Born to be Brave

"The hat is customizable," he said, struggling with the velcro patch on the front. "If I need it, I have an ICE one too. I pick based off the business i walk into."

"Customizable is an important hat descriptor," I said. "what can I get you?"

"You wouldn't believe how offended people get these days," he said. "And I'm supposed to do something about it if you're offended? You chose to be offended!"

"We all have hundreds of thousands of decisions everyday," I said. I thickened my accent. "That's what my stepdad always said. But I can make one easier - we have a delicious Ethiopian roast available."

"Like if I told you you have a bull ring," he said, "because bulls have rings in their noses. Is that offensive?"

I laughed. "I've heard that before."

"It's a joke, but people get offended. Maybe you're offended."

I looked at him. I smiled. "You aren't trying to offend me though, right?"

Of course he was. I was being friendly and the friendlier I was, the faster he switched topics. He was saying anything inflammatory he could think of to see if I'd take the bait. After about 20 minutes of my redirecting and deescalating, he settled into a more normal interaction. He took up too much of my time showing me a product I'd feigned mild interest in to get him to stop talking about getting accused of inappropriate behavior at work. When we finally disengaged, he spent 10 minutes trying to catch my eye again. When he failed, he left.

There's this new breed of customer who insists on trying to incite political conversation through their clothing and, when that doesnt work, their snide little comments. If I owned my own business, maybe I would have given the guy the fight he wanted. But I work for a corporation and I love paying my bills so I deescalated.

Cardinal Bellini has a lot of contradictory things about him, but one thing I’ve noticed is the value he consistently gives to people (and specifically, Cardinal Lawrence) having the freedom to make choices.

When Benitez first shows up, Lawrence says to Bellini, “I don’t think we have any choice but to admit him.”

Bellini’s immediate response to that is to make sure that Lawrence knows that he does have a choice: he could question the competency of the LHF when he made the appointment.

Bellini says this despite remarking earlier that the LHF always won at chess, presumably well after the time when the appointment would have been made, a year ago. The LHF was working and socializing actively right up until the end of his life.

So this offer of a way out is strictly for the purpose of giving Lawrence a choice in whether to admit Benitez.

After that, Lawrence is forced to consider his own actual opinion about whether Benitez ought to be allowed to join the conclave.

When Bellini meets with his supporters, he defends his stance that individual opinions are important to him and he will not let his own choices and beliefs be swept aside for the convenience of winning over others.

Then, when Lawrence is talking about taking extreme measures like breaking the seal on the LFH’s rooms in order to find out who is behind the disruption of the conclave, he says again, “I felt I didn’t have a choice.”

Again, Bellini immediately reminds Lawrence that he did have options, that he still does.

“Put them back,” Bellini says, referring to hiding the secret incriminating papers that Lawrence uncovered.

This is, again, not an honest option. But it is an option. A reminder that Lawrence’s choices exist, that his choices are his own.

Later, in the chaos of the fallout of that decision, Lawrence says, “You must take over the supervision of this election, Aldo.”

Bellini once again puts choice right back in Lawrence’s hands by saying, “Oh, no thank you. You are steering this conclave. Exactly where, I do not know.”

Finally, Bellini is the one to push back when Tedesco rants about suppressing freedom of religion.

and in the one hand, did i enjoy spending hours researching housing regulations in my state? not especially. drafting this email was stressful. but on the other hand, did i learn a lot by doing that research? yeah, i did. i’m more prepared for my current and future leases. i used some of that info to make decisions about a new renter’s insurance policy. i already told three different people about things i learned that are relevant to their leases that they didn’t know yet. (pro tip: see if you’re supposed to be getting annual interest payments on your security deposit! also look up what specific appliances your landlords must legally provide as of 2026.) i also got to reconnect with my cousin for a bit because her job gave her specific insight on part of the situation, and i’d much rather do that than have a chatbot make shit up for me.

also, i drafted that email with the power of friendship (friends angry on our behalf) and spite (from landlords telling me not to do my research). chatgpt could never.