O’Brien and LBH’s

Nicole’s roommate (she is American, aged 22 years) calls expats “LBH’s” which stands for losers back home: I wonder about this.

It doesn’t make me so mad: we’re just losers in that we have lost.  Everyone has, and, like everyone,  we had courage for something but not something else.

Looking at the chance to love it is best to walk away, to paraphrase Anne Carson: it’s not what we usually tell the youth of today.

It deserves more time, more thoughtful consideration.

O’ Brien on courage:

Courage, I seemed to think, comes to us in finite quantities, like an inheritance, and by being frugal and stashing it away and letting it earn interest, we steadily increase our moral capital in preparation for that day when the account must be drawn down.

I am excited about this.  As O’ Brien also says, it makes the day-to-day failings much easier to cope with.

My view on love today: something as big as a monster just looking at me.

And then I laugh, and it laughs, and we keep laughing until we have to stop, which is hopefully never.