MSJ

“You tell him that you have lived a strange life. Easy in some ways, difficult in others. You are kept awake at night by a rattling shutter you don't know how to fix. Some days you are so alone, you think you will collapse into a hard and dense rock. You tell him that you wish things were different. That you feel as though you have a sack over your shoulder, heavy and dragging, but you have no idea what's inside the sack, or who gave it to you. It's just there. It's just yours. And you regret so many things. You've hurt people, you've embarrassed them, you've embarrassed yourself. You have made so many wrong turns that it's a wonder you're still walking. It has been a strange life. You say it again, and again.

And then, having listened to you speak your piece, Keema of the Daware Tribe takes in your words, and at the end of it, he asks you a simple question, a question that cuts right to the heart of it: he asks you if you would like to keep on living.

Even if nothing changed; if it all played out the same way.

Would you want this life?

You bow.

You hold out Araya's spear.

Offering it to him.

And you tell him yes.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water