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199080b
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Good sex requires many different things, but in most cases, efficiency isn't one of them. - Judd Foxman
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Jonathan Tropper |
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a53d004
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None of us makes eye contact. We have pretty much had it with each other. We are injured and angry, scared and sad. Some families, like some couples, become toxic to each other after prolonged exposure. - Judd Foxman
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Jonathan Tropper |
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23ed7ef
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Maybe yelling back is a kind of marital diplomacy
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Jonathan Tropper |
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7df0e67
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I lost something after Hailey died. I'm not sure what to call it, but it's the device that stops ypu from telling the truth when people ask you how you're doing, that vital valve that keeps you deeper, truer emotions under lock and key. I don't know exactly when I lost it, or how to get it back, but for now when it comes to tact, civility, and discretion, I'm an accident waiting to happen, over and over again. Socially, that makes me somet..
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death
fear
protectiveness
wall
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Jonathan Tropper |
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ec70bbd
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Sometimes, commitment is a matter of will. You have to look at what you have right in front of you, at what it could be, and stop measuring it against what you've lost.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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8d7c924
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The women look each other over as they chat, measuring thighs, bellies, hips, and asses, taking into account body types and recent pregnancies. They silently evaluate and pass judgment, realigning themselves in the pecking order. It's a brutal business, being a woman.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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0375e5f
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At some point, loneliness become less a condition than a habit. In time, you stop looking at your phone wondering why you can't think of anyone to call, stop getting you hair cut, stop working out, stop thinking that tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life. Because tomorrow is today, and today is yerterday, and yesterday beat the shit out of you and brought you to your knees. The only way to stay sane is to stop hoping for someth..
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loneliness
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Jonathan Tropper |
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6bcfac8
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You can never totally hate someone who sang you to sleep like that, can you? Who calmed you down and eased your fears. You can feel angry and betrayed, but some part of you will always love them for being there on those scary nights, for giving you a place to run to where your nightmares couldn't follow, the one place where you could descend finally into slumber knowing, at least for the time being, that you were completely safe.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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4826a52
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In my family, we don't so much air our grievances as wallow in them. Anger and resentment are cumulative.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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006906f
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If we sound like a couple of callous assholes, it's because that's how we were raised.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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0d0da61
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It's an absurd request. Our minds, unedited by guilt or shame, are selfish and unkind, and the majority of our thoughts, at any given time, are not for public consumption, because they would either be hurtful or else just make us look like the selfish and unkind bastards we are.
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self-awareness
thoughts
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Jonathan Tropper |
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aeeb951
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N]o one ever eats an ice-cream cone at a funeral, or a fire. The Red Cross doesn't drop ice-cream cones into third-world countries. If you're eating an ice-cream cone, it's just very hard to believe things have gone completely to shit. That there isn't still hope.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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1180f8c
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And there's a special place in shiva hell reserved for men in sandals, their cracked, hardened toenails, dark with fungus, proudly on display.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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22661b0
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Man muss die Originalitat des eigenen Lebens infrage stellen wenn es sich mit den Zeilen eines Rocksongs perfekt umschreiben lasst.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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130ca8d
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Our minds, unedited by guilt or shame, are not for public consumption, because they would either be hurtful or else just make us look like the selfish and unkind bastards we are. We don't share thoughts, we share carefully sanitized, watered-down versions of them.
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selfishness
thoughts
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Jonathan Tropper |
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d0ddc6a
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The women look each other over as they chat, measuring thighs, bellies, hips, and asses, taking into account body types and recent pregnancies. They silently evaluate and pass judgment, realigning themselves in the pecking order. It's a brutal business, being a woman. Wendy sucks in her gut and crosses her legs, pointing her toes like a ballerina in a last-ditch effort to coax her calf muscle out of hiding. She has our mother's legs, sheath..
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Jonathan Tropper |
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5fae15a
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You can't let your dog crap on the sidewalk, but it's perfectly acceptable to blow carcinogens down other people's throats. Somewhere along the way, smokers exempted themselves from the social contract.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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d4fb5c1
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We knew marriage could be difficult in the same way that we knew there were starving children in Africa. It was a tragic fact but worlds away from our reality.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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b6ec2a5
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She got on a plane to see a client in California and somewhere over Colorado, the pilot somehow missed the sky.
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death
plane
sadness
travel
vivid-descriptions
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Jonathan Tropper |
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55de581
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The music from my youth has aged poorly and is now like a joke out of context. You had to be there.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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4c254dc
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Phillip, who is congenitally incapable of moderation,
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Jonathan Tropper |
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dbba22a
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Wir sehen Menschen, die wir lieben, meist nur so, wie wir sie im Kopf haben. Hin und wieder aber erhaschen wir zufallig einen Blick darauf, wie sie in Wirklichkeit aussehen, und in den Sekundenbruchteilen, die unser Gehirn braucht, um sich auf die neue Realitat einzustellen, kommen kleine Dinge in uns vom Weg ab und wirbeln schreiend irgendeinen Abhang hinunter.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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5ba54c7
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Due to some mental hiccup I can't explain, when I think of God, I picture Hugh Hefner: a thin, angular man with a prominent chin in a maroon smoking jacket.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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54e615e
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And as the room starts to fill with the first somber-faced neighbors coming to pay their respects, it becomes clear to me that the reason for filling the shiva house with visitors is most likely to prevent the mourners from tearing each other limb from limb.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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cf09e2e
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Nothing doesn't happen all at once. It starts slow, so slow that you don't even notice it. And then, when you do, you banish it to the back of your mind in a hail of rationalizations and resolutions. You get busy, you bury yourself in your meaningless work, and for a while you keep the consciousness of Nothing at bay. But then something happens and you're forced to face the fact that Nothing is happening to you right now, and has been for s..
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Jonathan Tropper |
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8e9bec8
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Few things are more pathetic than an unemployed man with a business card. P.15
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Jonathan Tropper |
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77e7bce
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The thing about living alone is that it gives you a lot of time to think. You don't necessarily reach any conclusions, because wisdom is largely a function of intelligence and self-awareness, not time on your hands.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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96a4f36
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If they're letting her cry anyway, I don't really see the point of the baby monitor, but that's one of those questions I've learned not to ask, because I'll just get that condescending look all parents reserve for non-parents, to remind you that you're not yet a complete person.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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ec3f392
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Love made us partners in narcissism
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lovers
partners
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Jonathan Tropper |
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b87dcf7
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I'm not a fan of country music, but there's no better music to drive to. Turn the right song up loud enough on the Porsche's sound system and it will swallow you whole. The past is prelude and the future is a black hole, but right now, hurtling north across state lines for no particular reason, I have to say, it feels pretty good to be me.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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a311bf8
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It's rare for someone to say something to you, just a few words, really, and actually make you see yourself from a completely different vantage point.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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d2bfcf2
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The point is, people become possessive of their grief, almost proud of it. They want to believe it's like no one else's. But it is. It's exactly like everybody else's. Grief is like a shark. It's been around forever, and in that time there's been just about no evolution. You know why?" "Why?" "Because it's perfect just the way it is."
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Jonathan Tropper |
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502ded8
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And even as she holds on to him, like she's drowning, she can feel the familiar anger returning, like an old song that you've heard so many times it's not even a song anymore, just a wasted pathway in your brain that you can never reclaim.
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father
grudge
rencor
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Jonathan Tropper |
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77b0560
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Don't you ever worry about the future?" I asked. Jack shrugged. "This is the future," he said."
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Jonathan Tropper |
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8de668d
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The gravedigger looks like Santa Claus, and I don't believe for a minute he doesn't know it. With his long white beard and stout build, he has to know the effect of wearing a red and white anorak and how inappropriate the whole getup looks in the Mount Zion Cemetery.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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417d668
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arms stop me from crumpling like a rag doll. Sometimes you don't need to talk things out. Sometimes, with the right person, things just need some time to percolate on their own, without the messy lunge and parry of discussion to hinder them.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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2f31bb4
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Bllod will separate, if need be, but its call is primordial, and it won't be refused.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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a1bc0f7
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What would you like to do today?" he says. She gives him a funny look. "What are my options?" "Sky's the limit." She considers it for a moment. "Brunch?" "I say the sky's the limit and all you can come up with is brunch?" "I'm just not sure we live under the same sky."
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Jonathan Tropper |
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ffac23f
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Above us, the moon hangs like a fat blister on the feel of the sky, ready to burst in a spray of viscous white pus" chap 22."
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Jonathan Tropper |
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9f9444f
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I may not beleive in God, but I believe in guilt and no one wants to dick around with eternity, even if it isn't there.
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funny-humor
god
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Jonathan Tropper |
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768c021
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But that's why you pay for insurance, right? If you never file a claim, then they've beaten you.
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insurance
joke
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Jonathan Tropper |
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e1b74d8
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In high school, if you can find a girl who will kiss you and maybe let you touch her breasts and a guy who likes the same movies as you, your world is pretty much complete.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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20c4ac2
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People brush past us on the street in endless waves, leaving somewhere, headed somewhere else, laughing, smoking, speaking into cell phones, completely oblivious to the holocaust of an entire world casually imploding in their midst.
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Jonathan Tropper |
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86bf72e
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The really good liars, the true grandmasters of bullshit, are so damn convincing because they actually believe their own lies.
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Jonathan Tropper |