Adult Braces Quotes

“moved.”
― Lindy West, Adult Braces: Driving Myself Sane

“Some might accuse me of Orwellian doublethink here: So, the people opposed to restrictions and mandates are insular and controlling, but the people literally closing their community to outsiders are open-minded and free? Well, yeah. The first group has constructed a false reality to avoid having to extend compassion to anyone outside of their immediate family unit, regardless of how many millions they kill; the second group has looked reality in the face and taken reasonable action to mitigate large-scale harm. One is craven individualism; the other is brave collective care. One prioritizes people’s freedom to not wear a mask; the other prioritizes people’s freedom to live instead of die.”
― Lindy West, Adult Braces: Driving Myself Sane

“I’m thinking about the ways that out of fear I have closed off huge sections of my body and my sexuality to myself because it felt safer to be closed and to be deflective, to not let anything in. And I wonder if there’s a metaphor there for America. I am traversing these parts of the country where people are scared and angry. Terrified white people have tried so hard to close off parts of the country to people who aren’t like them, people who they don’t feel like they know. They literally legislate love. I saw a bumper sticker that said MARRIAGE EQUALS MAN PLUS WOMAN. I mean, what a psychic fucking load to care about that, you know? To care about limiting other people’s love. It’s so sad. Don’t you want to put it down? Wouldn’t you rather know them instead?”
― Lindy West, Adult Braces: Driving Myself Sane

“At last, we reached the top, and WOW—Gourdon is the kind of French village that does make the guidebooks. It’s the Beauty and the Beast town except on the top of a mountain—stone buildings with timber beams, winding alleys, striped awnings, hanging flowers, mustaches, aprons, antlers in all of their decorating—and let me tell you, my friends, I was ready to eat five dozen eggs!!!!!! I needed sugar. I needed salt. I was dangerously weak and lightheaded. It was honestly probably a genuine medical emergency. I couldn’t believe we had made it to the promised land: out of the wilderness and back into commerce. Bonjour! Bonjour! Bonjour bonjour bonjour!!!”
― Lindy West, Adult Braces: Driving Myself Sane

“Modern conservatism is so sad—the way people wall themselves off from the rest of the world, too afraid to identify as members of a global collective, convinced that receiving care isn’t worth it if you also have to give. But we are connected. I can put my body in a car and drive it from Seattle to Key West—mountains giving way to desert giving way to mountains giving way to prairie giving way to jungle giving way to swamp giving way to that miraculous coral archipelago.”
― Lindy West, Adult Braces: Driving Myself Sane

“I passed a house that had two giant banners out on the fence. One said TRUMP 2020, and the second one said SAVE THE SANDHILLS, which must be those sand dunes that I drove through earlier. So that’s a person who’s rooted in this place, and they love this wild country that they live in, these empty Sandhills. And yet their national politics are so destructive and brutal and devoid of real place. Like, Trump has no roots, you know what I mean? Because to have roots, you have to care about something. I used to think, at least George W. Bush could ride a horse. Trump can’t do ANYTHING. You think Trump is gonna save your Sandhills? You think he gives a fuck about your Sandhills? That bitch is not gonna save your fucking Sandhills.”
― Lindy West, Adult Braces: Driving Myself Sane