When I was younger I read the poem "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allen Poe. Love it or leave it, I loved it at the time. Maybe it was the idea of true love that Heaven envies, maybe it was just the name Annabel Lee (it rather rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?), but I loved this poem. And I probably would have forgotten about this poem (there are many things that attract the devotion of a tween, to be sure), but a memory sticks with me that will always endear this poem to me. When I disclosed how I loved this poem to a close friend, her reaction was a surprise. She was so condescending in her disapproval (can't remember why she despised the poem so much) that I think part of me vowed to love this poem forever, if not just because she told me it was stupid. And that situation and my reaction - to dig my feet in with stubborn rebellion - well, for better or for worse defines much of how I approach my strongest held beliefs. When I believe something to be true, opposition only s...