It had been in the people who loved him, held safe there the whole time, waiting for him to stop performing long enough to reach out and find it.

He did not need to be strong to be worth loving.

He never had.

He only needed to let himself be loved, and it took the loss of everything he had built his pride on to finally teach him how.

I would not wish that lesson on anyone, learned that way.

But I have never met anyone who learned it more completely, or who was more at peace once he had.

Chapter 23 — The Man Who Let Us Love Him