I kept thinking, “I just want somewhere to put my grief.” I was imagining a vessel for it: a long, shallow, wooden bowl, irregularly shaped. I had the sense that if I could chant, or rend my clothes, or tear my hair, I could, in effect, create that vessel in the world.
–Meghan O’Rourke, The Long Goodbye: A memoir (New York: Riverhead [a dvision of Penguin Group], 2011)