1. Memories
1.1. Memories can make you sad or happy
1.1.1. "I remember squatting in the road drawing a picture in the dust, a picture which Joey gleefully erased with one sweep of his dirty foot" (Page 1)
1.2. There will be memories in your life that are very hard to remember
1.2.1. "When I think of the hometown of my youth, all that I seem to remember is dust" (Page 1)
2. Guilt
2.1. feeling guilt is not always a bad thing
2.1.1. "I did not join the merriment when the kids gathered again under the oak in our bare yard Suddenly I was ashamed" (Page 3)
2.2. guilt can help you learn from your mistakes
2.2.1. "I leaped furiously into the mounds of marigolds and pulled madly, trampling and pulling and destroying the perfect yellow blooms" (Page 5)
3. Anger
3.1. you shouldn't let anger get the best of you
3.1.1. "For some perverse reason, we children hated those marigolds. They interfered with the perfect ugliness of the place; they were too beautiful; they said too much that we could not understand; they did not make sense" (Page 3)
3.2. Anger is only a weekness
3.2.1. "Then I lost my head entirely, mad with the power of inciting such rage, and ran out of the bushes in the storm of pebbles, straight toward Miss Lottie, chanting madly, “Old witch, fell in a ditch, picked up a penny and thought she was rich!”" (Page 3)
4. Fear
4.1. Fear won't always hold you bad
4.1.1. "our real fun and our real fear lay in Miss Lottie herself. Miss Lottie seemed to be at least a hundred years old" (Page 2)
4.2. Fear is not always a bad thing
4.2.1. "When Miss Lottie’s house came into view we stopped, ostensibly to plan our strategy, but actually to reinforce our courage" (Page 2)