// #danielnayeri on soft meat and parentropy… -- To us, parents are like blankets. Or parachutes, in a world that is otherwise full of snakes, and leopards, and Committee men, tornadoes, bullies, and death. And as a kid, you’re looking out and seeing all this with a near constant spike of adrenaline – always a second from panic – because you understand you can’t do much. You’re a little ball of soft meat with no shell or escape skills or battle strategies. You’re a milk drinker with milk teeth that fall out and you bleed. The only protection is those two distracted grown-ups, fighting and scratching at each other. It’s like looking up and seeing the material of your parachute fray and flutter. And you think, “I’m going to die. They’re going to split apart and I will free-fall into brambles where the demons hide, into their waiting claws. The whole world will tear me open.” -- Daniel Nayeri, Everything Sad is Untrue (memoir), 2020 (at Crown Hill) https://www.instagram.com/p/CisJ2GTLCV7/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=