Always fond of macabre bedtime stories, she would tell me the parable of the scorpion and the frog, in which the scorpion, having hitched a ride across a stretch of water in return for a promise not to attack his mount, breaks his vow and administers a potent and fatal sting.  As the frog and the scorpion are both drowning, the murderer apologises to his victim.  ‘I couldn’t help it,’ says the scorpion.  ‘It’s in my nature.’  (p. 170)

part of me thinks i should just stop opening myself up to other people.  because maybe my candor is brave, and maybe it’s admirable, and maybe it makes me human and connects me to the world in a way that nothing else ever could.  but it almost always hurts.  and it doesn’t make me any less lonely.

you know what, though?  i’ll probably never stop.  i can’t help it.  it’s in my nature.