a mouse lays on the sidewalk.
Category: Altruistic Motivation
Once Upon A Time
The world was terrible. That’s something I didn’t appreciate for a long time, and I’m still not sure it’s something I really grasp. It’s one thing to see a statistic. It’s another thing entirely to sit and to try to imagine what those numbers are trying to say — what horror is tracked by the […]
Beneath all things
There’s something horrific about the idea of hell. Which is, of course, the point of it all. It’s not a particularly scary story without some horror to go alongside it. But I think there’s something far, far, more unsettling than hell itself. Our response. It’s not particularly new as an idea, but forgiveness goes hand […]
Last Call.
I hope it’s a good one.
Privilege and Luck
I think maybe it’s worth highlighting that nothing I’m saying here is particularly novel, nor do I even endorse a lot of the sentiment I’m about to express. Others have said what I’m about to say before, and almost certainly better than I have. I think it’s still worth writing this for two reasons. Firstly, […]
The lies we tell ourselves
In periods of extreme sadness, and in periods of witnessing such feelings in others, I’ve noticed that the very mindset of stress and pain alters how we perceive reality. When I’m drowning in insecurity I become immersed in a story. I’m unlovable — and the reason I’m in pain is that I’m worse than everyone […]
The Forest and The Trees
This summer I went on vacation with my family to New Hampshire. When I was young we would always come up here. My parents would rent a cabin on a lake, just a ways away from where my aunt and uncle own a small dairy farm. My family hasn’t been to this lake in seven […]
It’s a Wonderful Life
I sit at my desk, by a window that looks out onto the backyard and the road beyond our fence. Every year at Christmas, for my entire college career, I have come home to celebrate with my family. And in the odd hours between watching my mom doing an unfair amount of cooking, I will […]
The Hardest Thing to do is Nothing
A lot of the people I care about have suffered from depression or other mental health issues. It’s horrible. If I could reach out and grab the pain of my loved ones I would. I wish I could pull that pain forth into the physical world. There’s something tangible about physical interaction, I wish I […]