“A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called “leaves”) imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.” – Carl Sagan

There was a teenage boy who had been raised in a good christian home. He spent most of his life just trying to fit in. Trying to be what he thought everyone wanted him to be. But life has a way of being cruel and this boy developed some pretty severe mental illness. He was wired differently than everyone he knew and it seemed like no one could understand him. Everything that made him an individual was demonized and he tried so desperately to fit into the hive mind that in the end it was as if he did not exist. He despised himself because he thought that he was despicable before the eyes of god. There was a period of time that he desperately wanted to have an intimate relationship with this Christian god (the sort of relationship that everyone told him about). The church told him that god…

In Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, married couple Shadow and Laura spend time together. Which is not surprising, except for the fact that she’s…dead.

Yup, relationships in literature can sometimes be strange, offbeat, unusual, unexpected, or improbable — making it seem, in comparison, like Felix and Oscar were kindred spirits in Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple. But drama or humor can abound when there’s interaction between people with very different situations, personalities, and demographics.

Most examples I’m about to give are nowhere near as extreme as Laura and Shadow’s “till death doesn’t do us part” union. But the relationships I’ll mention are still of the rather unlikely sort — albeit often positive.

For instance, there’s Queequeg and Ishmael in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. A masterful black harpoonist and a fairly ordinary white seaman — raised thousands of miles apart in dissimilar cultures — who become pals after their quirky…

The town is Provincetown, at the tip of the Cape.
When the Moon is full, it glows like a midnight sun losing all detail.
The glowing point of light at the bottom middle
is Pilgrim’s Monument.

For the writers around me, one of your clan is busy making movies 😊, watch out!

SS@msksmiles

I’m fine. Totally fine. Don’t you see this smile on my face? Never mind the tears. They mean nothing. They’re just an accident. I’m accidentally allowing every little whack you take at me with that proverbial ax of yours hurt me and cut me down. But, I should never do that. Really?! Who does that?! I should be better. I’ll be better.

I’m not angry. Who gets angry? I could never be angry. Only awful people get angry. Clearly I can’t love you if I am angry. That’s impossible. Everything ends when you’re angry. Everything.

I’m not depressed. I’m just tired. I didn’t get enough sleep last night.I’m just sick. Its my allergies. Its what I ate. Its that I didn’t eat. I ate too much. I haven’t had enough caffeine. I’m just off. I don’t have the time. I’m unmotivated. I’m lazy. So lazy. I just need a nap…

To be honest, I have not so many memories about the afterparty. We drunk a lot, we danced a lot, we had a good time. I tried to avoid Jesus, but had a nice chitchat with the drummer called… errr… whatever. He’s a funny guy. We went to a pub, then back to the L.o.v.e. I met Danny, a kind fellow of mine (with a car), and somehow convinced him to take Gabriel home. He (I mean, Gabe) was almost passed out, I’ve never seen him like that. If I had been sober, I would have been worried about him (fatal alcohol intoxication, you know).

Unfortunately, I was stoned too and round 2 o’clock I felt so sick that I went out of the L.o.v.e. to get some fresh air. L.o.v.e. was a stable in the past, it’s far from the downtown. I took a little walk on the pitch…

If there is a lack understanding, responsibility, patience, loyalty, and or self-esteem this is self—destructive and the person’s perceptions will be flawed.