H ard to love O bnoxious T errible

“Our family lived out in the woods without electricity or running water.  Both of my parents were mentally ill and believed that God spoke to them directly.  They didn’t believe in education or medical care.  I was the oldest of seven, and all of us were physically abused.  The only thing that saved me is that I knew it was wrong.  I always plotted my escape.  I wrote diary entries when I was eight years old, vowing to live a different life.  And when I was sixteen I got pregnant with my first boyfriend.  The pregnancy was actually planned, because I thought it would get me out of the house.  And I was right.  My mother was so angry that she kicked me out, and I moved in with my boyfriend’s parents.  Their names were Esther and Salvi.  They had a lovely house with a fireplace.  They ate dinner every night at the table, and used napkins.  They were probably lower middle class, but to me it seemed like opulence.  Esther and Salvi showed me a different way.  They treated me like their own daughter.  When I was seven months pregnant, my raging mother came banging on the front door.  Esther let her in, and my mother started shouting.  She said I was a whore.  And an evil person.  I was terrified.  I crouched in the stairwell and listened to everything. When my mother finished, Esther replied: ‘That is not what we see at all.  Linda is a good person.  She’s very smart.  And very helpful.  And she’s going to be a wonderful mother.’  Esther helped me raise my daughter and finish high school.  I went on to become a lawyer and adopt two additional children.  But even now, 45 years later, I can still hear those words she said while I crouched in the stairwell: ‘Linda is a good person.’  It was the first time that anyone had ever stood up for me.” #quarantinestories

SEX EDUCATION Season 2, Episode 1

why have i been disgraced

‘well I guess we have to do icebreakers. i’m Jon, and I fear bears. why do I fear bears? because bears can run at 30 miles per hour and Chester Zoo is 30 miles away. that means a bear can be outside this door in an hour. why would a bear be here? because they can smell fear and I fear them.’

“My father was a talented engineer.  He could fix any type of truck, and he used his income to help the poor.  Our neighbors’ school fees and hospital bills were always paid.  My mother would bring needy people to our table, and order us to give them the best portions of meat.  She’d explain that these people rarely had the chance to eat well.  Both my parents were very religious.  But they always taught us: ‘Humanity first.  Everything else comes after.’  When the genocide began, they invited our Tutsi neighbors to hide in our house.  There were seven of them.  Some lived under the beds.  Others lived in the cupboards.  I was a teenager back then and my job was to change the waste buckets.  It was a miserable existence, and it went on for months.  But we prayed with them.  We tried to give them hope.  We told them that God was in control.  At night we’d give them Muslim dress so they could go in the backyard and get fresh air.  Our neighbors suspected us because our curtains were always closed.  We never slept because we knew the penalty for hiding Tutsis was death.  But all seven people in our house survived.  Unfortunately my mother and father died a few years ago, so I must tell their story for them.  Their names were Mukamunosi Adha and Gasano Juma.  They saved seven lives.  And they valued love and humanity more than anything.”   (Kigali, Rwanda)

“run mad, as often as you choose.”

 first christmas at hogwarts