Status Updates From Nous, avant l'innocence

“Everything he said was like a masterclass on how to make someone feel special, like you can trust them. But I don’t think he knew what he was doing. His attention was so unconditional and he was so open, so self-evasive, I started to relax a little.”

“I remember wondering for the first time, whether Ev was as insecure and hungry for attention as the rest of us. But where Joanie was loud and brash, I was primed and calculated, Ev just hid it behind acts of servitude and got to disguise it as selflessness.”

“I’m just trying to work out what happened to you. You’ve made yourself so small.”

“Theo told me something a few years ago, he said that some people believe, we choose are parents before we’re born because they have something to teach us. And that doesn’t always look how you think it will. And it won’t always be a lesson taught intentionally by them. Or even in good faith. But whatever we do learn is necessary for our souls to progress.”

“People in your life will want to shame you, to keep you in your old habits and dysfunctions because you’re easier to predict that way. They’ll want to keep you trapped on autopilot. An internal victim of your own trauma. Because you’re easier to control that way. But I want to tell you, we deserve so much more. Say it with me, ‘we deserve more.’ Joanie says on her video.”

“When I first started, I used to lament the fact that there was no way of contacting the complainant or the user being complained about. No dialogue box in which I could I justify my decision; apportion some blame or apparition some advice. Now it is a comfort to me. Whatever the details of the complaint, however convoluted or heinous the story, there are only ever 3 possible outcomes: ignore, block or warn.”