As with all great TV moments, the conclusion of Roseanne is a love it or hate it experience. I’m in the love it camp — so much so that it’s my favorite series finale of all time. Roseanne’s monologue is one of the most truly beautiful things I’ve ever heard on television (and it ranks pretty high in beautiful things heard in life, too). I love unexpected flashes of truth, moments of being as my girl Virginia called them, and this is definitely one of them.

In choosing life, I realized that my dreams of being a writer wouldn’t just come true; I had to do the work. And as I wrote about my life, I relived it, and whatever I didn’t like, I rearranged. I made a commitment to finish my story even if I had to write in the basement in the middle of the night while everyone else was asleep. But the more I wrote, the more I understood myself and why I had made the choices I made, and that was the real jackpot. I learned that dreams don’t work without action; I learned that no one could stop me but me. I learned that love is stronger than hate. And most important, I learned that God does exist. He and/or She is right inside you, underneath the pain, the sorrow, and the shame. I think I’ll be a lot better now that this book is done.