When I did finally understand that there are two sides to every story, it required letting go of my previous understanding, which is that very basic version fit for kids and other precious idiots. It is not a maxim designed to teach you that no one is wholly right or wrong. It is only that no one ever believes themselves to be entirely one or the other. The side of the story that they tell depends on their ability to consider whether the same is true of other people. Whether you are married or divorced, single or committed, in love or brokenhearted—that, too, is just a list of qualities that can never be the sum total of what a person is. We are always capable of being more than one.