There are Things More Important Than Living —so the Lieutenant Governor of Texas says, more important than Quinn or Charlotte, more important really than Vera or Silas or all the children I might speak to this year. More important, too, than a green moth and fawn lily clinging to one another as frost thaws. More important than the mink I glimpsed along the creek a week ago last Wednesday— the color of its fur in morning light more radiant than any woman or king ever draped over their shoulders.
