impossible dream

Jack White wants love to change his friends to enemies and to murder his mother. 

I don't think it works like that. 

good news

In his first letter to the Philippians, Paul talks about how, while some preach Christ out of 'goodwill', there are others who preach Christ 'from envy and rivalry', but he goes on to say that it doesn't bother him because all that matters is that Christ is preached. That shows a very deep and expansive faith - an assurance that, whatever happens, all is well, because what happens doesn't hinge on us but depends on God. 

It brings to mind 2 Corinthians 13:8: 'For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.' At first that seems wrong. Of course we can do something against the truth. We can lie and people do it all the time. But what this verse is getting at is that, when you lie, you don't change the truth. You can't change the truth. So again, we see this assurance that all is well. 

essential

Generally, I don't like short books, but two that I do like are Harold Bloom's The Anxiety of Influence and A Map of Misreading. 

The Anxiety of Influence is the core of his theory, and then in A Map of Misreading, he begins to apply the theory to reading. 

After those 2 he continues to expand on his theory and his books get longer, and some of them are great, but they aren't essential. You can get a really good grasp of Bloom's theory by reading and rereading those first two. 

ታሪክ

It's almost a lie when I explain what's going on in my mind by referring to what's going on in the real world. But it's not a lie. It's a story - a fiction.

new noise

Recovery has been largely a change in what I give my attention to. The old life still draws me in, but I'm aware now of an alternative, which makes all the difference. 

Stories that always seemed to be so many cold, soulless data points have now become interesting. I can make my own. 

misnoma

Sorry, but I'm not going to take life advice from someone publicly known as 'the rapist'.

Therapist! I'm a therapist, not 'the rapist'!

knead

I always wondered what it would be like to be addicted to drugs, and then I experienced it with Valium, but now that I'm very nearly off Valium, I don't have a sense of what it's like to be addicted to it. 

I remember needing it but remembering needing it and needing it are very different things. I always remember the most traumatic and painful times in my life with a sense of fondness - a sense of their value.