As I closed the door, I realized that I did feel a pang of sympathy for them. It was a complicated world, full of desperation and choices that could lead one astray. But it was also a world where truth, like numbers, had a way of coming to light, no matter how deeply buried.

I returned to my window, watching the sparrows flit about, free and unburdened. In that moment, under the bright afternoon sun, I felt the quiet satisfaction of having stood by the simple, unassailable truth.