Present Imperfect

Oh The Glory of It All by Sean Wilsey

“It’s funny how easy it is to take things away from children. It only takes desire. So easy—to confuse and make kids bad, to hurt and get them lost. It is a snap for even the weakest, dullest adult. Kids have no power. Only emotions. Though everyone remembers the power of their childish emotions so well. They echo on through your whole life. Down a corridor until you arrive at a room full of them. They can push you far, far into your life before you are even aware of them, let alone reconsider them.

“Which raises the question: If parents have absolute power over children, how can that not corrupt?” Read more...

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

“By living our lives, we nurture death. True as this might be, it was only one of the truths we had to learn. What I learned from Naoko’s death was this: no truth can cure the sorrow we feel from losing a loved one. No truth, no sincerity, no strength, no kindness can cure that sorrow. All we can do is see through it to the end and learn something from it, but what we learn will be no help in facing the next sorrow that comes to us without warning.” Read more...