Catharsis

Hard Faction

[aroundtheflame]

Occasionally, there will be a scream.

[aroundtheflame]

She dances away the fear.

[aroundtheflame]

I can

[aroundtheflame]

[aroundtheflame]

I want to go somewhere yet I have nowhere to go but within.

[aroundtheflame]

Writing the truth is the hardest

[aroundtheflame]

We gazed into the reflections we saw and believed that only our point of view was the truth. What made us so afraid? So afraid to see that the person opposite me was seeing something different.

Esu walked on a road between two villagers on either side of it. One side of his hat was green and the other was red. When he passed them, the villagers got into a big argument over the colour of his hat. "It was green!" One said, "No, it was red!" Said the other.

Esu, on the other hand, remained divine no matter the colour of his hat or if he wore a hat at all.

[aroundtheflame]

The courage to be vulnerable in times of need

[aroundtheflame]

Can we be real for a minute?

[aroundtheflame]

I’m just fucking terrified.

[aroundtheflame]

Helmet on.

[aroundtheflame]

The first time I saw Jupiter I blacked out several times. I may have puked as well, I’m not sure, it was very disorienting.

You hear things like “Jupiter can fit 1633 Earths inside it” but you don’t really know what that means until you’re right in front of the planet and it feels like the marbled clouds are reaching into your brain and playing with it like a slinky.

Again, it was incredibly disorienting but I got better. When I could look at the planet without fainting I began to feel the beginnings of overwhelming awe. The fear of the incomprehensible void behind me felt like a weight on the back of my skull but strangely I found comfort in the gas giant in front of me. Familiar yet so alien. At least I could hold onto the fact that there was something in front of me rather than the endless void.

With time I could put the planet behind me, turning instead to stare into space. No idea where Earth is, the Sun, far far away. This was a strange baptism; plunging myself into the depths of cosmic loneliness. A wonderful exercise during my first few months of being able to fly, teleport, and exist unharmed in the vacuum of space.

In time, there was peace; within and without and I hung suspended between Jupiter and the void.

[aroundtheflame]

The language dies with me. It will live in others, but it will die in me. It will die in and around me. Can you accept that?

Something else will take its place. Your culture will be preserved in some ways; your spirits, your general way of life. The language may change but who you are will not.