Nice bits about living in urban America: low god density

Sometimes I forget what I look like and I do something out of character, such as sing shepherd tunes in Aramaic while I'm waiting in linea at Starbucks, but the nice bit about living in urban America is that people tend to either ignore eccentrics or move to the suburbs to escape them.
That never would have happened in the old days. People who were different back then got burned at the stake or stoned to death. There is still a downside to being different today, of course, which is why I put so much effort into blending in, but the downside is usually just harassment and discrimination, and that is a vast improvement over dying for the common man's entertainment.
Living in the modern world contains quite a few vast improvements like that. Most old souls I know think the attraction of modernity rests on clever ideas like indoor plumbing and sunglasses. But for me, the true attraction of America is that it's pratically godless. When I was younger and dodging the Romans, I could hardly walk a mile in Europe without stepping on a stone sacred to some god or other. But out here in Arizona, all I have  to worry about is the occasional encounter with Coyote, and I actually rather like him. (He's nothing like Thor, for one thing, and that right there means were're going to get along fine. The local  college kids would describe Thor as a "major asshat" if they ever had the misfortune to meet him).
Even better than the low god density in Arizona is the near total absence of faeries.

Kevin Hearne, Hounded

Alla faccia tua, Thor!

Hounded, by Kevin Hearne

There are many perks to living for twenty-one centuries, and foremost among them  is bearing witness to the rare birth of genius. It invariably goes like  this: Someone  shrugs off the weight  of his cultural traditions, ignores the baleful stares of authority, and does something his countrymen think to be completely batshit insane. Of those, Galileo was my personal favorite. Van Gogh comes in second, but he really was batshit insane.

Kevin Hearne, Hounded

Uno dei migliori incipit letti negli ultimi anni!

Daniel Hernandez-Salazar, Affinché tutti lo sappiano

Dalla mostra di fotografie di Daniel Hernandez-Salazar, Affinché tutti lo sappiano, Museo di Roma in Trastevere, giugno - agosto 2016.

...si alzò e comprò un campo.

Le presenti riflessioni potranno apparire come dei sogni alieni dalla "realtà" a uomini, anche di chiesa, divorati dalla "concretezza" delle urgenze socio-politiche del momento. I sogni, però, quando sono fondati sulla parola di Dio - come ci ha insegnato Martin Luther King - sono infine ben più "concreti" del "realismo pratico" di chi non prende in attenta considerazione tutta la verità della parola del Signore. Anche a Geremia, in mezzo alla catastrofe del suo popolo e della sua patria, e stretto dalle angosce di una tristissima vicenda personale, la rivelazione del disegno divino della nuova alleanza apparve come un sogno. E, in effetti, si trattava di "un sogno di Dio", ben più reale delle nostre veglie ansiose, preoccupate solo dell'immediato; un sogno che continua a condizionarci tutti anche oggi. "A questo punto mi sono destato e ho guardato; il mio sogno mi parve soave" (Ger 31,26). E, di fronte alla fine di un mondo, invece di lasciarsi andare al lamento e alla disperazione, si alzò e comprò un campo (Ger 32).

Francesco Rossi De Gasperis, Cominciando da Gerusalemme, pagg. 225-226.

Fotografia di Sebastiana Papa, raffigurante una clarissa del convento di Cortona, esposta nella mostra Di Vari Credi al Museo di Roma in Trastevere, estate 2016.

Abandonment and trust issues

In an unprecedented burst of candor, I tell Connor an absolute lie that should be hard truth. "I don't think I'm interested."
"Why?" His eyebrows are up high, the expression on his face incredulous. "She's amazing."
Apparently, now that I've staked my position to Connor, I feel the need to defend it. "I've been burned before. Not interested in going there again."
"Burned? How?"
I give a sigh and brush my fingers through my hair. "Long story short, I had a girlfriend who dumped me when I came back with parts  of me left in the desert."
Connor winces, but I give  him the rest.
"My parents never came  to see me during my recovery; it was too much on them. I'm not keen on facing the whole potential for abandonment again."
Propping on his elbow, Connor levels me with a solemn look. "Christopher, I don't think them abandoning you had anything to do with your injuries. I think it had everything to do with the fact that they're the assholes. They're the ones who are deficient and weak - the ones who are broken."
"Maybe so," I say  in agreement. "But  it's sort of left me with trust issues."
It's a sympathetic look that Connor gives me. "And anger issues. No wonder you're an asshole. I totally understand it now through."

Sawyer Bennett, The Hard Truth About Sunshine

Immagine dalla mostra di fotografie di Daniel Hernandez-Salazar, Affinché tutti lo sappiano, Museo di Roma in Trastevere, estate 2016

Refocusing

I've thought a lot about her words, and her meaning is quite simple. It's nothing more than finding the good in a situation and appreciating it with such passion that it makes up for the loss of other things. It's redirecting. Refocusing. Accepting.  Moving on.
All the things I've not even been able to start to comprehend  since I got out of the hospital. I don't understand how she's been able to do it, but I can't stop wondering.
What makes her stronger than me?

Sawyer Bennett, The Hard Truth About Sunshine

Sebeta, Etiopia, Monastero del Getsemani, Monaca ortodossa. Fotografia di Sebastiana Papa, dalla mostra Di Vari Credi, Museo di Roma in Trastevere, estate 2016.

Let them go

Jillian had given a soft laugh, and I could even imagine her ruffling his hair if he had any. "Then don't let those emotions control you. Have those feelings, acknowledge what they are, recognize them for what they're worth, and then let them go. Turn your attention to that next great thing you want to accomplish".
Sawyer Bennett, The Hard Truth About Sunshine