Only the Pretty Lies

by Rebekah Crane

It’s much easier to idolize the dead. The living constantly fail us. But in death, we remember a person as near perfect.

That was my life—a cover song. It still is. But I’m OK with that. Better than OK. I prefer it. Aren’t we all cover songs, in a way?

Imitation may lack in creative genius, but it’s a lot more inclusive.

That’s what good friendship is, I suppose—a place to unload the clutter of the mind.

One of the biggest fallacies about life is this: Most people think that by telling the truth, their lives can go back to the way they were. But that’s a lie. What was can never be again. The truth creates a whole new reality. And until someone is ready to confront the truth, it’s better to just keep your mouth shut.

It’s a pretty lie—the kind of lie meant to keep the peace, to keep life comfortable.

“The only reason moments smell better after they’re gone is because we can’t go back,” Rayne answers. “Even the bad ones tend to smell sweeter than the pain most of the time.”

“Anger is the thief of time.

Sometimes saying it takes the pressure off. Silence is heavy.”

“People want a witness to their pain,” Rayne said. “Not a judge.”

“You need to ask yourself, Amoris—is your comfort really more valuable than my humanity?”

Why is it so hard for humans to quit what they know is hurting them? Why is it so hard to admit we’re doing it all wrong?

Silence is the worst kind of screaming.

Sometimes familiar pain is just more bearable than change.

People don’t like deserters. Especially people who benefit from the system, because the more people who refuse to live by the rules, the more the system crumbles. You have to decide how you want to live. Lines are easy to follow. They’re comforting. It’s why most people stay where they are.”

Because the honesty that creates the most change is always merciless. And that’s exactly why I’m afraid of it.

What if men said that to women? When people see me, they don’t see a man. They see a Black man. And that perception shapes my entire life, just like being a woman shapes yours. Asking me to pretend otherwise only protects racists.”

Honesty requires change, and most people don’t have time for that. They just want the pain to go away for a short time, so they can keep moving forward.”

hope is the only antidote to fear.”

Waiting is suffocating.

It’s freeing to be lost in open space.

“Have you ever noticed that love is a verb?”

To make our own selves feel more comfortable, we negate the voices of others we simply don’t want to hear.

The power of hindsight is the ability to see the disoriented building blocks that eventually led to the crumbling. How each step I took stacked incongruently on top of the other, forming a weak structure, until it all came tumbling down.

I believed in my own good intentions with no regard for the pain they might cause.

good intentions are not enough—— a sticker I have on my laptop. Honestly one of my favorite sentiments. it was from an orientation for kids who would potentially be going to do a gap year abroad. We can’t just go into things with the intention of “making things better”, because our perspective of what is “better” might just end up making things worse. We can’t always project our ideals onto others and expect things to work out. We can’t solve other peoples problems. Because honestly, they might not be problems at all. And if they are, they aren’t necessarily ours to solve. So if we do decide to help, we have to do so not only while taking the perspective of the other individual, but we can only be there to help. We can’t just take charge because it’ll only end in disaster

A good education is about belonging. It’s about being seen. Learning you’re important to the world.

“If love is a verb, what’s the right action?”

Love isn’t about erasing the past. It’s about dealing with it.

“Books are like hearts,” he says. “They should be shared with the people we trust.”

“When did love become something a person deserves? Love is a human right, not a reward for good behavior.”

Power over another just proves how scared and desperate a person is.

“Nothing gets fixed in the dark,” I answer knowingly. “Wait for the sun to rise. You’ll see better then.”

It’s the pretty lies, only the pretty lies, that destroy us the most.