Storm surge feelings batter the rocks. I read The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst and it broke my heart a little. I can see why schools are always teaching it to kids. I doubt they'll feel the impact of it the way many adults will. They haven't been alive long enough, and stories like these draw their weight from the life lived after the failure, the mistake, the world that comes after the one they love has gone.

Each day, another brick. 

A pessimistic optimist might say, "Look on the bright side! If it wasn't this, you'd just be regretting something else you did. Probably you would have made this mistake in some form, at least now it's out of the way and you can try to do better."

Now I'm going to shop for some colorful t-shirts with animals on them.