- Check for ceiling fans
- Check for lights tied to switches
- Check ceiling height
- Note that carpet, while desirable, may be worse than hardwood + rug because of previous tenant’s dirt
- Check for pull-up bar readiness
- See during day, specifically to understand natural light
Mercy was just a word. I never thought I needed it. Not as much as other people do.
I revolted against goodness. Thought it had deceived me. Thought I could do better than others. Didn’t need what made life sweet for them. I’m not who I thought I was. Am I a good person? Even want to be? Or just seem like one so people will like me?
“When you are in pain you have to stay in the pain to see what it has to teach you.”
“In those moments of pain you can either be broken or broken open. To be broken you get calloused over. To be broken open, you make yourself even more vulnerable even though it’s a hard time.”
A period of rupture and repair is how people grow.
willing to bear the child of a man who uses one of those plastic ball throwers to play fetch with a dog.
I’ve always laughed at the claim that the story of Jesus is “the greatest story ever told.” Have these people not read Harry Potter? Shakespeare? Dostoevsky? Seen literally any of the great films from the past century?
But maybe this evangelist would counter that “greatest” means something like a foundation which makes all that follows possible. The Beatles and music would be one such example. So too could be the Christ story… except that Greek myths preceded Christ. And Greek myths, I’d contend, are not only more interesting, but also more helpful in offering guidance for how best to live (though I do accept that “The Parable of the Good Samaritan” is excellent and revolutionary in redefining morality). Jesus’ flawless nature is simply less relatable than gods and heroes who share our flaws.
Anyway, thought of you because of “Circe.” I think this novella is quite well-written and clever.
It was Hell, if hell is where the life we love cannot exist.
Chronology is one method only and not the best.
Every man assumes that what is valuable to himself must be coveted by others.
sent me cowering inside a shed of excuses.
I suppose it was surrender. Who is strong enough to escape their fate? Who can avoid what they must become?
No man believes what he does not feel to be true.
Lose an hour in the morning and you search for it all day.
Love is thing of heart. Or love is like this sake: night of joy, yes, but in cold morning, headache, sick stomach. A man should love concubine, so when love dies he say, “Goodbye,” easy and no injury. Marriage is different: marriage is matter of head… rank… business… bloodline.
“Twould bend company rules on private trade, aye, but the trees what survive cruel winds are those what do bend, eh, are they not?”
“A tidy metaphor does not make a wrong thing right.”
Tain’t good intentions what paves the road to hell: it’s self-justifyin’s.
Two hours pass at the speed of one but exhaust Jacob like four
carry a bag (or whatever) for one person a week. Easy to do in an airport.
“right” to end sentences. More annoying than “um.”
Reflexive contrarianism? Little difference from that which it so strongly disdains. But considered contrarianism where one carefully inspects a belief he’s inherited, carefully considers an alternative, and decides an alternative is preferable? An act worthy of celebration, even if the celebrator doesn’t share the alternative view.
Of course, celebration rarely occurs, since insiders often turn defensive in the face of well-reasoned outsiders. So, I’m not surprised that both you and Jill face uncomfortable encounters from people far too certain about something they’ve surely considered less extensively.
But this cost is worth bearing, for the habit-of-mind that makes the bearing necessary is a habit that helps one better know himself and the world.
—
Skating is my favorite outsider culture. “Reading” these magazines counts as a rare form of relaxation for me. I think you may also enjoy the flipping of pages, the imagining of yourself copping the styles (see the Sammy Montano advert), and the gaining bits of wisdom from dudes living far differently from the educated elite. Also, laughing. Like when a skater you like lists his “Songs for a Broken Heart.”
Hope your heart is the opposite of broken.