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coweye · 2 years

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Commitment Issues - Part 2

Pairing: Benjamin Miller x Reader Words: 2.1k Summary: When you try and take your friends with benefits relationship to the next level, Benny's response isn't quite what you were expecting.

Warning: Angst, Slight(?) Depression, Alcohol Abuse, Breakup blues, Tough Love from Will, Benny being a✨fuckin' idiot ✨who can't process emotions in a healthy way. Big Brother Will UwU

This one's a doozy folks, Enjoy!💕 See you next Friday @ 10pm GMT - We got a writing schedule now boizzz.

➢ Fic Masterpost

⇠ Previous Part

A few days morphed into a full week before you could even think of responding to the text messages from the guys and that was only because Catfish threatened to turn up at your place if you didn’t.

In order to deter, or in the very least, delay him you'd spouted some fictitious bullshit about a break up, you’d received a few awkward words of consolation from your brother in arms - promising you your continued privacy and a shoulder to cry on should you need it.

William however, made no such promise and your period of convalescence came to a swift end on the eleventh day when Ironhead turned up at your front door.

Admittedly it was poor timing on your part as ‘Drops of Jupiter’ was blasting from your speakers and you were in pyjamas at around 6pm.

The hammering on the door had interrupted your session of self reflection as you were sprawled on the couch so you could only imagine the figure he was presented with - three day old sushi pyjamas, a glass of rosé in your clutches and severely unwashed hair.

♫ Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star? One without a permanent scar and did you miss me, While you were looking for yourself out there? ♫

The man who had for all intents and purposes been a brother to you for as long as you could remember - your secret coital acts with his brother were not a factor in the bond you shared - stood on your doorstep with an unimpressed edge to his jaw.

“Turn this depressing crap off.” He huffed whilst pushing past you to turn the knob on the speaker to zero himself. “What the hell is going on with you?”

“Didn’t Francisco tell you? I got dumped.” You sigh dramatically and fall back onto the sofa after downing your glass of wine.

Will takes a seat in the arm chair opposite, his eyes surveying every detail of your disarray and watching you like you were a creature on edge, ready to attack. You’d think he was checking you out if he wasn’t so delightfully Will - or if you’d at least showered in the past three days.

“Over a guy? You? Come on Y/N, Buck up. You’re made of stronger stuff than this.” You can't help the glare you send his way as your eyes rove his face finding the similar features to the man who had crushed your heart, you have no control over the ugly bile of resentment that rose.

“I just needed a bit of self care. A few days to sort myself out.” You know the second the words leave your mouth you’ve played your cards wrong, that would’ve scared Frankie or Santi off but Will, no, William Miller was like a dog with a bone; it was just better to rip the band-aid off and find out exactly what it was he wanted.

The raising of a single eyebrow as he picks up one of your old discarded wine bottles from the floor by his feet tells you exactly what he thinks of that statement. He sets it on the side before he carries on. “We’re all meeting down at Flanagan’s. Come on down with the guys, it’ll be good for you.”

“You’re saying that like I've got a choice… Why can’t you just let me sleep.” You whine burying your face in your dressing gown, exaggerating the very real exhaustion you felt in your bones.

“Oh yeah, there’s no choice here. I’ll just bring the guys here if you don’t show.”

“Dick.”

He nods your way and swipes the remote control from your coffee table. Switching the television on and flicking through until he lands on some boring documentary before he finally gives you his attention. “Go and get ready, I’ll wait.”

There was no way to know if Benny was going to be there tonight.

One of the many downsides to your sordid rendezvous with the youngest Miller was the secrecy, Will didn’t know he was walking you into a nightmare.

Fuck it, better to get it over with, you decided finally despite your tired bones.

You and Benny were friends first and foremost - you couldn’t let this get in the way, that being said it couldn’t hurt to make him regret his decision.

So, with revenge in your heart, you began to shower trying to wash the last week of self-pity down the drain taking the layers of sweat and grease with it.

It didn’t take you long to feel human again, a bit of makeup and a brush through your hair had worked miracles and before you knew any better you were walking into the Irish bar your closest friends had always frequented.

It turned out you and Will were the last to arrive and much to your relief Benny was in the bathroom - his leather jacket hung off the back of one the chairs and in front of it was a half drank beer.

You took your seat to the side of Valerie Morales, it just so happened it was the furthest you could get away from Benny without sitting on a different table.

“Frankie mentioned there was a guy…” She trailed off sympathetically once you took your seat.

“Cariño! We’re taking her mind off of him!” Frankie reminded his wife with faux annoyance at her prying. “Where the hell’s Ben? Cheap Bastard… Conveniently disappears when it's his round.”

Your eyes searched the room for the man of the hour until you spotted him leaning lazily against the bar smirking like the cat who got the cream, deep in conversation with a remarkably busty blonde woman.

You can’t help the drop of your stomach or the narrowing of your eyes at the discovery, though the latter gives you away as Will follows your sights.

“Looks like he found himself a friend.” He mutters with an eye roll at his brother's antics. You try for a conspiratorial smirk but it lands somewhere between a grimace and a flash of teeth.

You’re annoyed at yourself for giving the game away; you might as well have ‘BENNY’S THE GUY’ painted on your forehead. So, in a display of sheer strength and will. You pull yourself together, you can be okay for three hours, you decide.

Three hours and then you feign tiredness and leave.

Three measly hours - hell, you’d been pinned down being shot at for longer - you could totally sit in a bar with your ex for three, maybe two hours. No problem.

“You get the first round in William. You dragged me away from a great nap for this!” Your jesting tone doesn’t sound quite right even to your ears but you try your best to ignore it and persevere. The others grant you the same favour, though they believe it is a generalised agony in response to your dumping, rather than the conduit sitting at the bar.

Will holds his hands up in surrender, just glad you’re trying for an air of normalcy and the next hour goes on with casual small talk, all dancing around the subject of your elusive suitor until you're suddenly three drinks in and Benjamin hasn’t returned to the table.

He’s now running those stupidly delicious fingers up and down the woman's arm, sat on the barstool whispering what was no doubt sweet nothings into her ears - you should know, he'd done it to you in secret more times than you could count.

This was textbook Benny before the two of you had begun your indiscretions. Whilst you had carried on he kept himself to himself, never hitting on other women in your presence as a sign of what you assumed was respect.

This meant that this behaviour wasn’t out of the ordinary for him, as such nobody so much as raised an eyebrow when he returned to the table in passing to grab his jacket before the two of them left.

“You don’t come over to say Hi?- What would Ma say?” Will berates him jokingly as they embrace.

“Ma, would kick our asses for drinking in a dump like this! … Y/N.” He nods in your direction finally acknowledging you with a smile that doesn’t quite meet his eyes, the action in itself is strange and you know he’s caught Valerie’s attention with it.

“Hey, Ben.” Your voice has a relaxed edge to it and you impress yourself, appearing unaffected whilst screaming inside. (You can’t help but accredit this to the half a bottle of rose you’d pregamed with and the three beers you’d sunk since arriving.)

He breaks eye contact and fixes his sights on Catfish before the easy smirk rises “I’m heading out, boys.”

Catfish makes an awful catcall which both Will and Valerie thankfully ignore. The latter glaring at her husband before turning your way, trying to piece together the information she had gathered in your brief interaction with Benjamin. If the sympathetic eyes are anything to go by, she’s guessed correctly.

Two years of secrecy taken out with one idiotic greeting.

A sudden wave of nausea overtakes you.

You don’t know how you even manage to find the toilet after giving a quick ‘Excuse me’ to the table but you quickly find yourself revisiting the beers and Nachos you’d ordered.

When finally your stomach seizes its spasming, you lean back against the stall. You can't help but close your eyes and focus on the buzzing of the harsh bathroom lights. Your eyes well with unshed tears half from the gagging, half from the constant weight in your chest you just seem to carry around with you these days.

Your throat clenches, though not in the urge to regurgitate but to hold back emotions you knew were about to flood you.

“You okay?” You hear Val’s muted voice through the door and see her heeled ankle boots through the gap in the bottom of the stall.

“I’m good.” You manage brokenly despite the constriction in your throat, taking a strip of toilet roll you wipe under your eyes and then your mouth, attempting to make yourself semi-presentable.

You barely have time to look up at the mirror before she’s on you like a bloodhound.

“You and Benny…” Val doesn’t quite question, leaving it open ended. Your eyes meet her own in the mirror as they scan your form.

You don’t have any fight left in you, not to lie to Valerie, besides who cared anymore, it was over. What was the point in keeping up the lies, you had no face left to save.

“... yes.”

It's somewhat freeing as the truth hangs between the two of you. She’s stunned into silence for only a moment, before bombarding you with question after question, quick to cover the 5 W’s.

For the first time you let yourself talk to another person about the intricacies of yours and Bennys romance. You unloaded the heavy weight you’d been carrying around for nearly two years and it was almost cathartic.

A secret shared is a burden halved, that's what grandma always used to say and despite the old cow being a horrifically huge racist, you had to give her credit, the old woman had a point; your stomach felt lighter than it had in months.

Valerie listened with sympathetic eyes, never interrupting or asking for more than you were willing to give. Just taking it in and nodding from time to time and when you’d told her all you could, she wrapped you in a hug; one so comforting it could only be from a mother.

Tears ran down your cheeks uncontrollably and in that moment you despised the man; you’d never been much of a crier before Benjamin Miller.

“Enough of the pity party.” You huffed through your tears. “Damn, I haven’t been able to stop crying every five minutes. I’m turning into such a pussy - I’m surprised I’ve got anything left.”

Valerie laughed.

“If I didn’t know any better I’d think you were pregnant!” and just like that, with her joking words, your entire brain went into panic mode.

Your internal sirens were ringing.

Frantic mathematics and tracking of your periods began.

The realisation dawned on you.

Vomiting, crying, exhaustion - All symptoms of your breakup - or perhaps something cuter and much more sinister.

As Valerie took in your widened calculating eyes her laughter died off with one last snort of disbelief “You’re not right? You’re not. You couldn’t be...”

The whites of her eyes slowly exposed themselves until the two of you stared at one another through matching sets of saucers.

⇢ Next Part ✨

#Ben stop being a dick and apologise rn pls T-T #I'm sorry to drag out the pain but I promise #The angst will make the payoff even better #benny miller x you #benny miller x reader #benny miller x female reader #benny miller #triple frontier fic #triple frontier #Ben Miller x reader #Ben Miller x You #Garrett Hedlund

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purplesurveys · 3 years

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1194

survey by n0b0dysp3rf3ct

What’s your favourite song to sing to? These days it’s Sweet Night by V, but it always changes tbh. I don’t really have an all-time favorite song to sing along to.

What’s your relationship like with your exes? Nonexistent. I’m good at blocking off people and memories like that, no matter how special the relationship had been or how much time we spent together. I don’t feel guilty about it; I actually feel more at peace this way.

What mistake do you find yourself making over and over again? Procrastinating and putting off things I could literally finish in 10 minutes or less. I’ve been better about it, to be fair to myself; but the habit comes out every once in a while and I always end up kicking myself in the ass for not already knowing any better.

What are you afraid to lose? Hmm...probably people, especially my friends. I’ve been starting to think more about this these days. My two best friends are in very good, committed relationships, and I know that one day they’ll have lives and families of their own, maybe even move out of the country. I’m finally acknowledging the fact that maybe I am afraid of getting left behind and ending up alone. Those thoughts make me sad, though, and I hate being stuck in feeling sad, so I try to shake them off and focus on my happiness in the present.

What’s one of the hardest decisions you’ve had to make? Agreeing to break up with Gabie. I never liked admitting defeat, so that was a particularly brutal afternoon.

Have you ever gave up on a love interest as they acted differently around other people? I’ve never been in this situation.

Do you think you’re ready for love? What does love even mean to you? I’m taking a break from it, actually. I was in a relationship that I put a lot of effort in for a long time, and I don’t mind focusing on myself for now especially considering I put myself in the backseat for the entirety of said relationship. I feel no need to jump into another relationship any time soon.

What was the last thing you turned down doing? Angela was showing me some shops that were starting to put up offers for the new BTS Hybe Insight photocards. Those photocards are only being given away to visitors who go to the new Hybe museum, and we didn’t want to technically pirate them, so we both chose not to buy. We can wait till we can travel to South Korea together and get the photocards for ourselves :)

Have you ever fell for someone who was clearly bad for you? Technically...yeah? She eventually ended up being bad for me, but I didn’t know it at the time.

Are you a party animal? No. I like attending parties, but I never want to be the center of attention.

Who are you the biggest fan of? My best friends.

When was the last time someone really let you down? I haven’t felt that disappointed in anyone in a while.

What song can you not help but dance to? Mic Drop.

You’re DJ for the night - first track to get everyone going? ...Now that I mentioned it, Mic Drop. The Steve Aoki remix in particular. Sorry folks, y’all are getting K-Pop tonight.

Have you ever been too scared to tell someone how you felt about them? Yes.

Where do you feel the most inspired and creative? Erm, never? I never feel creative. But when it comes to being inspired, I usually feel it when I have one-on-one talks with Bea. She schedules a brief talk with me once every few months just to catch up and ask me how I’m doing, work-wise and growth-wise. I find that it really helps and I always exit the call wanting to perform better at work.

Have you ever been hit on by a pushy person? No.

When’s the last time you met someone for a coffee? I’ve never done that.

Describe the ideal man or woman for you: Kim Taehyung. That man is doing a stupid great job ruining everyone else for me.

What place in nature would you love to visit one day? Somewhere with auroras.

What accent do you find attractive? Like I’ve said on previous answers, I like Florence Pugh’s accent, whatever it is. I could listen to it all day.

What do you think you’re really good at? I’ve always loved writing and I’m pretty confident in my skills.

Do you have something you’d like to tell someone right now? I know Jo is going through a breakup and I want to reach out and share a few reassuring words, but I’m not very good at that kind of stuff. And since she isn’t initiating, it might mean she wants her own space for now too.

Have you ever had feelings for a friends partner? Never.

What career would you love to pursue: I’m more than okay with my current field. But had things turned out differently, I’d most likely be taking up law.

What was the biggest lies you’ve told? I never like lying so I try to make the ones I make as trivial as possible.

How can you tell if someone loves you? Idk for the most part I believe people have different love languages, so expression is always different for everyone. I don’t wait for people to act a certain way for me to deduce that they love me.

What’s one of your fondest memories? Front row at a Paramore concert, 2017. I went alone and danced without a care in the world and sang along to every song, and it was one of the nicest couple hours of my life.

What’s your favourite thing to do that doesn’t cost much? Taking surveys is literally free.

What do you feel unnecessarily judged for? I feel like I would be judged for having an entire blog just for surveys, which is exactly why I don’t share about this hobby with anyone. Not even my ex knew about it until much later on in our relationship.

What are you proud of yourself for? Still being here is a big thing.

What relaxes you after a busy day? As is pretty obvious already at this point, BTS. I like looking for funny compilations or interviews of theirs to watch to de-stress.

Have you ever known someone who suffered from drug addiction? Nope. Not that I know of, at least.

Why did your last relationship end? She wasn’t in it anymore.

Who do you have a crush on? Taehyung :/

When was the last time you stayed up all night? I was up until 4 AM earlier, if that counts. I don’t really do entire all-nighters anymore; latest I can do is either 4 or 5 AM.

Have you ever been someone’s rebound? No.

What would you fight LTR for the right to do? I don’t know what that is or who they are.

When did you last apologise? What was it for and was it accepted? Some work stuff came up today and it was something I needed to ask my manager about, so I had to message her. I apologized profusely before and after my main message since it’s a weekend and I HATE making my co-workers think about work on weekends, but the matter was a little urgent and it couldn’t wait. But eventually the thing got sorted out, so I followed up with a message asking her to disregard my question, and I sent her a heart GIF as well.

Have you ever been to Cuba? I haven’t, but I’d like to visit.

What do you feel positive about? That I am most likely ordering Frankie’s tonight because I’m having a serious craving for spicy Korean wings that I can’t ignore anymore.

Do you know any Spanish? I’ve retained the words, sentences, and verb tenses I was able to learn when I was still training on Duolingo; and Filipino has a lot of Spanish influences, so I wouldn’t say I’m completely unfamiliar with Spanish. I wouldn’t be able to last a conversation, though.

If you could go on a road trip now, where’s you go? Continued from this morning. I’d probably just go back to Tagaytay. La Union could be a great road trip spot as well.

When in danger are you more fight or flight? Flight. What makes you irrationally angry? When people speak excessive Taglish, especially in a work setting. Most Filipinos are fluent in both, so I’d wish they’d pick one and stick to it. I find code-switching pretty unprofessional for the most part.

Do you feel self conscious about a certain body part? Sure.

Is there someone you’ll always be there for? If so, who? My best friends.

Have you been accused of being manipulative? Gab probably did a few times, but I barely remember those memories anymore.

What’s the most romantic thing someone has done for you? I literally can’t remember anymore.

What or who do you miss from your childhood? The ability to be carefree and the greater space to make mistakes.

Do you miss late night calls with a certain somrone? No, I hate calls.

What would you like to do again some time? Be able to go back to coffee shops.

What’s your least favourite season? Summer.

Do you know someone who’s ridiculously arrogant and entitled? A lot of boomers and older Gen X-ers.

Have you ever considered violence to solve your problem? No.

Who’s the best dancer you know? That I know in real life? Aubrey. Overall, Park Jimin.

What’s the best bit of advice you’ve received? I can’t seem to remember the exact same quote they gave me, but it was Andi telling me a few months ago not to rush my healing so I can avoid potentially harming myself in the process.

How good a swimmer are you? Not very good. I just like swimming leisurely.

What’s your favourite baby animal? Puppies and baby elephants.

What’s the best compliment you have received? It’s always nice to be told I’m strong.

What’s your favourite gemstone? Don’t have one.

Do you bounce back well when things go wrong or does it take a while? It takes a while, but I always get there eventually.

What’s an underrated colour/shade you really like? Not sure; the colors I tend to lean towards I think are pretty popular choices.

What insult or label would hurt you the most to recieve? Being told I’m useless or a burden.

How often do you notice the attractiveness of strangers? I rarely find strangers attractive.

Are you good at hiding your emotions? No, I practically wear them on my face.

Are you romantic? More than I’d like to admit.

#survey #surveys

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gayreads · 5 years

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YA Book Review: Thirteen Doorways, Wolves behind Them All

Title: Thirteen Doorways, Wolves behind Them All

Author: Laura Ruby

Genre: Historical magical realism

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Release date: 10/1/19

From the publisher: When Frankie’s mother died and her father left her and her siblings at an orphanage in Chicago, it was supposed to be only temporary—just long enough for him to get back on his feet and be able to provide for them once again. That’s why Frankie's not prepared for the day that he arrives for his weekend visit with a new woman on his arm and out-of-state train tickets in his pocket.

Now Frankie and her sister, Toni, are abandoned alongside so many other orphans—two young, unwanted women doing everything they can to survive.

And as the embers of the Great Depression are kindled into the fires of World War II, and the shadows of injustice, poverty, and death walk the streets in broad daylight, it will be up to Frankie to find something worth holding on to in the ruins of this shattered America—every minute of every day spent wondering if the life she's able to carve out will be enough.

Review: This was a good book.

And that’s my review, folks! Just kidding. But I am struggling to figure out exactly what else to say. Bone Gap, Ruby’s last foray into YA magical realism, absolutely blew me away. This didn’t. I never felt bored reading it, I could tell how much love and effort Ruby put into it, there were parts where the writing was positively beautiful, it used ghosts in new and interesting ways (which is something I personally love). It uses fantasy to tackle issues of misogyny, but without falling into the trap that keeps many books about sexism from being great - by which I mean it did not pretend that all women struggle equally, it did not ignore the way classism and racism and homophobia play into and amplify misogyny. It both focuses intimately on Frankie’s day-to-day and connects that day-to-day with a larger, even supernatural struggle. It’s a good book! It’s fresh, it’s unusual, it has things to say.

And yet. I just don’t know what it is that keeps me from loving it. There’s some sort of spark missing. Maybe it wasn’t quite weird enough, didn’t commit quite as fully to its own strangeness as Bone Gap did. Maybe the “romance,” such as it was, wasn’t developed enough. While I was reading, I didn’t really mind - this book is not a love story, it’s about Frankie and her journey - but looking back, it does feel like this short-lived relationship existed solely for Frankie’s character development. It’s unclear why, exactly, they feel so strongly about each other. Hormones? I guess that’s what I chalked it up to as I read. Maybe it’s me, maybe I’m just never going to fall in love with a World War II story no matter how many cool ghosts are in it.

Maybe I should just delete this whole godforsaken review save for the first sentence.

This was a good book.

Final verdict: recommended

#book review #r #ya books #ya book review #laura ruby

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biofunmy · 5 years

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U.S. Shootings, Volodymyr Zelensky, Heat Wave: Your Monday Briefing

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)

Good morning.

We’re covering two weekend shootings in the U.S., another tanker captured by Iran and the effects of Europe’s heat wave.

Two days, two shootings, at least 29 dead

More than two dozen people were killed over the weekend in shootings in two U.S. cities, underscoring the scale of gun violence in the country.

Federal investigators are treating a shooting on Saturday at a Walmart in El Paso, Tex., as an act of domestic terrorism. At least 20 people were killed and 26 wounded. Less than 24 hours later, a gunman opened fire in Dayton, Ohio, killing at least nine people and wounding 27 others.

The back-to-back attacks bring the number of mass shootings in the U.S. this year to 32.

White male suspects: In El Paso, a 21-year-old Texan named Patrick Crusius surrendered to the police, and the authorities were investigating a hate-filled, anti-immigrant manifesto that he may have posted online minutes before the attack detailing “the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

In Dayton, a heavily armed gunman wearing body armor, identified as a 24-year-old resident named Connor Betts, was shot dead by the police.

Go deeper: The number of attacks by white extremists in the global West is growing, and at least a third of the killers since 2011 drew inspiration from other perpetrators, according to a Times analysis. An international comparison shows that the high rate of mass shootings in the U.S. stems from the country’s astronomical number of guns.

8chan: The online messaging board where the manifesto was posted before the El Paso attack has become a megaphone for mass shooters and a recruiting platform for white nationalists. Its founder wants to “shut the site down.”

Putin’s rival in Ukraine courts Russian speakers

Ukraine’s relationship with Russia is the pivot around which many of Europe’s most pressing security problems revolve.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the former comedian who became Ukraine’s president in May, has approached the relationship with a combination of assertiveness and strategic generosity, reaching out to Russian speakers whom his nationalist predecessor could not hope to win over.

Context: Mr. Putin responded to Mr. Zelensky’s election by offering Russian passports to Russian-speaking residents of separatist areas of eastern Ukraine, a potentially ominous move because further military intervention could then be justified as protecting Russian citizens.

Mr. Zelensky countered with an appeal to the Russian opposition. “We know perfectly well what a Russian passport provides,” he said. “The right to be arrested for a peaceful protest” and “the right not to have free and competitive elections.”

He offered Ukrainian passports to “the Russian people who suffer most of all” from repressive government.

Iran seizes another tanker

The country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps seized a foreign tanker in the Persian Gulf, state television reported, including the ship’s seven crew members. Iran didn’t identify the ship’s operator.

This is the third tanker Iran has captured in the past month — and the second it has accused of “smuggling” fuel — while the U.S. ramps up its “maximum pressure” campaign in an attempt to force the country to renegotiate the 2015 nuclear deal.

Tehran has also reneged on the commitments in that deal, which President Trump abandoned last year.

Go deeper: China and other countries have been importing more oil from Iran than was previously known, according to a Times investigation, in clear defiance of U.S. sanctions.

Consumer debt spirals in Russia

Millions of Russians are increasingly swiping their credit cards or relying on payday lenders and going into debt.

Growth in consumer lending — as Russians cope with hard times brought on by slumping oil prices and Western sanctions — has alarmed some economic policy officials. While spending has lifted the economy, with ballooning consumer debt, it could help start a recession.

Details: Since the onset of Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine and the ensuing sanctions, total outstanding personal debt among Russians has roughly doubled, according to the country’s central bank. The country’s population was virtually debt-free a generation ago.

Context: Many first-time credit card users in Russia have little experience managing debt. And with Russia facing other economic woes, these spenders are also seeing their inflation-adjusted salaries decline.

If you have 5 minutes, this is worth it

Europe’s heat wave, fueled by climate change

The heat wave that has enveloped Europe moved over Greenland, causing the surface of the island’s vast ice sheet to melt at near-record levels.

Researchers at World Weather Attribution, a group that conducts rapid analyses of weather events to see if they are influenced by climate change, said the heat wave was hotter by about 2.5 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit due to climate change.

Here’s what else is happening

London: A teenager was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of attempted murder after a 6-year-old boy was thrown off the 10th-floor viewing platform at the Tate Modern museum, the police said. The victim was airlifted to a hospital in critical condition.

Hong Kong: Protesters disrupted service on six subway and rail lines and airlines canceled more than 200 flights Monday after antigovernment activists called for a general strike and rallies across the city.

HSBC: The bank announced the surprise departure of its chief executive officer, John Flint, on Sunday night, saying it needed a change at the top to address “a challenging global environment.” It came just a year and a half into his term.

Islamic State: Less than five months after the military defeat of the terrorist group in Syria, a United Nations report is warning that the group’s leaders could launch international terrorist attacks before the end of the year, including those intended to “exacerbate existing dissent and unrest” in European nations.

I.M.F.: The European Union nominated Kristalina Georgieva, a Bulgarian economist, to replace Christine Lagarde as managing director of the International Monetary Fund after a tense selection process.

Sudan: The ruling military council and pro-democracy protesters initialed a constitutional declaration aimed at paving the way for a transition to civilian rule after the ouster of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and months of unrest.

Snapshot: Above, Franky Zapata, the French inventor of a jet-powered hoverboard, on Sunday. He used his device, which he calls the Flyboard Air, to cross the English Channel in about 22 minutes.

From Opinion: James Comey, the former F.B.I. director, wrote that President Trump “must stop trying to unleash and exploit the radioactive energy of racism.”

Women’s British Open: Hinako Shibuno of Japan wrapped up a stunning major championship debut by rolling in a birdie putt on the 18th hole to win by one shot over the American Lizette Salas.

What we’re reading: This essay in Air Mail, a news site for world travelers. Lynda Richardson, a Travel editor, writes: “I was engrossed by Elena Ferrante’s four-book series, the Neapolitan novels — and surprised to learn in this piece that her powerful voice falls flat for many Italian women.”

Now, a break from the news

Cook: Runny-yolked, crisp-edged Parmesan eggs will perk up just about any dinner.

Read: Our critic recalls a summer spent as an apprentice to the Broadway pioneer Hal Prince, who died last week at 91. Prince’s outsize contributions to American theater included “West Side Story” and “Cabaret.”

Watch: The director David Leitch narrates a sequence from “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.”

Smarter Living: A new social environment can be a significant obstacle to navigate when starting a new job. Research shows that building relationships with co-workers and chatting with supervisors can promote workplace harmony and even good personal health. So accept those early offers of coffee or lunch and steer clear of gossip, and skirt or deflect tricky personal questions.

We also have 10 tips to help you have a cleaner, safer, more relaxing hotel stay.

And now for the Back Story on …

High heels

Women’s footwear with high elevation at the heel accounts for almost 14 percent of the value of the global $250 billion shoe industry. The shoes are a fixture at footwear trade shows around the world, including at this week’s New York Shoe Show.

But high heels actually began life as a men’s shoe. One theory says they were designed to help mounted soldiers keep their feet in the stirrups. Persians, the stories go, brought the innovation to Europe in the 15th century.

Since then, the shoes have been associated with male aristocracy (17th century), witchcraft (18th), female sex appeal (19th on) — and back, foot and calf injuries and strain.

High heels are a cultural conundrum for many women who recognize both their debilitating effects and their supposed allure. And they’re a statement piece among some gender-fluid folks.

They’re also tools for activists. Mostly men compete in Madrid Pride’s annual high-heel race (minimum height: 4 inches). And some U.S. cities host awareness-raising “Walk a Mile in My Shoes” high-heel events for men.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Melina

Thank you Alisha Haridasani Gupta helped compile today’s briefings. Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford wrote the break from the news. Victoria Shannon, on the Briefings team, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at [email protected].

P.S. • We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about how the Democratic debates help narrow the U.S. presidential field. • Here’s today’s Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: Food type whose name often ends in “i” (5 letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • Gia Kourlas, a dance writer who has interviewed luminaries including Misty Copeland, Paul Taylor, Justin Peck, Twyla Tharp, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Mark Morris for The Times, is joining our Culture desk as a dance critic.

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mrmichaelchadler · 5 years

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Book Excerpt: The Sopranos Sessions by Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall

Below is an excerpt from the new book "The Sopranos Sessions," written by Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall. To order your copy of the book, click here.

The pilot of The Sopranos built a world that was fresh and convincing enough to get viewers’ attention, and the next three chapters were strong enough to hold it. But it wasn’t until “College” that The Sopranos truly became The Sopranos—doing it, ironically, by separating three main characters, Tony, Meadow, and Carmela, from their carefully established community.

The audacity of the episode’s structure is itself notable: it concentrates on just two narratives, sidelining everyone else (except for Christopher, in a performance that’s literally phoned in). One plotline follows Tony as he tours universities in Maine with his daughter and spots Febby Petrulio (Tony Ray Rossi), a Mob informant whose testimony jailed several of his colleagues and might have hastened his own father’s demise. Tony’s obsession with killing the rat erupts on the heels of Meadow grilling him about whether he’s in the Mafia. His attempts to track and kill Febby with long-distance help from Chris are a source of farcical humor, with Tony taking an increasingly annoyed Meadow on a chase down a winding two-lane road, pawning her off on a group of local students in a bar, and constantly fabricating reasons for ducking into a phone booth.

The second story finds Carmela welcoming Father Phil Intintola (Paul Schulze), a celibate flirt, into her empty house on the same stormy night she learns that Dr. Melfi’s first name is Jennifer; distraught, she grumbles that Tony’s refusal to volunteer Melfi’s gender must mean he’s sleeping with her. A dangerous dance ensues. (Their chosen film is The Remains of the Day, a 1993 drama about a housekeeper and butler who are too repressed and bound by their obligations ever to be together—sound familiar?) The connections between the plotlines emerge organically via juxtaposition, without excessive prompting. Whenever “College” seems to hand themes directly to the viewer, it does so in such a plain-spoken way that they open new avenues of interpretation rather than close off existing ones. Meadow and Tony’s discussions about honesty, Carmela and Father Phil’s conversations about sin, guilt, and spirituality, and the scenes where both pairs ponder confidentiality and secrecy, refract off each other and illuminate the entire episode, and the series as a whole. “College” also gives us a clear sense of Tony’s strengths as a father—he can be a good listener when he takes off the tough-guy mask—as well as the better qualities that Meadow might’ve absorbed from Carmela: her ability to recognize others’ peace offerings (when Tony half-admits that he’s in the Mob, she admits that she did speed to get through finals) and her willingness to call bullshit on men she catches lying or evading. (“You know, there was a time when the Italian people didn’t have a lot of options,” Tony weasels. “You mean like Mario Cuomo?” Meadow counters.)

But all this is a mere sideshow to the hour’s bloody piece de resistance, Tony’s murder of the informant. It puts the Analyze This comparisons to bed forever, makes it clear that this isn’t some cute series about a henpecked Mob boss with troublemaking kids (“Wiseguys: They’re just like us!”), and announces that the evolutionary changes in TV storytelling that Hill Street Blues launched are about to be overthrown.

They attended SUNY Purchase together, and had acted together many times on stage and screen (and would continue to do so for years after The Sopranos ended, as toxic lovers on Showtime’s Nurse Jackie). There’s a shorthand and chemistry between them beyond the nearly romantic that’s enormously valuable for a story that has to push their relationship to its outer edges at a point in the series when we barely know either character.

This might seem an excessive claim to anyone who grew up on television after The Sopranos and watched countless protagonists do horrible things, sometimes defensibly, sometimes not. But back in 1999, the effect of this particular killing was seismic. Four episodes in, viewers had seen murder and violent death attributable to negligence or incompetence, but Tony didn’t commit any of the acts, nor was he directly responsible for their occurrence. Though he was way too free with his fists, Tony was a de-escalator: burning down Artie’s restaurant so Junior couldn’t have somebody whacked there, engineering Junior’s ascent to the top slot to head off a war, and so on. And although it seemed unthinkable that he’d go through the series without ordering at least one person’s death—he’d toyed with the idea—a killing like this seemed equally unthinkable, because TV protagonists didn’t get down in the muck like that. That was what henchmen and guest stars were for.

Let’s back up from the murder and examine its dramatic architecture to determine what made it so unusual. It’s not the choice of target. Febby may have left the life years earlier, but he hasn’t really reformed. Deep down he’s still a criminal, and he’ll always be a rat, and because we’ve spent lots of time with Tony and none with Febby, and accept that this is the kind of thing mobsters have to do because of their code, of course we’re going to take Tony’s side. Also significant: this is a crime of opportunity. Tony didn’t drag Meadow to Maine just to track down Febby and kill him, which would’ve been reckless and deranged versus merely impulsive. He isn’t killing some random person for disrespecting him or to cover up some other offense. This is a former gangster—and a poor excuse for one. He sold out his friends (one of whom died in prison), then entered witness protection until the FBI ejected him. Now he’s been living under an Anglicized alias, Fred Peters, and lecturing about his former life to college kids. We already know (from the pilot and “46 Long”) Tony and the others consider this sort of behavior a whackable offense.

All of this places Febby squarely in the category of “work problems.” To frame things in terms of the Godfather films, as The Sopranos often does, Febby isn’t that anonymous sex worker in The Godfather Part II who the Corleones killed to indebt a senator; he’s more akin to Frankie Five Angels, the underboss in II who becomes a state witness and kills himself after committing perjury. The Corleones became American folk heroes despite being thieving, racketeering monsters because, with few exceptions, they only killed other mobsters and their collaborators, and only ones that were coded as worse than the Corleones.

That’s the case here as well, though we feel for Febby’s wife and daughter even if we don’t care what happens to Febby. No, Febby’s murder was startling because of the context—a father-daughter road trip, mirroring Febby’s life with the wife he’ll never sleep next to again and the daughter he won’t see grow up—and because of the joy Tony takes in doing the deed. There’s no regret or distaste on his face as he twists those cords, only glee. The most frightening thing about Tony is the way he seems to trade depression for euphoria when hurting people. James Gandolfini’s face splits into a predatory grin, practically a leer, and he throws his tall, broad frame into the action with the furious precision of a smaller, more graceful man. His arms and fists are a blur, his eyes blaze, and flecks of spittle fly out of his mouth as he curses the men he’s battering and tormenting. He’s never been scarier.

The lead-up to the strangulation reveals the scene’s primordial essence: we’re watching an apex predator stalk and kill its prey. We got a taste of this approach earlier in the episode when Tony visited Febby’s home and watched him tell his daughter good night while sitting in a hot tub with his wife. Right before Tony sneaks up behind Febby in the woods, Febby hears a noise in nearby brush and looks to see what caused it, and we get a cutaway shot of a deer gazing at him, its curious face framed by the greenery. The sequence of actions that brought us to this point represents a journey backward in time: Tony and Febby arrive by car, a twentieth-century form of transportation; Febby loses his revolver, a nineteenth-century weapon, during the struggle, and there’s a shot of the piece dropping onto the earth beneath his feet; then Tony strangles him and strangles him and keeps strangling him, an act of Shakespearean viciousness. The scene lasts much longer than you expect, until the audience feels assaulted as well. The editing cuts between tight close-ups of Febby’s face, Tony’s hands pulling the cords tight around Febby’s neck, and Tony’s face contorted in euphoric rage, his front teeth framed by his snarling mouth (like an upside-down smile) so that they evoke a carnivore’s bared fangs. Close-ups of Tony’s hands reveal that he’s choking Febby so hard that the cords are cutting his skin.38 After he drops Febby’s lifeless body, he stands up and walks past the travel agency as insects whir and birds caw. He looks up to see a flock of birds—ducks, probably—in a V formation, a shot that resonates in multiple ways, none of them reassuring.

Shots of birds in flight after a character’s death always evoke a soul departing. In this case, they also amplify the sense that we’ve just seen prehistoric savagery occur. These ducks harken back to the ones that left Tony’s swimming pool, part of a narrative that we associate with Tony and Livia’s relationship: her hold over his imagination, the genes that encoded half of the beast in him. And they stand in for the safe family and feelings of peace that seem to remain forever beyond his grasp. Carmela’s story is nearly as unsettling, partly because of how it fuses with Tony’s. Tony’s half of “College” is a scaled-down, two-character exploration of what it means to be Tony Soprano, a theoretically respectable man with a house, a wife, a kids, and a secret criminal life; Carmela’s half is about being his complicit partner. We get a sense of how repressed she is, thanks to her acceptance of the contradictory sexual values of Mob marriages (men are expected, even encouraged to take mistresses; wives are supposed to be faithful) as well as the sexual politics of Roman Catholicism. Two of the movies that are name-checked in this episode, The Remains of the Day and Casablanca, revolve around great loves that cannot be. It’s spot-on that she’d bond with Father Phil over these sorts of movies, and that she’d select a priest as the vessel into which to pour the specific desires, fears, and affinities that Tony would never entertain. There’s (almost) no danger that the frisson of attraction will become physical.

Nevertheless, her evening with Father Phil unfolds like a date from the start—she even takes a pass at her hair before letting him in. Their interactions show that they genuinely like each other, and that each is getting something out of the relationship. Carmela gives the priest-plus an outlet for his intellectual curiosity beyond matters of scripture, plus imaginative fuel for fantasies of a life where he could have a normal relationship with a woman (thus their discussion of Jesus coming down off the cross in Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ). Father Phil gives Carmela a sympathetic ear, appreciation for her food and her personality, and a means to discuss religion, philosophy, and movies as art. The script is clear on what’s at stake for them: it’s never a good idea to court a gangster’s wife, or for a gangster’s wife to step out. But the fact that Father Phil is married to the church adds another layer of taboo. When he rushes to the bathroom to retch after moving in for a kiss, it’s not just the alcohol causing his body to rebel.(The moment connects with the Last Temptation discussion, as well as with Tony’s line while killing Febby: “You took an oath and you broke it!”)

It seems fitting that “College” puts Carmela’s confession to Father Phil and her subsequent taking of Communion—the moments when she’s most emotionally naked—at the midpoint, where these characters’ first sex scene might go were this a novel about two lovers. The close-ups of Father Phil pouring wine into a Communion cup and delivering it straight to Carmela’s lips along with the Host are the true consummation of a storyline about sexual energy being teased out and shut down (or redirected). It’s in these scenes that we move beyond the question of “Will they or won’t they?” and enter darker territory. Carmela is in denial about her husband’s affairs, but those pale in comparison to the other sins, the literal crimes, that she can’t bring herself to confront. Her confession to Father Phil, delivered on the same couch where her family watches TV, sums up this series’ fascination with evil and compromise, false faces and self-deception. “I have forsaken what is right for what is easy, allowing what I know is evil in my house,” she says. “Allowing my children—Oh my God, my sweet children!—to be a part of it, because I wanted things for them. I wanted a better life, good schools. I wanted this house. I wanted money in my hands, money to buy everything I ever wanted. I’m so ashamed! My husband, I think he has committed horrible acts. . . . I’ve said nothing, I’ve done nothing about it. I got a bad feeling it’s just a matter of time before God compensates me with outrage for my sins.”

Late in “College” there’s a scene with Tony that explicitly connects the two stories. As Tony sits in a university hallway at Bowdoin College waiting for Meadow to be interviewed, he looks up at a quote emblazoned on a large panel hanging over a doorway: “No man can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.”43 It’s a slight misquote from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, about a minister who falls in love with a woman and breaks his vows.

Father Phil tells her exactly what she needs to hear about repenting and renouncing sin, even as we can suspect this is Carmela’s momentary burst of remorse before she returns to enjoying the benefits of being a made guy’s wife. By the next morning—after Father Phil is saved from a second moment of temptation by a stomach too full of pasta and alcohol—Carmela has, indeed, reverted to type. She couldn’t have been more vulnerable in her confession, nor could she be any colder or more in control as Phil stumbles around in his undershirt trying to apologize for his behavior.

The correct quote is, “No man can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true”—as in, “the true face.”

Excerpt from the new book The Sopranos Sessions by Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall published by Abrams Press; © 2019 Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall. To order your copy of the book, click here

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careerguy · 7 years

Link

“The days blur into one, and the backs of my eyes hum with the things I’ve never done.”

-Radical Face

The term “radical” can raise our antennae and suspicions. It carries the energy of dramatic shift, and implies extremes.

Yet, the idea of extremities is only the word’s secondary definition. The primary definition is about going to the root of something, a fundamental shift.

Radical Forgiveness, Radical Happiness, Radical Restarts…all imply a going deeper than the surface norm by getting to the core of the thing itself.

To impact the drift of life often requires a radical wake-up, because it’s just too easy to stick to the norm. You hear of folks who took on whole new ways of living after sudden health scares, near-death experiences, etc.

The question is: do we need to wait for such an external wake-up?

I like the idea of fomenting a crisis proactively, meaning self-inflicting the urgency for shift before the shift hits the fan.

What if you knew (or could make yourself believe) that your body was about to give out next week for lack of care? How would your diet, fitness and sleep program look this week?

Alexandra and I recently looked at the logic-of-the-moment vs the generally-accepted-wisdom around sleep.

In the moment, there simply seems to be no choice but to get less sleep so that “everything can get done.” Yet, there’s the joke itself: everything will NEVER get done! And, allowing that thought pattern to continue – with sleep taking the hit from overzealous engagement – means that bodily rest becomes the red-headed, disregarded stepchild.

The generally accepted wisdom today, touted by many inspirational leaders and health experts, is that 7 hours is the minimum of sleep we need…for a boatload of reasons. So, the facts are in, and it’s just the question of “in the moment” whether we can go against our skewed logic and trust the facts. Who knows how much more alert, acute and astute we may become with solid nights of sleep under our belts?

So, we’ve taken on a commitment to our second half/best half of life including what seems like illogical sleep habits because if, as we say in The Back Forty, “we have yet to do what we came here to do”, we need the healthy bodies required to house the spirits to do that!

There can be many areas in which to foment radical change:

What if you knew (or could make yourself believe) that this job you’ve been hating will definitely end in a month? How would your career change efforts look then?

What if you knew (or could make yourself believe) that something is brewing under the surface with your mate that will have him/her leave soon? How would your efforts to communicate alter immediately?

What if you knew (or could make yourself believe) that your croaking was imminent, definitely within the year? What bucket list items or purpose fulfillment would you take on right now?

Consider this an invitation to look into your own life and foment your own crisis. It’s a real opportunity to put yourself in the driver’s seat of The Back Forty kind of life you want to live.

Here’s a few easy steps you can take to create some radical change in your own life. Start with one thing, and then apply it to others after you’ve had success.

Identify

Identify an area you’ve been nattering about, something you say you want to change but it keeps on keeping on just as it is.

Is it your work? Is it a relationship issue (either inside of one or wanting one)? Is it that “thing” you keep saying you’ll do – write the book, devote time to that charity, schedule a vacation, take that course?

Whatever it is, just find the top, most juicy thing you’re very logically convinced can’t happen yet.

Die

Now, of course, I don’t mean to really kill yourself, but in your mind.

Consider that it’s all over now. Whatever you considered so important and critical that you simply couldn’t do that “thing”…all those reasons are now gone.

You exited the planet. Maybe you exited without having done that “thing”. How does that feel?

Maybe you exited the planet BECAUSE you didn’t do that “thing”? How does that feel?

Revive

Whoa! You just had a near-death experience! How radical was that?

Did you see light? Did you start through a tunnel? Did you hover over your body a while inside a peaceful state of ease and grace?

Well, whatever your experience, you’re back…back in this body, back in this life, and back with all of the same stuff and challenges and opportunities you left with.

What will you do about that “thing” now?

Consider that it’s time to get radical! Yes, you have all the time in the world…and yet not a moment to waste!

Frank Sinatra sings “The best is yet to come and, babe, won’t it be fine.” Let’s make Frankie right, ok?

“If you want to make any radical change in your life, then either give it a clear date and time or do it today. There is no someday.”

-Unknown

#JOLT #jolt note #wednesday #newsletter #careerguy

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darrellgurney · 7 years

Link

“The days blur into one, and the backs of my eyes hum with the things I’ve never done.”

-Radical Face

The term “radical” can raise our antennae and suspicions. It carries the energy of dramatic shift, and implies extremes.

Yet, the idea of extremities is only the word’s secondary definition. The primary definition is about going to the root of something, a fundamental shift.

Radical Forgiveness, Radical Happiness, Radical Restarts…all imply a going deeper than the surface norm by getting to the core of the thing itself.

The question is: do we need to wait for such an external wake-up?

I like the idea of fomenting a crisis proactively, meaning self-inflicting the urgency for shift before the shift hits the fan.

What if you knew (or could make yourself believe) that your body was about to give out next week for lack of care? How would your diet, fitness and sleep program look this week?

Alexandra and I recently looked at the logic-of-the-moment vs the generally-accepted-wisdom around sleep.

There can be many areas in which to foment radical change:

What if you knew (or could make yourself believe) that this job you’ve been hating will definitely end in a month? How would your career change efforts look then?

What if you knew (or could make yourself believe) that your croaking was imminent, definitely within the year? What bucket list items or purpose fulfillment would you take on right now?

Consider this an invitation to look into your own life and foment your own crisis. It’s a real opportunity to put yourself in the driver’s seat of The Back Forty kind of life you want to live.

Here’s a few easy steps you can take to create some radical change in your own life. Start with one thing, and then apply it to others after you’ve had success.

Identify

Identify an area you’ve been nattering about, something you say you want to change but it keeps on keeping on just as it is.

Whatever it is, just find the top, most juicy thing you’re very logically convinced can’t happen yet.

Die

Now, of course, I don’t mean to really kill yourself, but in your mind.

Consider that it’s all over now. Whatever you considered so important and critical that you simply couldn’t do that “thing”…all those reasons are now gone.

You exited the planet. Maybe you exited without having done that “thing”. How does that feel?

Maybe you exited the planet BECAUSE you didn’t do that “thing”? How does that feel?

Revive

Whoa! You just had a near-death experience! How radical was that?

Did you see light? Did you start through a tunnel? Did you hover over your body a while inside a peaceful state of ease and grace?

Well, whatever your experience, you’re back…back in this body, back in this life, and back with all of the same stuff and challenges and opportunities you left with.

What will you do about that “thing” now?

Consider that it’s time to get radical! Yes, you have all the time in the world…and yet not a moment to waste!

Frank Sinatra sings “The best is yet to come and, babe, won’t it be fine.” Let’s make Frankie right, ok?

“If you want to make any radical change in your life, then either give it a clear date and time or do it today. There is no someday.”

-Unknown

#back forty #darrell gurney #darrell #blog

0 notes

darrellgurney · 7 years

Link

“The days blur into one, and the backs of my eyes hum with the things I’ve never done.”

-Radical Face

The term “radical” can raise our antennae and suspicions. It carries the energy of dramatic shift, and implies extremes.

Yet, the idea of extremities is only the word’s secondary definition. The primary definition is about going to the root of something, a fundamental shift.

Radical Forgiveness, Radical Happiness, Radical Restarts…all imply a going deeper than the surface norm by getting to the core of the thing itself.

The question is: do we need to wait for such an external wake-up?

I like the idea of fomenting a crisis proactively, meaning self-inflicting the urgency for shift before the shift hits the fan.

What if you knew (or could make yourself believe) that your body was about to give out next week for lack of care? How would your diet, fitness and sleep program look this week?

Alexandra and I recently looked at the logic-of-the-moment vs the generally-accepted-wisdom around sleep.

There can be many areas in which to foment radical change:

What if you knew (or could make yourself believe) that this job you’ve been hating will definitely end in a month? How would your career change efforts look then?

What if you knew (or could make yourself believe) that your croaking was imminent, definitely within the year? What bucket list items or purpose fulfillment would you take on right now?

Consider this an invitation to look into your own life and foment your own crisis. It’s a real opportunity to put yourself in the driver’s seat of The Back Forty kind of life you want to live.

Here’s a few easy steps you can take to create some radical change in your own life. Start with one thing, and then apply it to others after you’ve had success.

Identify

Identify an area you’ve been nattering about, something you say you want to change but it keeps on keeping on just as it is.

Whatever it is, just find the top, most juicy thing you’re very logically convinced can’t happen yet.

Die

Now, of course, I don’t mean to really kill yourself, but in your mind.

Consider that it’s all over now. Whatever you considered so important and critical that you simply couldn’t do that “thing”…all those reasons are now gone.

You exited the planet. Maybe you exited without having done that “thing”. How does that feel?

Maybe you exited the planet BECAUSE you didn’t do that “thing”? How does that feel?

Revive

Whoa! You just had a near-death experience! How radical was that?

Did you see light? Did you start through a tunnel? Did you hover over your body a while inside a peaceful state of ease and grace?

Well, whatever your experience, you’re back…back in this body, back in this life, and back with all of the same stuff and challenges and opportunities you left with.

What will you do about that “thing” now?

Consider that it’s time to get radical! Yes, you have all the time in the world…and yet not a moment to waste!

Frank Sinatra sings “The best is yet to come and, babe, won’t it be fine.” Let’s make Frankie right, ok?

“If you want to make any radical change in your life, then either give it a clear date and time or do it today. There is no someday.”

-Unknown

#back forty #darrell gurney #midlife #blog

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