Katie

“Smell is an invitation to a journey: it allows us to leave the ordinary course of things and go on a trip, to absent ourselves.”
― Mandy Aftel, Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent

“The pull of fascist politics is powerful. It simplifies human existence, gives us an object, a “them” whose supposed laziness highlights our own virtue and discipline, encourages us to identify with a forceful leader who helps us make sense of the world, whose bluntness regarding the “undeserving” people in the world is refreshing. If democracy looks like a successful business, if the CEO is tough-talking and cares little for democratic institutions, even denigrates them, so much the better. Fascist politics preys on the human frailty that makes our own suffering seem bearable if we know that those we look down upon are being made to suffer more. Navigating the tensions created by living in a state with a democratic sphere of governance, a nondemocratic hierarchical economic sphere, and a rich, complex civil society replete with organizations, associations, and community groups adhering to multiple visions of a good life can be frustrating. Democratic citizenship requires a degree of empathy, insight, and kindness that demands a great deal of all of us. There are easier ways to live.”
― Jason F. Stanley, How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them

“Helmer: Just think how a guilty man like that has to lie and play the hypocrite with every one, how he has to wear a mask in presence of those near and dear to him, even before his own wife and children. And about the children--that is the most terrible part of it all, Nora.
Nora: How?
Helmer: Because such an atmosphere of lies infects and poisons the whole life of a home. Each breath the children take in such a house is full of the germs of evil.”
― Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House

“Fame is the enemy of instinct and spontaneity, the difference between what is said and what ought to be said, and the transformation of one person into two”
― Mahmoud Darwish, A River Dies of Thirst: Journals