High fit

Brightness is about how much light you bring to what you're looking at — whether you default to the hopeful side or the dark side of a situation. Lucy Kalanithi was focused entirely on what could go wrong: more pain, harder dying, impossible logistics. Paul Kalanithi's response — 'wouldn't it be great if it did make it more painful?' — turned the brightness dial up. He reframed the whole situation from one of anticipated suffering to one of anticipated aliveness. Lucy absorbed that shift and made her decision from a brighter vantage point.