And in the best of all possible lives, that beginning and that end are the same:

in poem after poem I encountered words that mark the first something made out of language that we hear as children repeated night after night, like a refrain:

I love you.

I am here with you.

Don’t be afraid.

Go to sleep now.

And I encountered words that mark the last something made out of language that we hope to hear on earth:

I love you.

I am here with you.

Don’t be afraid.

Go to sleep now.