and Josh__ruly brilliant, truly luminous, whose names would appear in history books that my children and grandchildren would read, and there were people like George and Odile__ho through beauty and charm and personality would make the cult of celebrity their own. And then there were people like me. People who, through the arbitrary wisdom of the admissions office, might share space with the big shots for four years, might be their friends, their confidantes, their associates, their lovers__ut would live a life well below the global radar. I knew it, and over the years, I__ come to accept it.And I understood that it didn__ make them any better than me.

She__ my daughter. The only one I have and the only child I__l ever have. I see the fear in her eyes, I sense her hesitancy, but when I get her to smile it makes up for all those moments in between. I got this one chance. My last chance. I don__ want to blow what little time I have left with her so no, I don__ want anyone rocking her world.

Rest," he whispers against my temple, and despite my sleepiness, the feel of his lips moving across my skin makes me shiver. "I'll be here when you wake up.""Oh, God," I mumble, sliding my arm over Eli's chest and snuggling close. "Have we become that old couple that doesn't have sex anymore?"Eli's chuckle rumbles against my ear. "We had sex this morning.""Okay," I say already being pulled into slumber.

We may be a little broken these days but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I don't know," I said. "What else did you do for your first eighteen years?""Like I said," he said as I unlocked the car, "I'm not so sure that you should go by my example.""Why not?""Because I have my regrets," he said. "Also, I'm a guy. And guys do different stuff.""Like ride bikes?" I said."No," he replied. "Like have food fights. And break stuff. And set off firecrackers on people's front porches. And...""Girls can't set off firecrackers on people's front porches?""They can," he said... "But they're smart enough not to. That's the difference.

It's because of my grandfather that I became a Young Avenger. But it's hard sometimes, to be a black kid carrying a name like "Patriot". I remember talking to Captain America about before he died, and he explained what Patriotism meant to him...It wasn't about blindly supporting your government. It was about knowing what your country could be, what it should be... And trying to lead it there through your example. And holding it accountable when it failed. I remember he said: "There's noting patriotic about corruption or cover-ups... or defending them. But exposing them, well, that takes a hero.

Eli: I walk by faith, not by sight.

Solara: You know, you say you've been walking for thirty years, right?Eli: Right?Solara: Have you ever thought that maybe you were lost?Eli: Nope.Solara: Well, how do you know that you're walking in the right direction?Eli: I walk by faith, not by sight.Solara: [sighs] What does that mean?Eli: It means that you know something even if you don't know something.Solara: That doesn't make any sense.Eli: It doesn't have to make sense. It's faith, it's faith. It's the flower of light in the field of darkness that's giving me the strength to carry on. You understand?Solara: Is that from your book?Eli: No, it's, uh, Johnny Cash, Live at Folsom Prison.

Eli: Dear Lord, thank you for giving me the strength and the conviction to complete the task you entrusted to me. Thank you for guiding me straight and true through the many obstacles in my path. And for keeping me resolute when all around seemed lost. Thank you for your protection and your many signs along the way. Thank you for any good that I may have done, I'm so sorry about the bad. Thank you for the friend I made. Please watch over her as you watched over me. Thank you for finally allowing me to rest. I'm so very tired, but I go now to my rest at peace. Knowing that I have done right with my time on this earth. I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I kept the faith.

Eli: People had more than they needed. We had no idea what was precious and what wasn't. We threw away things people kill each other for now.

Solara: I didn't think you'd ever give up the book, I thought it was too important to youEli: It was, I was carrying and reading it everyday, got so caught up in protecting it, I forgot to live by what I'd learnt from itSolara: And what's that?Eli: To do more for others than you do for yourself