News at Eleven (Back Page): Through the narrative of his ailing dogs'

last days, [Mark] Doty explores the different textures of hope and denial, despair and depression. "Despair is, in a way, an appropriate response to the world," he reflects. "Life without an element of despair would seem an empty enterprise, a shallow little song-and-dance on the surface of experience." Without it, he wonders, "might we just float away?"

from The Guardian: A man's best friends

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