listen, robert, going to another country doesn't make any difference. i've tried all that. you can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another. there's nothing to that.
-jake, the sun also rises, hemingway

fa d e

that I may smile

I said, “I will watch my ways,

lest I sin with my tongue;

I will keep a muzzle on my mouth.”

Mute and silent before the wicked,

I refrain from good things.

But my sorrow increases;

my heart smolders within me.

In my sighing a fire blazes up,

and I break into speech:

Lord, let me know my end, the number of my days,

that I may learn how frail I am.

To be sure, you establish the expanse of my days;

indeed, my life is as nothing before you.

Every man is but a breath.

Man goes about as a mere phantom;

they hurry about, although in vain;

he heaps up stores without knowing for whom.

And now, Lord, for what do I wait?

You are my only hope.

From all my sins deliver me;

let me not be the taunt of fools.

I am silent and do not open my mouth

because you are the one who did this.

Take your plague away from me;

I am ravaged by the touch of your hand.

You chastise man with rebukes for sin;

like a moth you consume his treasures.

Every man is but a breath.

Listen to my prayer, Lord, hear my cry;

do not be deaf to my weeping!

For I am with you like a foreigner,

a refugee, like my ancestors.

Turn your gaze from me, that I may smile

before I depart to be no more.

Psalm 39

NAB 2010