The Men Can't Be Saved

by Ben Purkert

“See, this is exactly the bullshit men always put on women. There aren’t enough female-run businesses, go start your own! Like, it’s not enough just to be successful. You have to build a fucking empire.”

You look at every moment of every day as a tangible gift, something to hold in your arms. So when you die,” I continued, “you die from exhaustion. It’s hard to carry every moment of every day. It begins to add up, all that weight. It’s much easier to be faithless. To carry nothing. To spend your days being carried along. But then, when it’s all over, you realize you’ve wasted your life. Because you never believed in it to begin with.

“If somebody dies in a car crash, you still drive to the funeral.” The glass remained at her lower lip. “Or would you walk, Seth? Is that how you’d pay your respects?”