Anjali.

“Real wisdom is not the knowledge of everything, but the knowledge of which things in life are necessary, which are less necessary, and which are completely unnecessary to know. Among the most necessary knowledge is the knowledge of how to live well, that is, how to produce the least possible evil and the greatest goodness in one’s life. At present, people study useless sciences, but forget to study this, the most important knowledge.”—Jean Jaques Rousseau

“Love me or leave me…But please don’t deceive me and say you love me how I am. You love the way I fit some ideal, not the real woman you’ve yet to understand. See love ain’t all heaven and I am no angel, but I do the best I can. 

You always wanted something more from my body, and said you needed something more from my loving. But all you got was me and that’s all that I can be. I’m sorry if I let you down.”

-Esperanza Spalding “Precious”

interesting.

• Black guy kills some people.
• Society: Criminal.
• Muslim guy kills some people.
• Society: Terrorist.
• Latino guy kills some people.
• Society: Criminal.
• White guy kills some people.
• Society: Mental illness. (lost soul, complicated psyche, quiet loner, misunderstood, frustrated with life, experienced recent, traumatic, life-altering events that set him off; not to mention all the positive descriptors that are attached to him, i.e. intelligent, PhD candidate, honor roll student, etc.)

2013.

I think that in order to move on & past the hurtful or deceitful actions of others, you really have to be ready & willing to forgive— to possess the willpower & strength to be okay with the fact that some people will never comprehend the importance & value of a friendship, of a relationship, and the significance of their role in your life…what they meant to you & how much you trusted & relied on them to just be there; to not judge, to listen, and to reject the ideas of betrayal. But sometimes you have to realize that everyone is not like you. That these inherent traits are not inherent to everyone. That these things do not hold the same weight to them as they do to you. You have to realize this, and be okay with it. Realize it & move past it. Don’t let it bring you down or make you sad, but let it uplift you & bring you happiness. Because now you are rid of the facade, the hate, the unnecessary…the bullshit. You can do you & find those people who will stand by you while you do it. 2013 is a new year. An opportunity to do things differently, to see things from a new perspective, and to do you in an entirely different, new & amazing way.

…we will argue again about guns, or, rather, about why our politicians are hardly even arguing about guns any more. There are those who will object, who will say gun policy has nothing to do with any single event, that tragedies should not be exploited for political purpose. We know many of our readers are among this group.

And then there will be others, ourselves included, who will say, whatever the facts of this case, that the country would be safer with fewer guns, that mass killings are more difficult with knives, that it is not the Second Amendment but political cowardice that precludes sensible regulation. That we are not supposed to exploit tragedy to talk about this issue, but that in the absence of tragedy it never gets talked about at all.

Be good. And do good.