A Broken Heart, Part I

Yantai, China

Photograph by the author

Flight from New York to Shanghai, China, Oct. 14

We think our selfishness is redeemable.

I say this in the sense of an inner assumption that my sins aren’t so big; and that I’m worthy of forgiveness. Yet when I truly sense the magnitude of my transgressions, I see how deep they run—to the bone. 

In the confessional, we …