He was not happy. He was not happy. He said the words to himself. He recognized this as the true state of afiars. He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door to ask for it back

"There must be something in the books, things we can't imagine, to make a ( Read more... )

"Everything everybody does is so-I don't know-not wrong, or even mean, or even stupid necessarily. But just so tiny and meaningless and-sad-making. And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you're conforming just as much as everybody else, only in a different way."

-J.D. Sallinger.
 Franny and Zooey

( quote from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens )

Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude. It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them ( Read more... )

A colleague at the University of Chicago had told me that the biggest problem with school bullying is mass denial. She explained that bullies don't realize the pain they're inflicting can cause lasting emotional and psychological scars. Society says "kids will be kids." As a result, the bullies get off the hook, and later don't recall hurting ( Read more... )

That night as she got ready for bed alone, after having taken her bath alone, she wrote in her notebook:
I feel all the same things when I do things alone as when Ole Golly was here. The bath feels hot, the bed feels soft, but I feel there's a funny little hole in me that wasn't there before, like a splinter in your finger, but this is somewhere ( Read more... )

"On the count of four, I want you to begin walking together around the courtyard. Nothing to think about. No grade here. One, two, three, go!"
The boys began walking. They walked down one side of the courtyard, across the back, up the other side, and across the front, completing the square.
"That's the way," Keating said. "Please Continue."
( Read more... )

“Progress, what progress has America made since before World War 2? The Japanese and Chinese are making all the progress with electronics and cars. Europe and Asia already have highly fuel efficient cars. Our writers, painters, musicians, haven’t done anything of quality in years. Fifty Cent and Jay Z are our best musicians and the white collar ( Read more... )

It is not the diamonds or the birds, the people or the potatoes; it is not any of the nouns. The miracle is the adverbs, the way things are done. It is the way love gets done despite every catastrophe.

"Adverbs" by Daniel Handler

"I don't want to go back to school," I said evenly.
"But-,"
"You can teach me here. You're a teacher,"
"But you're so lonely."
"I'd be lonelier there. I've never belonged at that school." I was becoming, much to my own displeasure, a bit heated as I spoke. "I hate them and they hate me." There. I had overstated my case. They had never ( Read more... )