Jan Grue

“A diagnosis is intimate. It is a conclusion. If it is given after years of uncertainty, it can seem liberating. It affirms that all the worries were not unnecessary, that there was, in fact, something wrong; it proves that your own perception of reality is the right one and that you can be trusted. It can put one at ease. If a diagnosis describes a progressive condition, it can also be a source of unease. It conjures images of the future. It is a road map to a place you don’t want to visit. A diagnosis has its own gravitational field. It can shape identity, like other weighty concepts—gender, sexual orientation. One who has never been diagnosed is free without knowing it. What happens when a diagnosis vanishes suddenly? Something is gone, but it was never there, and that which remains is the same as before.”
― Jan Grue, I Live a Life Like Yours: A Memoir

“We tell each other about the books we read. We both want to know what the other is thinking, but we also like hearing ourselves doing the telling. Each new book is an exploration, and through the telling we reinforce the feeling of having traveled some distance, of having gained new land.”
― Jan Grue, I Live a Life Like Yours: A Memoir