They Called It “just A Comment"

Boss: "Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We'll circle back..."

Me:

and found me guilty of making things awkward

“Justice," she said. "I've heard that word. It's a cold world. I tried it out," she said, still speaking in that low voice. "I wrote it down. I wrote it down several times and always it looked like a damn cold lie to me. There is no justice.” — Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea

THIS

Men defaced this art wall in Melbourne of missing/murdered women.

Women are the ones being killed and brutalized, but it’s a war on men by telling them what they did.

I don’t have too much to say on this. I feel so upset.

Michael A Davenport, 3,090 Degrees Fahrenheit (Oil on canvas, 2025)

30in x 48in

Given a choice between accepting that something awful has happened, or thinking that someone is mistaken, exaggerating, or lying, much of the time our brains opt to deny the awful thing happened.

You're still here

Maybe you still talk about it like it wasn’t a big deal. Maybe you laugh when you tell the story. Maybe you change the details each time, depending on who’s listening. Maybe you say “it was weird” instead of “it was wrong.”

Sometimes, survival looks like contradiction. Like forgetting on purpose. Like trying on different words until one of them feels safe enough to hold.

You don’t owe anyone a neat version of what happened. It was messy. You’re still here. That’s the truth.