Extraction

"When your great-grandparents grew up in Stalin’s terror-famine, your grandparents in the Holocaust, and your parents in a straddle between totalitarianism and democracy, you grew up confused about pain. Especially your own, by comparison. Were you entitled to it? Was it real?

"Almost always, the answer was no. Food, shelter, clothing, education — these were readily available to me. Without physical or intellectual deprivation, what did I have to cry about?"

~~ from "Extraction" by Tali Perch

my whole childhood

"My relationship with my mom was like the relationship between a cop and a criminal in the movies—the relentless detective and the devious mastermind she's determined to catch. They're bitter rivals, but, damn, they respect the hell out of each other, and somehow they even grow to like each other. Sometimes my mom would catch me, but she was usually one step behind, and she was always giving me the eye. Someday, kid. Someday I'm going to catch you and put you away for the rest of your life. Then I would give her a nod in return. Have a good evening, Officer. That was my whole childhood."

~~ from Born A Crime: Stories From A South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

Meet the Working Class

It's hard to make ends meet.

The Buddha in the Attic

"For three days a cold wind blew down from the mountains without stopping. Clouds of dust rose up from the fields and the bare branches of the trees thrashed against an empty gray sky. Gravestones toppled over in our cemeteries. Barn floors flew open. Tin roofs rattled. Favorite dogs ran away. A Chinese laundryman was found unconscious and bleeding on the waterfront and left behind for dead. They mistook him for one of us. A barn was set on fire in a remote island valley and the stench of dead cattle lingered downwind for days."

~~ from The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

damp, drizzly November in my soul

“Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly [January 6] in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship.”

~~ [mostly] from Moby Dick by Herman Melville

the mention

I can't say I haven't had my moments.