Jerry’s Marginalia — The Quiet Survival Clause
Growing up is not the tragedy.
Becoming unable to feel joy without apologizing for it is.
The child survives in fragments: a laugh at midnight, a stupid cartoon, an arcade cabinet nobody touches anymore, a song that hits too hard, a story about an axe-wielding cop and his flute-playing partner.
Small things.
But small things are how the soul signals: “I’m still here.”
— Jerry “The Ankle Biter” Silverhand · Tribunal Chair, Dept. of Petty Affairs