Our ignorance of the world

"Marla, you need to do this on your own. You need to find the motivation to move forward. I can't do that for you. I can encourage you. I can threaten you; I can push you, but I can't motivate you. Motivation must come from within you. If you want your life to be better, do it. Work on making it better. Your life is in your hands. Solve your problems. You are the solution. Do your own will. Make yourself the center of and the hero of your story. You need to believe in yourself."

"You make it sound so easy."

"Our ignorance about the world is only equaled by our ignorance of who we are. Ask yourself, how much is there to you that you are not utilizing? You have a choice, Marla. You can continue to make yourself miserable or make yourself strong. The effort required is the same. You need to believe in yourself. Come on. You believed in Santa Claus for years when you were younger, surely you can believe in yourself for a day. All you need to do is believe in yourself, one day at a time. Anybody can walk leaning on another person. Only the powerful walk alone. You need to learn how to walk alone. I know you are strong enough to do it; you need to find the motivation to do so."

"You don't know how difficult it is to be in my situation. You don't know what it is like to love somebody who is not present in your life, who is not reciprocating that love. You can't imagine the agony."

"Yes, what would I know about loving somebody with every bit of my soul? What would I know about loving somebody who is not in my life, who is not reciprocating that love? That nonsense aside, let me tell you this—you are going to stop this shit, get your act together, and stand firm. It starts now. Look at your life today. It has far more hell than it should and not enough heaven as it could have. This is not any way to live."

Marla struggled to hold back tears. She rose from the couch and went to the window. He could hear her fighting to hold back tears.

"Let it out, Marla. Cry it out. Cry for as long as you want. I am here."

"Franca is in Milan, and I am here, alone in this apartment. I fucking hate it. Every night I go to bed, Franca is not here with me. I can't take it. You are running around with whomever. You don't come here to visit; the world has abandoned me. You don't know how overwhelming the loneliness and the emptiness can be. I want to be happy again. Everybody is happy, and I am here miserable—alone and miserable. Why won't God make it stop? Now I have you, the one person I can always rely on, telling me you won't help me, and I have to do it myself."

"Marla, the door to happiness opens from the inside. You need to open that door outward. I did not say I would not help you. What I said was I can't motivate you."

"You—you have left me for dead. For months I have been here alone, and now you show up and criticize me for having a few glasses of wine. Holy fucking Christ, when did you stop being in my corner? Franca is gone forever. You have left me for dead…"

"Repeat it, repeat it, Marla."

"Repeat what? What do you want me to say Tommaso?"

"Say 'Franca is gone forever’. Repeat it, say it loudly. Say it, goddamn it. Do you want me to say it?

Tommaso raised his voice as he said, "Franca is gone. Franca is gone forever. She is never coming back. What are you going to do—drink yourself into oblivion every night? The Marla I love…"