Faux power

Mary works as an inpatient addiction counselor. This week the clients had a secret-keeping exercise. Each was tasked to write down every secret she’d kept since entering treatment. They were separated while they wrote out their lists. Usually it’s a purifying exercise. A chance to… Read more

Recovery

Even eating a brownie, across the table from me, he’s not OK.

“Do you want to tell me?” I ask.

“I can’t say,” he says.

“How’s the brownie?”

“I like it,” he says.

“Do you know about reputation?”

He shakes his head. “What is it?”… Read more

Purify

When I was a sophomore in high school, I watched Gone with the Wind three times in a row, and cried myself stupid. The first time I heard The Cure’s Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, the summer after 7th grade, it was all I… Read more

Tarnished

I like my heroes dirty. Just imagine how insufferable Christ would have been if he hadn’t hung out with hookers and tax agents. Prometheus chained to a rock for sneaking fire to mortals. Lyra abandoning her daemon Pan at the riverbank in the… Read more