A blogger I have never met and hardly know, made me cry. Silent, happy tears rolled down my cheeks. My heart was overflowing with gratitude, my mind puzzled by the kindness of a stranger. Sometimes it’s not just the gift itself, but the thought that counts.
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
In 9th grade, after reading about Joan of Arc, we watched Carl Dreyer’s 1928 The Passion of Joan of Arc, a French silent historical film. Some of the girls in our girl’s only boarding school were quickly bored, and continued to look at the teenage magazines they had smuggled into the auditorium, the rest of us were mesmerized by the screen.
Oh, my dear internet! Thank you for making my life easier! Telephone books, street maps, encyclopedias, DVDs, and postcards have disappeared. Gone are the days when a TV station asked me to sit in front of the television at 8 p.m. sharp, now I am getting fed the news by headlines faster than I can digest them. Gone are the times when program makers teased me about having to wait a week for my favorite series to continue. Today I decide what, when and where I watch. With the help of my phone, or tablet I could even binge-watch sitting on our storage shed – just in case I ever feel like it.
The more people I get to know, the more I love being by myself. The more I am by myself, the more questions I have. People have changed and I haven’t changed with them. I am stuck in a past that is long gone, and I find myself wondering where that leaves me.
I killed a spider
Not a murderous brown recluse
Nor even a black widow
And if the truth were told this
Was only a small
Sort of papery spider
Who should have run
When I picked up the book
But she didn’t
And she scared me
And I smashed her
“For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge you’ll never walk alone.
Texas was one of a handful of states to deem abortions non-essential procedures during the pandemic. But what impact has that decision had? As the US was going through the darkest days of the crisis, the state of Texas was fighting hard in the courts to ensure abortions did not take place there.
There is a psychological term that at the moment I wish it could also be used in political planning and our future vision of the post-Corona time. Adversarial growth, which can be loosely translated as growth after bad experiences.
The Oscars and I have broken up years ago, not sure what happened between us, I suppose we were tired of each other, had different points of views, had drifted apart over time. Yet, here I find myself being mesmerized by an Oscar acceptance speech. A voice for the voiceless.