Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance

by Ruth Emmie Lang

I wanted to learn everything about everything so I could be the best teacher ever, but I ran out of time and ended up settling for knowing a little bit about everything—

“Don’t cry over the same thing twice. Get it all out the first time, even if it’s loud and messy. Then it’s over.”

“Because without beauty, we’d be bored. Without science, we’d be dead.”

If country music has taught me anything, it’s that getting drunk probably isn’t the best method of dealing with heartbreak. But I’m a traditionalist.

I like to think of myself as always being in the right place at the right time, or the wrong place at the wrong time. Very rarely am I simply in an acceptable place at a generally convenient time. That said, I find those rare occasions very pleasant, mostly because they give me time to work on my crosswords.