Summer Reading: The Dog of Marriage - Stories by Amy Hempel

(p.50) There is a theory of healing based on animals in the wild. People have observed animals that barely escaped a predator, and they say these animals lie down and shake, and in so doing somehow release the trauma. Whereas human beings take it in; we don't work it out, so it lodges in us where it produces any number of nasty effects and symptoms. If you follow a kind of guided fantasy, supposedly you can locate a calm, still place inside you and practice visiting it over and over, and that's as far as I got with this theory. It's supposed to make you feel better.

(p.52) I want what is fair. I don't want a fight. But the truth is, I'm shaking -- right now, writing this letter. My hand is shaking while I write. It's saying what I can't say -- this is the way I say it.