i believe that feelings are real and substantive. i believe many of our big words and politics and ideas can be distilled down to, "i am hurt." i am inspired most by people who are fluent in the language of hurt -- people who have the language and skills to navigate complex feelings with sincerity and conviction, people who understand and respect that we do not always move from reason, but often from pain. i am most impressed by people who can process jealousy and loneliness and fear. i wish we could take off work to deal with heartbreak. i wish we could understand work as another form of heartbreak. i often look forward to the debrief of an event more than the event itself. i think "how are you?" is simultaneously one of the most beautiful and tragic questions in the world: the promise of engagement, the reality of ennui. i hate the way we are required to cleave ourselves from our feelings in order to be regarded as legitimate. i hate that we are celebrated for doing this. i believe that there is a bruise there -- a deep and sustained grief that lives in the space between what we feel and what are able to say. that's why it is often hard for me to tell the difference between a mouth and a gaping wound, a word and a drop of blood, a belief and a funeral.
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