Freak of Literature

what’s extra fun is that in that era, hospitality was an incredibly serious duty of homeowners: they had to take in a traveler, and couldn’t kick him out until he himself had transgressed against them in a really obvious, inarguable way. like, there are legends of gods traveling incognito and cursing people who were inhospitable to them, who turned them away or who didn’t whole-heartedly treat them as honored guests. at the least you were a huge dick for turning away a traveler, and at worst that traveler was a god who turned your whole household into trees or pigs or something. there’s even some funny stories about hosts doing their best to accommodate guests that are being increasingly ridiculous in ways that don’t quite break the social contract, but are really weird and inconvenient. 

So, I’ve been pulled over a few times in my life. Not many, but a few. And I’ve also been in a couple of cars that got pulled over. And let me tell you, if you were actually doing something wrong, the officer doesn’t make any small talk, just straight into “I clocked you doing 70 in a 55.” The only time I’ve ever gotten the “do you know why I pulled you over?” was the time when I wasn’t doing anything wrong, and I got let go even though he insisted to the end that I was doing 87 in a 70 (white privilege at work).

“I want a gender / that does more / than perform apology.”

“There are people we meet in life who miss being important to us by inches, days, or heartbeats. Another place or time or a different emotional frame of mind and we would willingly fall into their arms; gladly take up their challenge or invitation. But as it is, we encounter them when we are discontent or content and they are not. Whatever they are, we are not and vice versa. Two trains going in different directions that pass for a few powerful moments at full speed, blasting noise and wind but then they are gone. Whatever serious chemistry might have been possible if, isn’t.”