Holding Up the Universe

by Jennifer Niven

“Atticus, he was real nice….” “Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.” —To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

Be the life of the party, but don’t drink.

Prosopagnosia (pro-suh-pag-NO-zhuh) noun: 1. an inability to recognize the faces of familiar people, typically as a result of damage to the brain. 2. when everyone is a stranger.

As long as you live, there’s always something waiting; and even if it’s bad, and you know it’s bad, what can you do? You can’t stop living. (Truman Capote, In Cold Blood)

“Better to be the hunter than the hunted. Even if you’re hunting yourself.”

“Sometimes people are just shitty. Sometimes they’re shitty because they’re afraid.

My mom used to say sometimes it’s actually about the other person and you just happen to be there. Like sometimes the other person needs to learn a lesson or go through an experience, good or bad, and you’re just an accessory in some way, like a supporting actor in whatever their scene happens to be.

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it…

It’s the suddenness of life changing in an instant that makes me anxious when I sleep and makes me tell myself to breathe when I’m awake.

“You’re still Jack Masselin. You’re still a pain in the ass. You’re still you.”

“It’s not moving on, Libbs. It’s moving differently. That’s all it is. Different life. Different world. Different rules. We don’t ever leave that old world behind. We just create a new one.”