When he asked me what I did during my long hospital stays, I told him that I got really good at Scrabble, and he said, “Me too!” He went on to tell me about how, even though he spends most of his time in solitary confinement, he and his neighboring prisoners figured out a way to play the game. They made boards out of paper, and they’d call out their moves through their meal slots. I was struck by the tenacity of it—how we learn to adapt, how survival becomes a creative act.