of zebras - the love collection here, when i say i never want to be without you, somewhere else i am saying i never want to be without you again. and when i touch you in each of the places we meet, in all of the lives we are, it's with hands that are dying and resurrected. when i don't touch you it's a mistake in any life, in each place and forever' ― bob hicok zebra embryos start out with a dark skin but go on to develop white stripes before birth

One cannot always tell what it is that keeps us shut in, confines us, seems to bury us, but still one feels certain barriers, certain gates, certain walls. Is all this imagination, fantasy? I do not think so. And then one asks: My God! Is it for long, is it for ever, is it for eternity? Do you know what frees one from this captivity? It is very deep serious affection. Being friends, being brothers, love, that is what opens the prison by supreme power, by some magic force. Vincent van Gogh, letter to his brother, July 1880 (ruby's letters may be read in any order, but the oldest is no 1.)