Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Awe and Wonder: Some Initial Reflections


Let me just get this out of the way right now: Yes, that was the best available thumbnail. Yes, I know how dramatic the lighting changes are. And yes, that is Simple Song by The Shins. Content over form, team. Content over form.

Have you ever read Isaac Asimov's short story Nightfall? It starts off with a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson ("If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God?") and comes to an ending shortly after one of the characters whimpers, "...we didn't know we couldn't know..." and I sometimes wonder if we could all see the full nighttime sky at night, would we think about our place differently? 

I remember the first time I saw the Milky Way and that's all I really want to say about that story. I remember it. Our ancestors made up legends about this thing they saw in the sky every night and I remember the first time I saw it. 

I remember the first time I saw Saturn through a telescope too, and that's a feeling that moves the needle close to awe. That is a place, a location, an object situated in space that is at best hundreds of millions of miles away and it shines so bright that I can see it here, with my own eyes, at night. By comparison, you lose all the lights from Las Vegas after you get a hundred miles away or so. Saturn is so far away, I can't even imagine the distance. I have to use metaphors. And yet light bouncing off that distant thing finds its way into my pupils. How can I not look up, night after night? What a tragedy it is when all the grandeur of the heavens is bounced away by clouds or drowned out by our twenty-first century fear of the dark.

I don't remember the first time I saw the ocean because I was probably tiny when it happened, but I do remember looking east out from North Carolina's coast this past fall and thinking that I would soon be on the other side of this unfathomable distance. I can see the curving of the Earth if I look hard enough in this direction, but I can't see the place that I'll be, where I'll land. I don't even know for myself if there is land directly over there. The expanse is so big that if someone else hadn't traveled and made a map for me, I would only be able to wonder, to ponder whether anything might exist out there, beyond everything that I can see.

The night before that moment of unfathomable distance, after we'd driven all afternoon to arrive seaside and the sun was long gone and the sky was patched with clouds lit up by the moon,  I sat on cold sand on the edge of an ocean watching stars swirl and meteors fly. In that moment, with all the universe in front of me, how could I not talk to God? 

And that's it. That's the controversial step. Because I think we're all very happy to talk about awe in nature. NPR's 13.7 blog hosted a week of great posts about awe a couple of years ago that touch on the idea that awe is not limited to those with religious sensibilities. It's more or less an empirical fact that people feel something that can be labeled awe. The cause of that awe or what that awe points us toward is different question entirely. 

So why do some people react differently than others when it comes to awe? That is a deep and broad question and one that I'm going to focus by talking about two astronomers and science popularizers, Carl Sagan and Sir Arthur Eddington. Carl Sagan you know as the Cosmos guy, the billions and billions guy. If you've worked one day in a planetarium, you're on a first name basis with the man. Sir Arthur Eddington you might not as familiar with unless you've taken an astronomy class or two, but he was actually one of the first people to popularize the theory of relativity and was played by David Tennant in a movie about that bit of history called Einstein and Eddington. He actually organized a trip in 1919 to Principe during a solar eclipse to make measurements of the light from distant stars being bent by the sun's warp in space. Dude went on a safari for science. 

Both Sagan and Eddington gave Gifford Lectures, which deal with natural theology (which, put very simply, is the idea that we can learn about God by studying nature) and they both touch on the subject of religious experience in lectures given during their lives.
By far the best way I know to engage the religious sensibility, the sense of awe, is to look up on a clear night. I believe that it is very difficult to know who we are until we understand where and when we are. I think everyone in every culture has felt a sense of awe and wonder looking at the sky. This is reflected throughout the world in both science and religion.
-Carl Sagan


Probably most astronomers, if they were to speak frankly, would confess to some chafing when they are reminded of the psalm “The heavens declare the glory of God.” It is so often rubbed into us with implications far beyond the simple poetic thought awakened by the splendor of the star-clad sky. There is another passage from the Old Testament that comes nearer to my own sympathies—
  “And behold the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake: but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice...”
-A.S. Eddington

How do two people who study the same subject and have the same passion for sharing that subject with the world end up talking about the religious power of the nighttime sky in such different ways? They are of different nationalities and generations, separated and influenced by different wars on different continents, went to different schools, and most tellingly, were raised and lived in different religious traditions (Eddington was a dedicated Quaker and Sagan died an atheist), so there's that, I guess. If we're the product of our times and places, our upbringings and our biases, that's that. But this idea of awe still needles at me. For all that God's not in the earthquake, wind, or fire, Eddington still talks about "the splendor of the star-clad sky." And for all that he doesn't want to privilege the Christian God, there is that connection to something bigger that's implied in a sense of awe and that unstated something is painfully easy to associate with God. It seems that there is a something to connect to, or that we think there is. 

That's what I'm working with here: wonder in a scientific age, or awe in scientists, or what we fall back on when we want to talk about religious experience without being beholden to any one particular religion. When we look at the night sky, really look at it and experience it, do we bump up against something bigger than ourselves? I don't know yet, but I'm trying to find out, okay? We'll see what we find. 

Monday, March 28, 2016

Pictures, Podcasts, and Penseés the Sequel: Bigger, Longer, Smarter

Welcome back to another installment of Pictures, Podcasts, and Penseés, the blog posts I've written in order to not have to think about writing blog posts. Each one contains a picture taken by me, a link to an episode of a podcast I love, and a quote from Blaise Pascal's Penseés. Enjoy!

Picture



This is the Eiffel Tower at sunset on Bastille Day, 2011, taken from the Champs de Mars, I believe. For the story of how I ended up being here to take this picture and what happened before and after, hop on over to the full post on my European adventure blog, Churches, or Something: Paris- Bastille Day.



Podcast

Thrilling Adventure Hour #125: Beyond Belief, "Art Imitates Life"

Find it on iTunes or listen to it on the Nerdist website by clicking here.

You don't need to know anything about the Thrilling Adventure Hour (a staged program in the style of old time radio) to enjoy this episode, other than Beyond Belief usually stars Frank and Sadie Doyle, toast of the upper crust, headliners on the society pages who can see ghosts. Beyond Belief is one of the main segments which is a little more episodic than the other one, Sparks Nevada, Marshall on Mars. This episode stars Padgett Brewster, who you might know from Community or Criminal Minds, and features Bradley Whitford, who West Wing fans will know as Josh Lyman.

Photo credt: Liezl Estipona


Penseé


[23]- Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects.

Friday, March 25, 2016

Music Videos Part 8

I'm feeling some 90's (but really, what 90's kid isn't? Am I right, Buzzfeed? Holywood? Am I right?) and so I think I'll grace you with some videos from that heady time in all of our lives. Trapper Keepers, Lisa Frank, and N*Sync vs. Backstreet Boys. The good old days, that may also extend to the early 2000's, barring a retroactive Y2K disaster.

1. All-Star by Smash Mouth


You'll never know if you don't go, you'll never shine if you don't glow. Timeless words of wisdom.

2. It's Gonna Be Me by N*Sync


Y'all, I reference the shit out of this every April 30th. Thank you, JT, for your contribution to society.

3. As Long As You Love Me by the Backstreet Boys


Oh boy bands, with your crazy outfits and synchronized dances and ridiculous lyrics. "Loneliness has always been a friend of mine, I'm leaving my life in your hands, People say I'm crazy and that I am blind... risking it all in a glance..." Hang on, I think I have a ukulele cover I should be working on right now.

BONUS VIDEO: MMMBop by Hanson


Never a part of the boy band battle because Hanson had our hearts from the start.

4. Drops of Jupiter by Train


I made my parents buy me this album. No gifting me any Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera CD's like all the other girls. Nope. The songs have to have astronomical references or I will make no emotional connection to them. Probably also preferably be about loss of some kind. Except for, apparently:

5. Kiss Me by Sixpence None The Richer


One time, I just recorded the afternoon songs on the radio on a cassette and this was on that randomly recorded sampling. I wore the tape out. Also, shoutout in this video to Dawson's Creek which I didn't watch until I was an adult and don't feel like I missed out on. Pacey, though. Always the clear choice. I'll never understand.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Temporary

I want to talk about permanence. Or rather, I want to talk about the opposite of permanence. I want to talk about being temporary. Temporariness.

(Really, I want to talk about the difference between not wanting something and being told you can't have it but those are feelings for another day.) 

I was in choir rehearsal yesterday evening and elections are coming around for the organizational positions- the president, the social chairs, the person who handles the sheet music- and we all gave a big round of applause for the outgoing officers and when the director talked about how much work these people did and thanked them for all the tasks they do behind the scenes so that the rest of us could just show up, I thought, "That's usually me." I am usually the person who shows up early and leaves late and Gets Things Done. 

But I'm not right now. 

I thought this through in September. I knew I was only going to be here for a year, an intense year of study which had the potential to be too much for me, and I never want to take on any role unless I can really devote myself to it. I knew I'd spend the whole year feeling like I was running out of time and I didn't want to add any stress on top of that feeling. So I didn't plan on doing much or joining many things. I mean, I didn't even join this choir until January (though I'm so glad I did- if you're reading this, thanks for inviting me, Heather!). I figured the cogs in the clock of life would turn just fine without me. 

And they do. There's wonderful freedom in a lack of necessity. But there's a different truth here as well, which is that temporary doesn't mean a lack of usefulness. A thing isn't beautiful because it lasts. We are all temporary manifestations of particles that will one day fade back into particulate silence, but how beautiful these moments within the dissolve! I do not think that there is a genuine reason to avoid involvement because you know you're leaving. There's a Hey Marseilles song about temporary love, full of wonderful melancholy, but the thing is, the love still exists, even if it's just for now.


I'm sure I have limited myself with my assumptions about what I can do when I know I'm just going to leave. There's been a moment every year since I turned twelve when I've realized that my life won't be like this forever. One day I'll be in high school and things will be different. One day I'll be in college. One day I'll graduate. One day I'll have to find a more permanent job. One day I'll move on to my true calling. One day I'll start the next project. This is all temporary. I'm biding my time here on the sidelines until the real thing comes along.

It's a privilege, to view your temporariness with security. 

On Friday night, I participated in the Bethany Sleep Out (and Bethany's still taking donations- I'll put a link at the bottom of the page if you'd like to help out). We were in the pavilion in front of City Chambers and from that vantage point, I can now confirm for you that St. Giles Cathedral rings out every hour on the hour all night long and that Scots are just as loud as you'd think they'd be out on a Friday night. 


We were genuinely lucky with the weather- it stayed above freezing and it didn't rain and though I was cold, it wasn't the coldest I'd ever been. I had layers and blankets and enough cardboard to feel enclosed, safe, and a kind of warm. 


We had access to the toilets in City Chambers and hot food and drinks all night long. I didn't sleep much, but I hadn't really expected to. I knew I'd be going home to my bed and it's not like I've never pulled an all-nighter before. And again, I felt very, very safe. There were staff members up all night keeping an eye on things and we were in a large group and secluded away from the rest of the Mile. 

But what if I wasn't? 

What if I didn't have my layers or my blankets or all of my things? What if I didn't have someone watching out for me while I slept? What if I went all night hungry and thirsty? What do you do when all the stores are closed and there's not a toilet or a sink? What if I didn't have a bed to go back to, somewhere to catch up on the sleep I missed that night? What if there was no permanent place for me to be?

My idea of a temporary situation is one that's only going to last the year and I long for the day when I will be able to count my time with a place or a person in decades. I cannot imagine the temporariness of a life without a home, the way your situation changes day to day, hour to hour, how there is nothing permanent about your life other than how unsafe it is. I have always had a space to call my own and that is such a crucial anchor for me. The emotional trauma of being without that personal sanctuary would leave me steeped and immobilized, a victim to all the physical difficulties of life without a home or a house. 

I never want to experience that. 


There are so many ways in which I want to suck the marrow out of my safe though temporary life, so much living I want to do. I need a cure for my hesitancy and maybe this new awareness will do the trick. But the fix isn't as easy as some casual pondering for others and I believe we should help with that. If I can, I'd like to encourage you to look into supporting your local soup kitchen, food pantry, or homeless shelter, to help the vulnerable in your communities, and if you're in Scotland, I cannot encourage supporting Bethany Christian Trust. You can donate to my sleep out page here or read more about the organization here.

Monday, March 21, 2016

Pictures, Podcasts, and Pensées: The First

Hi there. It's a busy time of year, isn't it? Well, maybe it's not for you, but it is for me. Between essays and essays and, well, you know, essays, all my mental powers have been sapped. So in an effort to save me from effort, I've prepared a series of Pictures (taken by me sometime in the past with a short description), Podcasts (a favorite episode from a favorite podcast), and Penseés (an excerpt from Blaise Pascal's famous work) that I'll publish probably alongside the music video posts to tide the blog over until I can give it my attention again. And thus, without further ado...

Picture


I took this, I believe, through one side of the binoculars we have at the planetarium during what I believe was my last observing session in June 2015. It's a waxing crescent moon behind some tree that was going to be blocking our view of the moon for the rest of the session, so I snagged it while I could, before it got properly dark. We were at a fundraising event in RTP, so there wasn't much we could catch besides the moon and the planets that were up, but it was a great night nonetheless-- after all the guests had gotten a look and the evening was closing down, the waitstaff got a chance to look through the telescopes and some of them were absolutely astonished at seeing a planet through a telescope.



Podcast

Welcome to Night Vale, Episode 45: A Story About Them

(Listen to it on SoundCloud here or press play on the video below.)


This is one of my favorite episodes in my favorite podcast. You don't have to have listened to an episode of Night Vale to know what's going on, it's a great introduction into the world, and by the end, you care more about Them than you thought you were going to. It's like the Blink of WTNV.



Pensée


[8]- There are many people who listen to a sermon in the same way as they listen to vespers.

Friday, March 18, 2016

Music Videos Part Seven

I'm starting to think that I just actually enjoy curating YouTube videos. So here are five more for your life:

1. Thriller by Michael Jackson


Let's not even pretend here. If I was making a list of the most important or significant music videos, Thriller would have topped the list. It's the video that made the storyline of the video an important part of the video. I believe it's the video that put MTV on the map. And it's the video that gave us the Thriller dance, the best thing to happen to Halloween parties since the Monster Mash. Watch it and glory, my friends. Watch and glory.

2. This Year by The Mountain Goats


Well, I never meant to imply that this entry in the list was going to be cheerful and un-disturbing. Just wait. It gets worse.

3. Brick by Ben Folds Five


Someone with a better eye for symbolism in visual arts would probably have a lot to say about the overhead shots displayed behind the band as they play this song about one of the weightiest decisions in person's life, but I wouldn't be that person because I'm too busy sobbing to actually watch the whole video.

4. Slight Figure of Speech by The Avett Brothers


You know what I find to be perfect about this? Not the commentary on American consumerist culture or general statement of disapproval about falsity of existence or the literal rage-quit that happens over the course of the song, but Joe Kwon's perfect cowbell face.

5. Oxford Comma by Vampire Weekend


Y'all, I can't anymore. Here's a video about punctuation. Directed by Richard Ayoade. Let's geek out about that in place of the other videos on this list.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

The State of the Faults

From time to time, I like to update myself on the state of my faults. When I'm writing, they seem dramatically deep but they're always extraordinarily milquetoast they're out on paper. But I've found over the years that my faults are a well that I keep coming back to, knowing there's water here, just a little muddier than is helpful. That isn't really a problem. I always run it through a filter before I click publish.

One of my favorite faults is hating people. Or maybe reveling in how much I'd like to hate people while hiding how much I deeply care about the human race and all of its idiots. To this end, I'd like to introduce you all to The Daily Show's Third Month Mania. You make a bracket picking the winners between all the things that make you angry. It starts off with people. Please, please do this with me, everyone.

Brilliant, horrible, and sports-related,  just the way I like my satire.
Here's my full bracket, for your reference. So many difficult choices. So many.

Secondly, I also procrastinate like a pro. Like it's my job. Like someone could be paying me to do it, rather than me paying, just, so much money to be here ostensibly learning things.1  My instant gratification monkey has an absurd amount of power in my life and to clarify what I'm talking about, I'd like to share this TED talk with you, from Tim Urban of Wait But Why.



A solid follow-up to this TED talk is his post on prepping for the TED talk, where he goes into all the different types of public speaking there is and the amount of prep that goes into each one. I find charts to be handy and I agree with his analysis of public speaking a whole heap.

Last but not least, I bask in the glory of the fault that is ambivalence. There are many things in life that I want to like but am unsure if I'm allowed to like or if it's okay that I like or if I'm maybe going to hell for liking but at the same time, if such a small thing as this earns me hell, then maybe we're all going there together, to that giant Trump rally in the underworld, and if there's enough of us, we can form clans and make hell an okay place to hang out for the rest of all eternity. I mean, we've got forever to figure it out, right? We can do this.2  

With all of that ambivalence in mind, I'd love to share this new short story by Laurie Penny with you in which an angel in the prayer call center tells us about their life. It's got a beautiful illustration at the top of the page and it makes you ask questions and answer the questions and also think very uncomfortably about angels and humanity and also there's more nudity than one would expect in a story narrated by an angel. But it's fantastic and I will indulge in such questionable fictions probably until the day I die, without ever really knowing whether I want to side with them or not.

Click on the very plain angel below to go to Your Orisons May Be Recorded, if you didn't get there already from the hyperlink in the last paragraph.




I am learning things, I swear, I promise. And I will write about that and you'll all be so confirmed in your decision to come back week after week, seriously, I love you guys.
2  Pride is maybe the fault/deadly sin I'm actually looking for here.

Monday, March 14, 2016

Monday Updates

Dear Diary,

Today I found a gray hair.

The end.

***

In other, more important news, I'm going to be participating in the Bethany Big Sleep Out. The Bethany Christian Trust works with longterm homeless and vulnerable people in Scotland. I don't have the answers to the problems of homelessness and poverty (other than radical Christian self-giving, but I don't see us doing that any time soon), so help me chip away just a bit. If you've got a bit of money you'd be able to contribute, I've got a donation page here.

The Sleepout has a video on its main page that I'll embed here. Enjoy the Mumford and do consider donating anything you've got to give. 


Friday, March 11, 2016

Incomplete Data Sets

I've been thinking about how we get to know people and how we don't get to know people and all the crazy random happenstances that have to occur for friendships and relationships to form and how the world is a chaotic system despite observed law-like regularities and that's before you introduce human consciousness and will into the equation. In short, I have questions.

Luckily, I made a video so you can listen to my questions and my thoughts while being exposed to my face rather than having to imagine my voice in your head. Technology, man.


(Cameos made by a stranger's sock, Walt Whitman, Robert Burns, Daredevil, Grumpy Cat, and rocket noises.)

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Some Scattered Thoughts

Did you know that Bertlot Brecht completely changed the ending of Life of Galileo between the 1943 Zurich performances and the 1947 American run? Instead of a Galileo who is intent on furthering science by any means necessary, even surrender, we are left with a Galileo that has not taken his responsible place in society as a scientist. "Unhappy the land where heroes are needed."

Did you know that John Knox, after preaching a sermon in a church down the road, led a group of reformers to go tear down the cathedral in St. Andrews in 1559?

Leaving us with this

and this.
Did you know that the water droplets that form into clouds require a particle of dust to condense around? Without dirt, there'd be no rain.


They dug tunnels under the castle in St. Andrews during a siege. There was actually a "mine" and a "countermine." You can go down them if you'd like, half-bent among the damp and the stones and the tiny growing things.



The concept of time is really problematic, actually. We're stuck with it, you know, we experience it and there has to be some validity to that experience, to the passing of instants that allow change to occur, but as soon as you start to try to nail down what we mean when we talk about time, to try to get at the entity underlying the shared experience communicated by words and concepts embodied by words, you end up with a definition of time as that which is measured by clocks, which is unsatisfying to say the least. And yet our lives in a sense depend on this thing which we cannot properly describe.


Newton once said, towards the end of his life, "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy, playing on the sea shore, and diverting myself, in now and then finding a smoother pebble, or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." I like that the person upon whose work the foundations of physics as it stands today was built also suffered from impostor syndrome, or at the very least an uncharacteristic humility. 



    Monday, March 7, 2016

    Thoughts From the Lectures

    Several times in lectures this semester, we've had lecturers who have come in and sat down with a well-worn book or two, and just talked to us about their topics: Aquinas, Teilhard de Chardin, Paley and Natural Theology. They've done years of work on these thinkers. They know enough to know what they don't know and they know what we should know or what we should get out of a class. They stand on top of mountains of read and annotated paper and books and bibliographies, used up highlighters ringing the mound.

    I miss that. I'm not saying that I was an absolute expert, but I was very good at teaching third graders about space. It was nice to show up to a presentation and know how it was going to go. Curveballs were an absolute delight, rather than a cause for panic. You get excited by new ideas.

    It's weird to be on the other side of that interaction. I dislike speaking out of ignorance.

    I like this idea for a goal, though, for a five year plan. In the future, I should like to be able to show up and speak from my knowledge, open up a frontier and show its boundaries to people. It takes time to build a mountain.

    But it's so worth it.

    Friday, March 4, 2016

    Music Videos Part 6

    ***NSFW language below***

    I just want everyone to know that I definitely did not spend a couple of hours in a row making all these posts so I'd have them stored up for a rainy day. That was not me.

    1. Let Her Go by Passenger


    This is here so I can talk about that one time when I was in a hotel for work and I discovered that Amazon does this "artists on the rise" playlist each month and I'd downloaded that months and had it playing in the background and legit stopped whatever I was doing when I heard this song and had a moment. Then a year later, I hear it on the radio. #hipster, bro.

    2. Ho Hey by The Lumineers


    The lights. Features a tambourine.

    3. Woke Up New by the Mountain Goats


    "The first time I made coffee for just myself I made too much of it."

    4. Another is Waiting by The Avett Brothers


    Shoutout to Scott's ridiculous glasses, which are everything that is good and right in the world.

    5. F*** You by CeeLo Green


    I can't even pretend that I tried to search for Forget You first and I offer no apologies. This song is catchy as anything, but this is also a fantastic video in keeping with the musical style of the song. Any list of great music videos has to keep this one in contention.

    Wednesday, March 2, 2016

    Forgiveness, death, and me

    Okay, before I start, I need you to watch this video. It's around 6 minutes long but hey, you deserve to take a 6 minute break today. Lean back at your desk, or press play and do some tidying around your room, or have it on in the corner while you start your meal. It'll do ya good, I promise.


    Brené Brown on burying and killing off the things in our lives that need to die so we can live. What do you need to grieve though and out of this Lenten season?
    Posted by The Work of the People on Saturday, February 20, 2016
    (If the embedded video didn't work for you, you can also click here.)

    The gist of the message, if I've got it right, is that in order for forgiveness to happen, something has to die and that death has to be mourned before something new can properly grow. To have complete forgiveness, to truly forgive someone, a loss has to be felt and dealt with. Maybe that's why the families of victims of shootings or murders can offer powerful forgiveness to the people who have taken their loved ones away. There's a very concrete loss there to mourn and that grieving process, though different for every individual, is mapped out and encouraged. They've had the hardest part of the work of forgiveness thrust upon them. They've had to grieve and find a new life after that grief.

    I want to think about what this idea of death and grief in forgiveness means in the situations where we have to forgive ourselves. It's already earth-shattering to think about it in terms of relationships (the idea that when someone says something hurtful to you, the relationship that you had before that moment has died, that idea messed me up), but what about when you've got to forgive yourself for something you've done or haven't done? What dies there?

    I've seen this idea on the internet v. frequently recently, and it might just be a part of our zeitgeist, but the question goes, "What would your eight-year-old self think of you now?" That can be a really gutting question, depending on where you're at in your life. I think my eight-year-old self would blink at me, and then I'd take her to the castle and the library and Arthur's Seat and maybe on a train ride somewhere and then she'd look up at me the way I remember looking up at people and I'd be confirmed in my thought that I think my eight-year-old self would be fine with who I am today and where I'm headed.

    But what about the times that I can't be the person my eight-year-old self would want me to be? (I mean, this is also the kid who cut her hair and then hid it under the cat so she wouldn't get in trouble [it was a calico cat and I maintain that the plan would have worked if it had been a few strands of hair instead of the noticeable handfuls that I actually tired to hide and then lie about], so she was sometimes a little shit, but on the whole, I'm not un-proud of her and I don't not value her opinion.) What about the times when I shouldn't have walked away, or I should have stood up, or I should have asked for help, or I should have reached out? How do I forgive myself for the good I could have done without giving myself a free pass?

    Because what dies there, in those situations, is the idea that I'm good enough on my own, the idea that I'm just intrinsically a good person who can do no wrong. I don't think I realized how committed to that idea I was until it wasn't true anymore. I used to be the kind of person who would never do [x]. But I'm not that person anymore. I won't ever again be the kind of person who doesn't do [x]. I am a different person now.

    I am not the kind of person who doesn't stare.

    I'm not the kind of person who doesn't swear.

    I'm not the kind of person who can bear all things.

    I'm not the kind of person who never falls into despair.

    I am not the kind of person who could be held up before God and Man and be said to be completely clean.

    And I am not the kind of person who always does the Right Thing.

    I have to give up that idea.

    Which I think I'm good at, if we're being honest. I do believe that I internally excel at listing the faults I've picked up recently and the faults that I've picked up on recently and understanding that I am not the person my yearbook photos say I was. But there's a second and a third step here. I need to mourn that loss and I never do that. I just throw a "stupid" onto the end of the list of my faults and sit with them, like so many mutilated Barbie dolls playing house. I sit down and enjoy the ruin, as Frankenstein's monster said. But it'd be worth it to have a good cry over the loss as well. There was a perfect version of me at some point and even though it's not at all healthy to try to live up to that standard, I had it and it was mine. I've lost something. I've lost a version of me that I held tightly to. I need to feel that.

    And after I've felt that, I need to see that there's something new here, hopefully something with a deeper view of life and a tendency to not be so hard-hearted all the time and to be less hateful towards myself. Someone who still desperately tries to be good and caring but someone who can also stand back up and begin to try again when she's not.

    In the library yesterday afternoon, when I was supposed to be studying (I got stuff done, okay? Calm down) the sun came out and went through one of the windows and it was this pretty little moment that I shamelessly took a picture of.


    And what I love about that moment is that it didn't last forever and it would have been cheapened if it did. Some spotlight angled just so so that all the time, the wall could dance with the same colors as the window. It would be unremarkable. But the next time I looked up, it was gone. The clouds and probably the rain had come back around, as they do, and this magic stopped.

    But that doesn't mean it wasn't there.

    What I mean is that the people we are, we're temporary phenomena, from day to day, year to year, decade to decade. And that temporary person you were yesterday, maybe they did something that requires forgiveness. Maybe they had a pattern of behavior that needed correcting. Maybe you still do. But when you get around to correcting and forgiving, acknowledge the existence of that temporary person. They were alive. They existed. And you have lost them, for better or for worse. Live that grief when you need to.

    Then let something new be.