Sublime

was built like a two-by-four and dressed like an extra in The Mighty Ducks, but I knew beauty when I saw it. It was in a bottle of bleach and boobs that looked like overfilled water balloons.

Toni has stopped trying to tame her thick, screaming hair and it has repaid her by arcing around her face in a way that gives her chin narrative.

Was it when you got fat, or bald, or got bad plastic surgery that couldn’t disguise the fact that you were fat and bald?

Everyone’s eyes are caught so Adina looks at herself in the mirror, expecting to see a goddess emanating a buttery glow. Instead, she sees a petite woman in a half-top lunging politely. Hair frizzed above her head like a disoriented halo. Unattractive redness blooms through her cheeks and neck.

As I age, the more convinced I am that the concept of “normal” is the most toxic thing in our culture.

1. I know what makes people grow more reliably than anything else. It is: taking on a difficult project with some amount of public accountability. This can be large or small: a lecture series, a business, a blog, a house, a child, etc.


2. It’s strange, but I know that it’s common to resist positive emotions, as well as negative ones. Ask yours