Is it better to ask for love or patience?
Charlie paints many beautiful scenes in this book; sadly, they are not easily captured by a sentence, or even a paragraph, so I’m left with this one quote on unrequited love:
She debated her birthday wish and wondered if it would be better to ask for love or patience.
What is it to ask for love? An expression of strong desire, but perhaps also an assumption of deserving love, knowing what would be good for all parties, or an innocent selfishness. What is it to ask for patience? Passivity and an acceptance that this fate is not (or no longer) in her hands. Maybe it is selflessness — a wish that for things to run its course, as uninfluenced as possible.