It's always sunny in...(nowhere.)

Pre-script: To get your money's worth from this post, first go down to the playlist, click on the song: "Winter, " by Tori Amos, then come back and resume reading. I'll wait...)

(...still waiting...)

I know a girl who is always smiling, and upon whom the sun is always shining, According to her. She never says it in those exact words, it's more that I read between the lines when she says things like:

"aren't we all so fortunate,"

"I can't stand how much I adore my children."

I can't stand it, how happy and emotionally healthy I am."

or even, "Lucky Me."

And when she looks at me, she smiles at me...and If I forget to sport my everready smile one day, she acts very, very cold to me, and I can read her thoughts thusly:

"My sunshine does not extend to those who refuse to smile into it, causing it to blind them."

But I've never been one to stare into the sun.

I have always heard the story of what happened to the girl who once upon a time stared into the sun, even though her mother had warned her, WARNED HER!!! not to, and how she was blinded for life. Stupid girl. For some reason, that story really got to me, and I never once stared at the sun. I now believe that my friend, my smiling friend, is the very girl spoken of in kitchens by mothers all over the world to sternly warn their children of the dangers of starring at the sun...and my friend was blinded, so she makes up what she thinks she is seeing in front of her...and when there is no way to justify that what is in front of her is NOT what she has made up, (namely, me) she cannot abide, CANNOT abide,...so she looks away.
but I have come to learn that where the sun always shines, everything is dry and brittle, mummies and petrification. Lizards with sharp teeth. Cracked things that were never meant to crack. And also, I'm really, really into the idea of seeing things accurately, at least some of the time.

-XOXO,