on writing

6. One of the clearest signs of intelligence is being able to hear an opinion you disagree with and not act emotionally

if you take [jelly fish] out of the water their entire form disappears, like when an unspeakable truth is lifted up out of the silence and expressed as lifeless gel, yes, they’re untranslatable, they must stay in their own element.

— Tomas Tranströmer, Baltics

But as I spent the holidays reflecting on this “Robin-to-your-Batman” mindset, I found myself facing a grimier, more menacing realization around why powering their agency has felt so much safer and easier than cultivating and motivating my own.

As I ate leftover Persian food on my mom’s antique couch in LA, listening to her 3 dogs shriek and bark in... See more