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The Normal Heart and the Destiny of Me
Two award-winning plays from the legendary activist and dramatist who has been called "one of the best writers of our times." (Lambda Book Report)
The Normal Heart, set during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, is the impassioned indictment of a society that allowed the plague to happen, a moving denunciation of the ignorance and fear that helped kill an entire generation. It has been produced and taught all over the world. Its companion play, The Destiny of Me is the stirring story of an AIDs activist forced to put his life in the hands of the very doctor he has been denouncing.
The Normal Heart was selected as one of the 100 Greatest Plays of the Twentieth Century by the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain
The Destiny of Me was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, a double Obie winner, and the recipient of the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play of the Year.
Introduction by Tony Kushner.
"Wired with anger, electric with rage. . . . Powerful stuff." --The Boston Globe
The Normal Heart, set during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, is the impassioned indictment of a society that allowed the plague to happen, a moving denunciation of the ignorance and fear that helped kill an entire generation. It has been produced and taught all over the world. Its companion play, The Destiny of Me is the stirring story of an AIDs activist forced to put his life in the hands of the very doctor he has been denouncing.
The Normal Heart was selected as one of the 100 Greatest Plays of the Twentieth Century by the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain
The Destiny of Me was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, a double Obie winner, and the recipient of the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play of the Year.
Introduction by Tony Kushner.
"Wired with anger, electric with rage. . . . Powerful stuff." --The Boston Globe
292 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 18, 2000
76 people are currently reading
763 people want to read
About the author
Larry Kramer
29 books210 followersLarry Kramer (born June 25, 1935) was an American playwright, author, public health advocate and gay rights activist. He was nominated for an Academy Award, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and was twice a recipient of an Obie Award. In response to the AIDS crisis he founded Gay Men's Health Crisis, which became the largest organization of its kind in the world. He wrote The Normal Heart, the first serious artistic examination of the AIDS crisis. He later founded ACT UP, a protest organization widely credited with having changed public health policy and the public's awareness of HIV and AIDS.[1] "There is no question in my mind that Larry helped change medicine in this country. And he helped change it for the better. In American medicine there are two eras. Before Larry and after Larry," said Dr. Anthony Fauci.[1] Kramer lived in New York City and Connecticut.
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January 7, 2019
It was our ten-year reunion from high (secondary) school.
Oh, we were all so sophisticated, smart, fresh, and handsome folk.
We were twenty-eight years old, pretending to be adults, much like we do now.
We are schmoozing and boasting of all our accomplishments since we last met a decade prior, then in a classroom.
Now, though, we are in a hall. With booze and food and suits and ties and formal dresses for the ladies. There is music in the background. Of course, it is music from yesteryear, the year we graduated.
The atmosphere is festive and the dialogue is singular to this genre of the event, while Lynrd Skynrd, Charlie Daniels, or Linda Ronstadt (when she was a size 2) is heard strumming through the speakers. “Love will keep us together…la.la.la,” his majesty the Captain and Tennille.
And then Michael walks in.
Michael, a small and an adorable kid, was one of my better friends in high school. And now, look, he is emaciated, shuffling and not walking, dazed and furtive eyes looking nowhere seated on his now sunken wan face, the countenance of a question mark, and holding a cane. A cane…for this dear young man who was liked by everyone, to travel several feet, yards, not more.
Michael was sick. Very sick. And we all knew immediately what it was. We were there at the height of the AIDS epidemic. Everyone was confused. Everyone was scared.
It mattered not, at this point, in the genesis of the disease, if one was gay or not. We were told that if our female partner had previous partners…etc…etc…
Everyone was vulnerable. (a necessary and smart move by the gay community to wake up the straight majority who did not so much as feign interest)
We did not know if shaking hands or kissing, or touching bruises or cuts, were communicable. We knew nothing. We seem to still be in the dark on most things autoimmune.
As this haggard young man hobbled into the room everyone dispersed. This most popular boy grew up to become a leper.
It was heartbreaking.
I can recall his entry this moment as clearly as when it happened. I spent many hours in therapy thereafter attempting to understand the human condition.
I was angry. I was cooking in New York City at the time, the worldwide epicenter of the disease, and many of my co-workers were gay and afraid. And some were dying.
I cannot tell you how many grown men, in that business, during that time, I saw sob.
I never saw this show on Broadway.
And AIDS became a game-changer in so many ways. Personally, I immediately rethought concepts like religion, doctors, family membership, marriage, pain. Women, already beyond my pay grade to understand, became potentially lethal partners. The entire process of courtship shifted on a dime for both sexes.
As did the efficacy of government behemoths, like the NIH. So, if anything positive came out of this plague, we became less tolerant of snake oil marketers and of bigots and the cheap rhetoric that always flows so easily when one does not know of what they speak, and more pro-active in affecting the change in the speed of getting drugs to those who need them, like now.
This guy, Kramer, has captured, incredibly, the zeitgeist of the time, within the confines of a two or three-hour live drama.
Plagues, like genocides, are not a pretty side of humanity.
But, it is part of who we are, an aspect of life and what we can anticipate, again.
Oh, we were all so sophisticated, smart, fresh, and handsome folk.
We were twenty-eight years old, pretending to be adults, much like we do now.
We are schmoozing and boasting of all our accomplishments since we last met a decade prior, then in a classroom.
Now, though, we are in a hall. With booze and food and suits and ties and formal dresses for the ladies. There is music in the background. Of course, it is music from yesteryear, the year we graduated.
The atmosphere is festive and the dialogue is singular to this genre of the event, while Lynrd Skynrd, Charlie Daniels, or Linda Ronstadt (when she was a size 2) is heard strumming through the speakers. “Love will keep us together…la.la.la,” his majesty the Captain and Tennille.
And then Michael walks in.
Michael, a small and an adorable kid, was one of my better friends in high school. And now, look, he is emaciated, shuffling and not walking, dazed and furtive eyes looking nowhere seated on his now sunken wan face, the countenance of a question mark, and holding a cane. A cane…for this dear young man who was liked by everyone, to travel several feet, yards, not more.
Michael was sick. Very sick. And we all knew immediately what it was. We were there at the height of the AIDS epidemic. Everyone was confused. Everyone was scared.
It mattered not, at this point, in the genesis of the disease, if one was gay or not. We were told that if our female partner had previous partners…etc…etc…
Everyone was vulnerable. (a necessary and smart move by the gay community to wake up the straight majority who did not so much as feign interest)
We did not know if shaking hands or kissing, or touching bruises or cuts, were communicable. We knew nothing. We seem to still be in the dark on most things autoimmune.
As this haggard young man hobbled into the room everyone dispersed. This most popular boy grew up to become a leper.
It was heartbreaking.
I can recall his entry this moment as clearly as when it happened. I spent many hours in therapy thereafter attempting to understand the human condition.
I was angry. I was cooking in New York City at the time, the worldwide epicenter of the disease, and many of my co-workers were gay and afraid. And some were dying.
I cannot tell you how many grown men, in that business, during that time, I saw sob.
I never saw this show on Broadway.
And AIDS became a game-changer in so many ways. Personally, I immediately rethought concepts like religion, doctors, family membership, marriage, pain. Women, already beyond my pay grade to understand, became potentially lethal partners. The entire process of courtship shifted on a dime for both sexes.
As did the efficacy of government behemoths, like the NIH. So, if anything positive came out of this plague, we became less tolerant of snake oil marketers and of bigots and the cheap rhetoric that always flows so easily when one does not know of what they speak, and more pro-active in affecting the change in the speed of getting drugs to those who need them, like now.
This guy, Kramer, has captured, incredibly, the zeitgeist of the time, within the confines of a two or three-hour live drama.
Plagues, like genocides, are not a pretty side of humanity.
But, it is part of who we are, an aspect of life and what we can anticipate, again.
October 6, 2015
With the recent publication of The American People: Volume 1: Search for My Heart: A Novel, it struck me that I had not read a single word of Larry Kramer to date.
I promptly made up for this notable lapse, first reading the, er, seminal Faggots before plunging into this duo of linked plays, followed by watching HBO’s movie version of the former, directed by Ryan Murphy and with Mark Ruffalo in the Kramer role. My conclusion: Kramer is much sexier than the rather frumpy Ruffalo. (How Kramer would throw a brick at me for such a vapid comment).
I also watched the HBO doccie entitled Larry Kramer: In Love and Anger, which paints the author as a long-suffering and even longer-standing AIDS activist who not only established ACT UP, but was instrumental in initiating a notorious civil disobedience campaign.
Unrepentant, Kramer still often rails against the (male) gay community for being led by its cocks. Which was larger the subject of Faggots, where Kramer held up a highly disapproving magnifying glass to the drugs-and-fucking lifestyle exemplified by New York and Fire Island.
I was amazed at how The Normal Heart has not aged by a single wrinkle, and neither has Kramer’s often anguished words lost any of their power. Or their anger. Interestingly, the HBO movie focuses much more on the ‘love thwarted’ aspect, probably to reduce that ‘in your face’ quality so prevalent with Kramer’s writing, not to mention his personality as a whole.
Kramer recounts in the HBO doccie how The Normal Heart literally poured out of him in a single draft, as he felt he was writing history rather than fiction. There is a wonderfully written and insightful introduction by Tony Kushner, who praises the literalness of Kramer’s writing and how it punches you through the heart, with little adornment or symbolism. (Kushner’s Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is, of course, the exact opposite of this).
It must have been absolutely incendiary to have seen this performed live on stage for the first time, with people literally dying outside the theatre’s walls in New York, and many of the actors on stage having lost friends and lovers as well.
The Destiny of Me is a lot murkier and fragmentary, but makes an interesting comparison to The Normal Heart (especially in that the main characters from the former, Ned Weeks, is now faced with his mortality, in the form of a ghostly visitation from his much younger self). And his parents. The daddy issues here alone are enough to make anyone cringe, which means this is a much less palatable play than The Normal Heart.
Taken together, I think Kushner is right in holding these up as contemporary masterpieces of both political activism and commercial theatre. It is a difficult line to toe at the best of times, but Kramer is nothing if not the consummate showman.
I promptly made up for this notable lapse, first reading the, er, seminal Faggots before plunging into this duo of linked plays, followed by watching HBO’s movie version of the former, directed by Ryan Murphy and with Mark Ruffalo in the Kramer role. My conclusion: Kramer is much sexier than the rather frumpy Ruffalo. (How Kramer would throw a brick at me for such a vapid comment).
I also watched the HBO doccie entitled Larry Kramer: In Love and Anger, which paints the author as a long-suffering and even longer-standing AIDS activist who not only established ACT UP, but was instrumental in initiating a notorious civil disobedience campaign.
Unrepentant, Kramer still often rails against the (male) gay community for being led by its cocks. Which was larger the subject of Faggots, where Kramer held up a highly disapproving magnifying glass to the drugs-and-fucking lifestyle exemplified by New York and Fire Island.
I was amazed at how The Normal Heart has not aged by a single wrinkle, and neither has Kramer’s often anguished words lost any of their power. Or their anger. Interestingly, the HBO movie focuses much more on the ‘love thwarted’ aspect, probably to reduce that ‘in your face’ quality so prevalent with Kramer’s writing, not to mention his personality as a whole.
Kramer recounts in the HBO doccie how The Normal Heart literally poured out of him in a single draft, as he felt he was writing history rather than fiction. There is a wonderfully written and insightful introduction by Tony Kushner, who praises the literalness of Kramer’s writing and how it punches you through the heart, with little adornment or symbolism. (Kushner’s Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is, of course, the exact opposite of this).
It must have been absolutely incendiary to have seen this performed live on stage for the first time, with people literally dying outside the theatre’s walls in New York, and many of the actors on stage having lost friends and lovers as well.
The Destiny of Me is a lot murkier and fragmentary, but makes an interesting comparison to The Normal Heart (especially in that the main characters from the former, Ned Weeks, is now faced with his mortality, in the form of a ghostly visitation from his much younger self). And his parents. The daddy issues here alone are enough to make anyone cringe, which means this is a much less palatable play than The Normal Heart.
Taken together, I think Kushner is right in holding these up as contemporary masterpieces of both political activism and commercial theatre. It is a difficult line to toe at the best of times, but Kramer is nothing if not the consummate showman.
Read
March 2, 2019On April 13, I am participating in the 2019 AIDS Walk Ohio. In preparation for the day, I decided to re-read one of the seminal works of literature written during the height of the HIV / AIDS epidemic, Larry Kramer’s play, The Normal Heart.
On June 5, 1981, the U.S. Center for Disease Control published an article describing cases of a rare lung infection in five young, white, previously healthy gay men in Los Angeles. The report stated that Los Angeles immunologists believed the immune system of the five men had been impaired. All five men died.
At first, this emergent disease was called GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency) because it was thought only gay men contracted it. By the end of the year, however, some drug users also had contracted it. The following year, 1982, the disease was called AIDS, and no one knew how it was contracted or caused.
However, likely because the disease disproportionately affected the gay community, the press, government, and religious institutions paid it little attention. In fact, the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, never publicly acknowledged the disease until September 17, 1985 after actor Rock Hudson died. That same year, approximately 5,636 other people died of the disease in the US, most of whom were gay men.
By the end of 1985, there had already been 15,527 cases of AIDS reported in the US and 12,529 deaths. By then, it was clear to the gay community that it was on its own.
It was in this same year that playwright and activist, Larry Kramer, produced his Off-Broadway play, The Normal Heart.Somewhat autobiographical, Kramer’s play, written in stark plain language and moving scenes which never feature some if the hallmarks of early gay writing—camp humor, irony, and over-the-top extravagant language--tells the impact the growing epidemic had on the gay community in New York City between 1981 and 1984. It is a story of love, activism, distrust, hatred, pain, ignorance, sorrow, apathy, fear, and rage.
The play opens in New York when an unidentified disease begins to take the life of gay men. Dr. Emma Brookner, a physician and polio survivor finds herself treating more men, yet there is no information about the disease. Nobody knows its cause or how it is spread, though she begins to suspect it may be sexually transmitted.
Brookner soon meets with writer, Ned Weeks and tells him he must spread the message that gay men must stop having sex. Weeks reminds her that with the sexual revolution of the 60s and the Stonewall Riots of 1969, many gay men were having sex, and lots of it with lots of different partners. They were determined to be able to live and love openly and freely. They would not go backward and deny acting on their sexuality after so many centuries of oppression and repression. Brookner bluntly tells Weeks the men will have to choose sex or death.
As men Ned knows continue to die, he begins to act. He meets with a small group of people to create an advocacy organization to call attention to the disease. While he prefers loud and confrontational strategies to gain the attention of gay men as well as the government of New York, the other board members are more cautious, private, polite, and quiet. Confrontations erupt that threaten to undermine their goals.
At the same time, while trying to get a newspaper to report on the growing crisis, Weeks meets New York Times columnist, Felix Turner and, for the first time, falls in love. Not long afterward, Felix shows symptoms of the disease.
As Felix grows progressively worse, the disease becomes an epidemic, and the straight-controlled institutions continue to show no concern, Weeks realizes many people in the straight population do not care that gay men are dying, and many are thankful for the disease. Weeks, therefore, becomes even more confrontational and direct in his actions. Dr. Brookner, too, becomes more active in her pursuit of government help.
As the play ends, there is some expression of hope that the gay community would not go back into hiding and may even gain some acceptance, but it is juxtaposed with the rapidly growing numbers of dead men and the knowledge that the disease is spreading across the globe.
The Normal Heart is the story of conflicts that developed as gay men were beginning to understand themselves as an oppressed and hated minority group rather than as individuals who were mentally ill criminals certain to burn in hell. It is the story of an emergent community beginning to refuse oppression and repression while learning to celebrate itself in the open. But it was also a community that was faced with how much the straight community hated them as governments, churches, medical professionals, press, family members, and others remained silent and passive as the horrific disease killed gay men by the thousands.
The play suggests how a disease brings people learning what it means to be gay into a community formed as the consequence of—and the resistance to--oppression, and shows how this emergent community began learning to care for itself, to see itself in a new light, to break the bonds of oppression, and to harness the pain and anger necessary to never go back into the shadows.
The Normal Heart is not a perfect play though it is an important one. At times, Kramer’s anger jumps off the page, but this is understandable as we remember that he, and others, were watching their friends and lovers die while wondering when they might be the next. The Normal Heart is still one of the most important pieces of literature about the early years of HIV / AIDS and is important today as we seek to understand those who lived through the epidemic. It is also an angry and bold play that demands people to become active in their politics and communities, but it also makes clear the messiness of that activism.
HIV / AIDS is seldom in the news today, yet the virus and disease are still with us, especially in places such as Africa. Though it is now manageable for large numbers of people who have access to healthcare, there still is no vaccine. There still is no cure.
On June 5, 1981, the U.S. Center for Disease Control published an article describing cases of a rare lung infection in five young, white, previously healthy gay men in Los Angeles. The report stated that Los Angeles immunologists believed the immune system of the five men had been impaired. All five men died.
At first, this emergent disease was called GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency) because it was thought only gay men contracted it. By the end of the year, however, some drug users also had contracted it. The following year, 1982, the disease was called AIDS, and no one knew how it was contracted or caused.
However, likely because the disease disproportionately affected the gay community, the press, government, and religious institutions paid it little attention. In fact, the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, never publicly acknowledged the disease until September 17, 1985 after actor Rock Hudson died. That same year, approximately 5,636 other people died of the disease in the US, most of whom were gay men.
By the end of 1985, there had already been 15,527 cases of AIDS reported in the US and 12,529 deaths. By then, it was clear to the gay community that it was on its own.
It was in this same year that playwright and activist, Larry Kramer, produced his Off-Broadway play, The Normal Heart.Somewhat autobiographical, Kramer’s play, written in stark plain language and moving scenes which never feature some if the hallmarks of early gay writing—camp humor, irony, and over-the-top extravagant language--tells the impact the growing epidemic had on the gay community in New York City between 1981 and 1984. It is a story of love, activism, distrust, hatred, pain, ignorance, sorrow, apathy, fear, and rage.
The play opens in New York when an unidentified disease begins to take the life of gay men. Dr. Emma Brookner, a physician and polio survivor finds herself treating more men, yet there is no information about the disease. Nobody knows its cause or how it is spread, though she begins to suspect it may be sexually transmitted.
Brookner soon meets with writer, Ned Weeks and tells him he must spread the message that gay men must stop having sex. Weeks reminds her that with the sexual revolution of the 60s and the Stonewall Riots of 1969, many gay men were having sex, and lots of it with lots of different partners. They were determined to be able to live and love openly and freely. They would not go backward and deny acting on their sexuality after so many centuries of oppression and repression. Brookner bluntly tells Weeks the men will have to choose sex or death.
As men Ned knows continue to die, he begins to act. He meets with a small group of people to create an advocacy organization to call attention to the disease. While he prefers loud and confrontational strategies to gain the attention of gay men as well as the government of New York, the other board members are more cautious, private, polite, and quiet. Confrontations erupt that threaten to undermine their goals.
At the same time, while trying to get a newspaper to report on the growing crisis, Weeks meets New York Times columnist, Felix Turner and, for the first time, falls in love. Not long afterward, Felix shows symptoms of the disease.
As Felix grows progressively worse, the disease becomes an epidemic, and the straight-controlled institutions continue to show no concern, Weeks realizes many people in the straight population do not care that gay men are dying, and many are thankful for the disease. Weeks, therefore, becomes even more confrontational and direct in his actions. Dr. Brookner, too, becomes more active in her pursuit of government help.
As the play ends, there is some expression of hope that the gay community would not go back into hiding and may even gain some acceptance, but it is juxtaposed with the rapidly growing numbers of dead men and the knowledge that the disease is spreading across the globe.
The Normal Heart is the story of conflicts that developed as gay men were beginning to understand themselves as an oppressed and hated minority group rather than as individuals who were mentally ill criminals certain to burn in hell. It is the story of an emergent community beginning to refuse oppression and repression while learning to celebrate itself in the open. But it was also a community that was faced with how much the straight community hated them as governments, churches, medical professionals, press, family members, and others remained silent and passive as the horrific disease killed gay men by the thousands.
The play suggests how a disease brings people learning what it means to be gay into a community formed as the consequence of—and the resistance to--oppression, and shows how this emergent community began learning to care for itself, to see itself in a new light, to break the bonds of oppression, and to harness the pain and anger necessary to never go back into the shadows.
The Normal Heart is not a perfect play though it is an important one. At times, Kramer’s anger jumps off the page, but this is understandable as we remember that he, and others, were watching their friends and lovers die while wondering when they might be the next. The Normal Heart is still one of the most important pieces of literature about the early years of HIV / AIDS and is important today as we seek to understand those who lived through the epidemic. It is also an angry and bold play that demands people to become active in their politics and communities, but it also makes clear the messiness of that activism.
HIV / AIDS is seldom in the news today, yet the virus and disease are still with us, especially in places such as Africa. Though it is now manageable for large numbers of people who have access to healthcare, there still is no vaccine. There still is no cure.
December 29, 2014
The Normal Heart = fantastic. The Destiny of Me = meh.
December 28, 2022
There is nothing in the world like the righteous fury and outrage Larry Kramer channels in The Normal Heart. Part history and pet tragedy, it gets better every time I see or read it.
This was my first time reading The Destiny of Me. It’s a bit more resigned and entirely focused on it be author’s journey of self acceptance with his family. It’s a fine piece (maybe a but too fluid for my preference) but it’s still a very strong work. It’s just difficult not to compare it negatively to The Normal Heart.
This was my first time reading The Destiny of Me. It’s a bit more resigned and entirely focused on it be author’s journey of self acceptance with his family. It’s a fine piece (maybe a but too fluid for my preference) but it’s still a very strong work. It’s just difficult not to compare it negatively to The Normal Heart.
April 21, 2019
Reading these plays it became very clear to me how much context I'm missing in their understanding... I wasn't really sure what to think of The Normal Heart, it feels kind of rough, which is appropriate considering the circumstances I suppose, but I really loved The Destiny of Me, so...
June 3, 2022
The Normal Heart: 5⭐️
The Destiny of Me: 3,5⭐️
Introduction by Tony Kushner: 5⭐️
The Destiny of Me: 3,5⭐️
Introduction by Tony Kushner: 5⭐️
September 20, 2013
I had, in my mind, a definitive picture of the early 80’s, when AIDS began to ravage our country. It attacked largely gay men, so it was ignored. It was years before there was any formal “response”
by the powers that be and in the meantime, the dead continued to pile up, as those brave few fought the good fight.
The Normal Heart reinforces a lot of that, but what I found most fascinating was the idea that there were many, having fought “the good fight” years before, for equality, for the right to love and do as they please without being discriminated against, that the idea that now they had to stop having sex was as abhorrent to them as the idea that they could die if they didn’t.
It is a very timeless dilemma. How do you effect change? Do you scream and yell and stomp on toes and alienate the people you need, so you get nowhere? Or do you woo and gently coax and try to influence using honey rather than vinegar and ultimately get about as far as the agitator? Do you hold so tight to your beliefs that in the end that’s all you have? Or do you let your vision get so watered down by compromise and fear that by the time something…anything…is resolved, you no longer recognize what you were standing up for in the first place?
Ned Weeks is a bull in a china shop. He is desperate and screaming as loud as he can that a plague has hit his city and his community and the people he loves are dying, more every day. His friends are frightened of what is happening, but more frightened of the huge step backwards they feel they will take if they stop having sex and stop living their lives the way they want. They know they aren’t going to effect change with Ned as their leader, but will they effect change by tiptoeing around the powers that be? What is the answer? Maybe there isn’t one.
Reading it now, I have the gift of hindsight and I know things will eventually get better in the grand scheme of things, long after the play has ended. But that can also lead to a maddening game of “What if…” What if straight people had been the first to start dying in droves? On and on…
And in the middle of all the politics and anger, is a love story that ends rather sadly, because honestly, in that time, in that place, in that community, due to the failings of many, in and around it, there was no other way for it to end.
by the powers that be and in the meantime, the dead continued to pile up, as those brave few fought the good fight.
The Normal Heart reinforces a lot of that, but what I found most fascinating was the idea that there were many, having fought “the good fight” years before, for equality, for the right to love and do as they please without being discriminated against, that the idea that now they had to stop having sex was as abhorrent to them as the idea that they could die if they didn’t.
It is a very timeless dilemma. How do you effect change? Do you scream and yell and stomp on toes and alienate the people you need, so you get nowhere? Or do you woo and gently coax and try to influence using honey rather than vinegar and ultimately get about as far as the agitator? Do you hold so tight to your beliefs that in the end that’s all you have? Or do you let your vision get so watered down by compromise and fear that by the time something…anything…is resolved, you no longer recognize what you were standing up for in the first place?
Ned Weeks is a bull in a china shop. He is desperate and screaming as loud as he can that a plague has hit his city and his community and the people he loves are dying, more every day. His friends are frightened of what is happening, but more frightened of the huge step backwards they feel they will take if they stop having sex and stop living their lives the way they want. They know they aren’t going to effect change with Ned as their leader, but will they effect change by tiptoeing around the powers that be? What is the answer? Maybe there isn’t one.
Reading it now, I have the gift of hindsight and I know things will eventually get better in the grand scheme of things, long after the play has ended. But that can also lead to a maddening game of “What if…” What if straight people had been the first to start dying in droves? On and on…
And in the middle of all the politics and anger, is a love story that ends rather sadly, because honestly, in that time, in that place, in that community, due to the failings of many, in and around it, there was no other way for it to end.
July 31, 2015
I read Normal Heart when it came out 30 years ago. As an 18 year old gay man, it left me and many gays of my generation thinking we would all be dead before we were 30. The miracles of modern medicine took many years of people like Kramer screaming to get the country's attention. This play captures that moment quite vividly and holds up. Now I want to watch the recent movie. The Destiny of Me is a different play altogether. Featuring Ned Weeks from The Normal Heart, it is the story of his treatment for AIDS and his experiences growing up. A good play, but nothing like the first one.
January 27, 2015
✭✭✭½
Incorporates:
The Normal Heart, Larry Kramer (1985). ✭✭✭✭½
The Destiny of Me, Larry Kramer (1993). ✭✭½
Incorporates:
The Normal Heart, Larry Kramer (1985). ✭✭✭✭½
The Destiny of Me, Larry Kramer (1993). ✭✭½
August 6, 2017
5 stars for The Normal Heart for its bravery.
3 stars for The Destiny of Me.
3 stars for The Destiny of Me.
August 28, 2022
These two plays explore reactions to the AIDS epidemic of the 80s. The Normal Heart tells the story of Ned Weeks and his friends (and lovers) as they try and form an activist group to get mainstream society to care about what was dubbed 'the new plague'. The Destiny of Me centers in a bit more on Ned as, faced with death, he reflects on his upbringing and how that affected his relationship with his sexuality.
Personally, I enjoyed The Normal Heart a bit more. It tackles the question of what activism is, when it's necessary, and who should do it. At the time of the play (1981-1984) it was believed that AIDS was an illness limited to the gay community. For that reason, Ned and his friends find themselves at the forefront of the advocacy for research into the disease. However, Ned's views are polemic and he is painfully outspoken about them. He struggles with the association between homosexuality and promiscuity which is an association the community itself generated in earlier years with the notion of sexual liberation. This struggle is furthered by the fact that AIDS is transmitted sexually (though at the time this was only a theory); Ned believes the gay community is killing itself. He also has a self-diagnosed 'big mouth' and pushes for his ideas by working outside of the system -- calling the mayor of New York a slur, for example. He believes it's every gay man's responsibility to advocate for themselves when no-one else will and that they must do it his way. Within his advocacy group, this creates a lot of turmoil. It gets at an interesting paradox in which those who are crushed by the boot are also the ones expected to get out from under it. There's almost a double injury: the illness itself and having to accept that no-one but yourself will help you fix it. However, is Ned's tactic of pulling no punches really the best way to advocate? Is the message alone enough or does it matter how you say it? If he twists the government's arm on behalf of the gay community, how does that influence society's view of this group? Does it do so in a counter-productive way? The fact that I came away with a lot of questions and not many answers is a big reason I enjoyed this play.
The Destiny of Me was more of a character study into Ned Weeks and as Tony Kushner says in the Introduction, it's interesting to have these two plays talk to each other. In the former, the stakes are much higher but the ending is optimistic in spite of this. In the latter, Ned's stakes are the only stakes and yet we end with him condemned. His final rant is delightfully gory (it makes me want to see it performed) and this matches very well with the bleak outcome. Funnily enough though, we have the same theme of taking responsibility as we saw in The Normal Heart but this time Ned is being forced, not his friends. The play is a bit too Dickensian in that Ned's own illness forces him to traipse back through his life and this is what is presented to the reader. It's a rather tragic life but, in an interesting endorsement of psychoanalysis, Ned is made to accept himself and forgive his parents. This play was a bit less philosophically interesting but it still tugged at heartstrings.
Personally, I enjoyed The Normal Heart a bit more. It tackles the question of what activism is, when it's necessary, and who should do it. At the time of the play (1981-1984) it was believed that AIDS was an illness limited to the gay community. For that reason, Ned and his friends find themselves at the forefront of the advocacy for research into the disease. However, Ned's views are polemic and he is painfully outspoken about them. He struggles with the association between homosexuality and promiscuity which is an association the community itself generated in earlier years with the notion of sexual liberation. This struggle is furthered by the fact that AIDS is transmitted sexually (though at the time this was only a theory); Ned believes the gay community is killing itself. He also has a self-diagnosed 'big mouth' and pushes for his ideas by working outside of the system -- calling the mayor of New York a slur, for example. He believes it's every gay man's responsibility to advocate for themselves when no-one else will and that they must do it his way. Within his advocacy group, this creates a lot of turmoil. It gets at an interesting paradox in which those who are crushed by the boot are also the ones expected to get out from under it. There's almost a double injury: the illness itself and having to accept that no-one but yourself will help you fix it. However, is Ned's tactic of pulling no punches really the best way to advocate? Is the message alone enough or does it matter how you say it? If he twists the government's arm on behalf of the gay community, how does that influence society's view of this group? Does it do so in a counter-productive way? The fact that I came away with a lot of questions and not many answers is a big reason I enjoyed this play.
The Destiny of Me was more of a character study into Ned Weeks and as Tony Kushner says in the Introduction, it's interesting to have these two plays talk to each other. In the former, the stakes are much higher but the ending is optimistic in spite of this. In the latter, Ned's stakes are the only stakes and yet we end with him condemned. His final rant is delightfully gory (it makes me want to see it performed) and this matches very well with the bleak outcome. Funnily enough though, we have the same theme of taking responsibility as we saw in The Normal Heart but this time Ned is being forced, not his friends. The play is a bit too Dickensian in that Ned's own illness forces him to traipse back through his life and this is what is presented to the reader. It's a rather tragic life but, in an interesting endorsement of psychoanalysis, Ned is made to accept himself and forgive his parents. This play was a bit less philosophically interesting but it still tugged at heartstrings.
July 18, 2022
Larry Kramer created seminal works of gay rights and AIDS epidemic history in his deeply personal plays, The Normal Heart and The Destiny of Me. Both plays revolve around Ned Weeks, a gay man living and working in New York City in the 1980s. They are heartbreaking and still quite timely in their politics.
These plays are important to the HIV/AIDS canon of literature, nonfiction, and documentary films. The emotions and truths that Kramer infuses his scenes with are alternately gut-wrenching and intense. While most of the characters are fictional, they draw from a heavy dose of epidemic reality and Kramer’s own experiences.
It’s impossible not to care for these men and the doctor who begins to address their health crises, Dr. Brookner. In the midst of the massive health concerns, plus the death and mourning of close friends, they start advocating for themselves. The growing pains of their organization coincide with the demise of characters and offstage friends.
Full review available on my book blog, TheBibliophage.com.
These plays are important to the HIV/AIDS canon of literature, nonfiction, and documentary films. The emotions and truths that Kramer infuses his scenes with are alternately gut-wrenching and intense. While most of the characters are fictional, they draw from a heavy dose of epidemic reality and Kramer’s own experiences.
It’s impossible not to care for these men and the doctor who begins to address their health crises, Dr. Brookner. In the midst of the massive health concerns, plus the death and mourning of close friends, they start advocating for themselves. The growing pains of their organization coincide with the demise of characters and offstage friends.
Full review available on my book blog, TheBibliophage.com.
January 22, 2021
RIP Larry Kramer - sometimes I only find out about an author when they die.
Larry Kramer was an important figure in the fight for gay rights and has done a lot of work getting attention in the early 1980's for the rising AIDS epidemic.
This volume contains two of his plays revolving about those themes.
After an atrocious introduction by Tony Kushner, the first play, The Normal Heart, was probably relevant when it was first staged in the mid-1980's, but in hindsight comes across as a lot of people yelling at each other. There is a lack of depth, and a surplus of anger. Probably this was exactly the intention of the owner bac then, though.
I liked The Destiny of Me much better - it is more mature, with characters that actually come to live through the evaluation of their personal history. Its introduction by Larry Kramer himself is also much more meaningful. There is still a lot of anger, but far more moderated, and mixed with an actual expression of genuine feelings. It is this play that could be re-enacted today, unlike the former one.
Larry Kramer was an important figure in the fight for gay rights and has done a lot of work getting attention in the early 1980's for the rising AIDS epidemic.
This volume contains two of his plays revolving about those themes.
After an atrocious introduction by Tony Kushner, the first play, The Normal Heart, was probably relevant when it was first staged in the mid-1980's, but in hindsight comes across as a lot of people yelling at each other. There is a lack of depth, and a surplus of anger. Probably this was exactly the intention of the owner bac then, though.
I liked The Destiny of Me much better - it is more mature, with characters that actually come to live through the evaluation of their personal history. Its introduction by Larry Kramer himself is also much more meaningful. There is still a lot of anger, but far more moderated, and mixed with an actual expression of genuine feelings. It is this play that could be re-enacted today, unlike the former one.
April 18, 2024
heartbreaking and important
I have seen The Normal Heart many times and I thought it was time to read it. In combination with The Destiny of Me, we get a large scope of Ned’s life: his childhood, his years at Yale, his time in the AIDS crisis and falling in love with Felix, to him growing older and becoming sick. Ned spends a lot of his life not loving himself, and a lot of that came from being told he was wrong, sick, and perverted for being gay. Ned does come to a place where he understands nothing made him gay, but it’s just who he is. He learns to embrace it, to love it. But then he watches his friends and his lover die, and starts to rethink the ideals he grew to hold. His experience is truly heartbreaking, but it’s so vivid and real. This is such an honest account of the AIDS crisis, especially at the beginning, and it really puts the reader in this time and place. You can feel Larry Kramer’s anger, despair, hope and heartbreak on every page. This could only have been written by someone who lived through it.
I have seen The Normal Heart many times and I thought it was time to read it. In combination with The Destiny of Me, we get a large scope of Ned’s life: his childhood, his years at Yale, his time in the AIDS crisis and falling in love with Felix, to him growing older and becoming sick. Ned spends a lot of his life not loving himself, and a lot of that came from being told he was wrong, sick, and perverted for being gay. Ned does come to a place where he understands nothing made him gay, but it’s just who he is. He learns to embrace it, to love it. But then he watches his friends and his lover die, and starts to rethink the ideals he grew to hold. His experience is truly heartbreaking, but it’s so vivid and real. This is such an honest account of the AIDS crisis, especially at the beginning, and it really puts the reader in this time and place. You can feel Larry Kramer’s anger, despair, hope and heartbreak on every page. This could only have been written by someone who lived through it.
September 15, 2025
These plays are at their best when they are angry, raw and impossible to misread. All of The Normal Heart fits this bill though I wish I had read it further apart from, as opposed to alongside, Randy Shiltz’s And The Band Played On.
Some of the facts are expanded on so much there that it feels like skimming the surface, but the personal emotion and abrasiveness manage to make it a singular experience regardless. The Destiny of Me leans all the way into Kramer’s neuroticism and finds him attempting to reconcile and explain it. I liked a lot of this but think it is more clearly defined by its stage performances and, as such, solely reading it loses some of its emphasis and nuance.
Some of the facts are expanded on so much there that it feels like skimming the surface, but the personal emotion and abrasiveness manage to make it a singular experience regardless. The Destiny of Me leans all the way into Kramer’s neuroticism and finds him attempting to reconcile and explain it. I liked a lot of this but think it is more clearly defined by its stage performances and, as such, solely reading it loses some of its emphasis and nuance.
January 2, 2018
These are two very intense plays. "The Normal Heart" details the rise of AIDS from 1981-1985 -- the anger and fear and heartache; "The Destiny of Me" is a follow up in which Ned (now diagnosed with HIV) tries in a desperate effort to buy himself more time, an experimental procedure. Flashbacks to his childhood and early adulthood cut into the main narrative.
Gay, straight, bi -- the themes of these plays are universal. HIV/AIDS is not "the gay cancer" it was labeled as in the beginning. Anyone can get the disease. I highly recommend these two plays -- especially "The Normal Heart."
Gay, straight, bi -- the themes of these plays are universal. HIV/AIDS is not "the gay cancer" it was labeled as in the beginning. Anyone can get the disease. I highly recommend these two plays -- especially "The Normal Heart."
December 6, 2020
The 4 star rating is an average actually, for "The Normal Heart" is an unqualified 5 while "Destiny" is around 3.5. Somehow I didn't get into it as much... whereas I finished the first in a single sitting, I read the other in fits and starts. The structure was not one I loved and I couldn't relate to all the emotions or circumstances. But the first play.. the passionate and emotional instensity of it is second to none. The move was great too, incidentally. I still wait for the day that I will be able to teach my course built around AIDS (Close encounters... I want to call it).
August 12, 2023
(I rated the normal heart separately so this is just the destiny of me)
this story was absolutely not at all meant to be told through writing.. tolerable, I knew what was going on and what the message was, but extraordinarily confusing to the point where the intensity of the moment was lost on me. I really wish I could see this in person because I think it would be absolutely insane, especially the ending. reminds me of the glass menagerie but with a family dynamic that is 400x more fucked up. so ya, imagine that
this story was absolutely not at all meant to be told through writing.. tolerable, I knew what was going on and what the message was, but extraordinarily confusing to the point where the intensity of the moment was lost on me. I really wish I could see this in person because I think it would be absolutely insane, especially the ending. reminds me of the glass menagerie but with a family dynamic that is 400x more fucked up. so ya, imagine that
Want to read
September 14, 2011http://www.npr.org/2011/09/13/1404383...
September 13, 2011
Two decades ago, in 1991, the first part of an ambitious work of theater by playwright Tony Kushner took the stage in San Francisco. It was called Angels in America, and its two parts — Millennium Approaches and Perestroika — clocked in at an epic seven hours.
The work, about AIDS in the age of Ronald Reagan, shocked many for its obscenities, and blunt portrayal of sex and homosexuality. But the play was also a story, told with drama and humor, of how humans change and how society responds to those changes.
Angels in America debuted on Broadway in 1993. Since then, it has been transformed into an opera and an HBO miniseries. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993.
Tony Kushner joins NPR's Neal Conan to reflect on the era in which he wrote Angels in America. He discusses how American society has changed over the past two decades, as well as his play's appeal to young people.
Interview Highlights
On the mood in America when he wrote the play
"The sense of the world in the late '80s when I started thinking about the play, and in the early '90s when I wrote it — it was a lot more of a millennial consciousness than an apocalyptic consciousness. There was a strong anticipation. I was a medieval studies major when I was at Columbia, and I was sort of trained to think a lot about millennia. And everyone on the planet, of course, in the late '80s and early '90s, [was] waiting for the year 2000 to arrive. You know, the Y2K virus and all that. There was a certain amount of postmodern versions of old medieval tropes regarding millennia, and a sense that when this sort of auspicious or forbidding date arrived, there would be some sort of transformation — something big was about to happen ...
"During ... the Reagan years, there was a sort of sea change taking place in American politics — and then, as it turned out, in European politics as well, and ultimately in global politics, that we were entering a new period where old reliables were going to be overthrown, and a new way of looking at the world was at hand. And it wasn't necessarily an appealing way of looking at the world, at least for me. ... There was a sense that something was coming and it might be something great, and might be something terrible ...
"I feel, going back now, that the early '90s, the late '80s, for all the horrors of the AIDS epidemic, were comparatively innocent and carefree times compared to where we are now. In the mid-'80s when I wrote the play, it included things about 'eco-cide,' about the collapse of the ozone layer. I really didn't believe in my heart of hearts that the human race was now threatening the survival of life on the planet. There's now absolutely no doubt that that's the case. ... It's completely clear that what we were beginning to get worried about in the '80s was very serious and very real things ... so the play, and the times, both feel darker to me now than they did back then."
On high schools and colleges performing the play
"It's great that it's taught and performed in colleges. I still have to admit ... it's a little shocking — I grew up in Lake Charles, La., and went to public high school, where ... Shakespeare was considered OK, but not Romeo and Juliet because that was kind of naughty. ... But we were certainly protected from anything that was too overtly sexual. And the play is fairly blunt about how it deals with issues of sexuality.
"So every once in a while I express concern when I hear from a high school teacher who says that they're teaching it. But the high school teacher usually rolls his or her eyes. ... You know, I don't have kids myself, so I clearly have not been spending enough time around teenagers to realize that things have changed in the last 40 years, whenever it was I was a teenager. I think people are a little less impressionable and a little harder to shock.
"It makes me enormously happy that I think one of the largest constituencies for the play at this point are members of a younger generation ... I don't know how that happened, but if the play appeals to young people, that makes me very proud."
On colleges that bristle at the play's controversial subject matter
"The play is a really good target for people ... because you can pull quotes out of it and make it sound like it's just a piece of pornography, and get unenlightened people really freaked out about it. ... It's always going to have its uses for these kind of people.
"But I think that one thing that's enormously important is that when the administration in these universities stands up to the regents ... if the administration doesn't stampede, if it doesn't get scared, if it stands up for academic freedom, the other side caves very quickly. And the cases where the controversy has really gotten nuts have often been places where the administration was ... afraid of controversy."
On progress on gay rights since Angels was first performed
"There's been immense progress in terms of [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] rights, obviously, and we're in a very different place now [than] we were in the early '90s. And in my lifetime, I've seen unbelievable progress. And I have great optimism and absolute certainty that we're going to become fully enfranchised and protected by the 14th Amendment and so on. But in the meanwhile, we're not there yet. And there's still a tremendous amount of homophobia."
September 13, 2011
Two decades ago, in 1991, the first part of an ambitious work of theater by playwright Tony Kushner took the stage in San Francisco. It was called Angels in America, and its two parts — Millennium Approaches and Perestroika — clocked in at an epic seven hours.
The work, about AIDS in the age of Ronald Reagan, shocked many for its obscenities, and blunt portrayal of sex and homosexuality. But the play was also a story, told with drama and humor, of how humans change and how society responds to those changes.
Angels in America debuted on Broadway in 1993. Since then, it has been transformed into an opera and an HBO miniseries. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993.
Tony Kushner joins NPR's Neal Conan to reflect on the era in which he wrote Angels in America. He discusses how American society has changed over the past two decades, as well as his play's appeal to young people.
Interview Highlights
On the mood in America when he wrote the play
"The sense of the world in the late '80s when I started thinking about the play, and in the early '90s when I wrote it — it was a lot more of a millennial consciousness than an apocalyptic consciousness. There was a strong anticipation. I was a medieval studies major when I was at Columbia, and I was sort of trained to think a lot about millennia. And everyone on the planet, of course, in the late '80s and early '90s, [was] waiting for the year 2000 to arrive. You know, the Y2K virus and all that. There was a certain amount of postmodern versions of old medieval tropes regarding millennia, and a sense that when this sort of auspicious or forbidding date arrived, there would be some sort of transformation — something big was about to happen ...
"During ... the Reagan years, there was a sort of sea change taking place in American politics — and then, as it turned out, in European politics as well, and ultimately in global politics, that we were entering a new period where old reliables were going to be overthrown, and a new way of looking at the world was at hand. And it wasn't necessarily an appealing way of looking at the world, at least for me. ... There was a sense that something was coming and it might be something great, and might be something terrible ...
"I feel, going back now, that the early '90s, the late '80s, for all the horrors of the AIDS epidemic, were comparatively innocent and carefree times compared to where we are now. In the mid-'80s when I wrote the play, it included things about 'eco-cide,' about the collapse of the ozone layer. I really didn't believe in my heart of hearts that the human race was now threatening the survival of life on the planet. There's now absolutely no doubt that that's the case. ... It's completely clear that what we were beginning to get worried about in the '80s was very serious and very real things ... so the play, and the times, both feel darker to me now than they did back then."
On high schools and colleges performing the play
"It's great that it's taught and performed in colleges. I still have to admit ... it's a little shocking — I grew up in Lake Charles, La., and went to public high school, where ... Shakespeare was considered OK, but not Romeo and Juliet because that was kind of naughty. ... But we were certainly protected from anything that was too overtly sexual. And the play is fairly blunt about how it deals with issues of sexuality.
"So every once in a while I express concern when I hear from a high school teacher who says that they're teaching it. But the high school teacher usually rolls his or her eyes. ... You know, I don't have kids myself, so I clearly have not been spending enough time around teenagers to realize that things have changed in the last 40 years, whenever it was I was a teenager. I think people are a little less impressionable and a little harder to shock.
"It makes me enormously happy that I think one of the largest constituencies for the play at this point are members of a younger generation ... I don't know how that happened, but if the play appeals to young people, that makes me very proud."
On colleges that bristle at the play's controversial subject matter
"The play is a really good target for people ... because you can pull quotes out of it and make it sound like it's just a piece of pornography, and get unenlightened people really freaked out about it. ... It's always going to have its uses for these kind of people.
"But I think that one thing that's enormously important is that when the administration in these universities stands up to the regents ... if the administration doesn't stampede, if it doesn't get scared, if it stands up for academic freedom, the other side caves very quickly. And the cases where the controversy has really gotten nuts have often been places where the administration was ... afraid of controversy."
On progress on gay rights since Angels was first performed
"There's been immense progress in terms of [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] rights, obviously, and we're in a very different place now [than] we were in the early '90s. And in my lifetime, I've seen unbelievable progress. And I have great optimism and absolute certainty that we're going to become fully enfranchised and protected by the 14th Amendment and so on. But in the meanwhile, we're not there yet. And there's still a tremendous amount of homophobia."
May 31, 2020
Not to Go Gentle into that Good Night
Larry Kramer was an articulate, passionate, angry man. He enraged almost everyone he met. And, despite his rage, his insults, and withering sarcasm, people listened when he spoke because, once you got past the hyperbole, Larry Kramer was usually right.
These are the plays of the activist who fought with everyone and lived long enough to see some validation. Don’t expect to be comfortable reading them. Just be glad they exist.
Larry Kramer was an articulate, passionate, angry man. He enraged almost everyone he met. And, despite his rage, his insults, and withering sarcasm, people listened when he spoke because, once you got past the hyperbole, Larry Kramer was usually right.
These are the plays of the activist who fought with everyone and lived long enough to see some validation. Don’t expect to be comfortable reading them. Just be glad they exist.
May 11, 2020
A fantastic, heartfelt, and raw account of living and dying through the AIDS epidemic. Larry Kramer takes the facts and what we believe to be true and unearths a guttural anger and emotion that ultimately reveals the reality of fighting against a system that doesn't see you.
July 7, 2020
I had seen the HBO version of The Normal Heart but had never read the play. I had never seen or read Destiny of Me. Very moving, and heart-breaking. Excellent writing. Larry Kramer recently passed (May 2020) and I am glad I read these plays.
March 16, 2021
The Normal Heart: 4 stars - great play which still made for a great read.
The Destiny of Me: 2.5 stars - I could see the potential in this play if seen on stage but honestly didn't get much out of just reading it.
The Destiny of Me: 2.5 stars - I could see the potential in this play if seen on stage but honestly didn't get much out of just reading it.
June 18, 2021
The Normal Heart = 4 stars for it's rawness and storytelling
The Destiny of Me = 2 stars for it's strange way of storytelling. It goes back and forth between the past and the future, but then blurs the lines of them as well, which made it a little confusing to make sense of. Not my favorite play.
The Destiny of Me = 2 stars for it's strange way of storytelling. It goes back and forth between the past and the future, but then blurs the lines of them as well, which made it a little confusing to make sense of. Not my favorite play.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 5, 2021
Can life or death community organizing be turned into incredibly moving theatre that illuminates vital history in how ACT UP addressed the AIDS crisis? YES. Also includes a highlight-worthy-wise intro by Tony Kushner.
September 19, 2017
Heartbreaking.
April 27, 2019
A wonderful piece of lit addressing the AIDS pandemic of the 1980s and the inability and unwillingness of the Reagan administration to act.
July 22, 2019
5 stars for Normal Heart, 3 for Destiny of Me
Read
April 23, 2020"Don’t lose that anger. Just have a little more patience and forgiveness. For yourself as well."
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