The Bright Side of Going Dark

by Kelly Harms

“Everything you can do on a phone you can do better without a phone. Except the self-numbing and avoidance. Just skip those.”

“Buddha didn’t say that all speech should be true, kind, and necessary,” he says. “Or at least not anywhere official. Its origination is still unknown. But it’s a decent bar for me, as long as you count dad jokes as necessary.”

“It’s better,” I realize aloud, “if you just run at the truth full speed.” The truth, the sorrow, the grief, the joy.

There are things you know you want in your life, that you know are good and right and true the moment you realize they exist. Things that you can only miss if you’re not paying attention. Usually, as far as I can tell, these things are dogs. But sometimes they’re people.