May: Think I Found An Echo
There is so much I have drafted and reworked, and have erased over and over.
Because I want to be clever and I want to be seen. But it's basically this:
“It is the phenomenon sometimes called,” alienation from self.” In its advanced stages, we no longer answer the telephone, because someone might want something; that we could say no without drowning in self-reproach is an idea alien to this game. Every encounter demands too much, tears the nerves, drains the will, and the specter of something as small as an unanswered letter arouses such disproportionate guilt that answering it becomes out of the question. To assign unanswered letters their proper weight, to free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves- there lies the great, the singular power of self-respect. Without it, one eventually discovers the final turn of the screw: One runs away to find oneself, and finds no one at home.” Slouching Towards Bethlehem pg. 148, 1961.
Didn’t make sense to write about it if Joan Didion said it best.
This is where I’ve been lately.