i write tragedies

"on the way back from the post office, i stop at a bank of america atm and withdraw from my rapidly disappearing savings. i then convert my withdraw into a wad of low-denomination bills. i feel like a crack dealer. i have an idea.

your inability to achieve solitude makes you settle for substandard relationships. you don't believe magic is possible in lives lived within traditional boundaries.

i am writing a list of tragic character flaws on my dollar bills with a felt pen. i am thinking of the people in my universe and distilling for each of these people the one flaw in their character that will lead to their downfall -- the flaw that will be their undoing.

jasmine, anna-louise, daisy, mark, dan, stephanie, monique, kiwi, harmony, skye, gaia, mei-lin, davidson, pony, grandma and grandpa, eddie woodman, jim and lorraine jarvis -- everybody's here. even me. and more.

what i write are not sins; i write tragedies. and i am writing these tragedies in a manner that the recipients can easily absorb. and i won't say whose flaw is whose. i continue." ~ tyler johnson

shana was the first person to tell me about douglas coupland, sending me this book to start off with. i read it in two days, and then started it from the beginning, and read it again. i felt like i had found a voice of my generation. that he understood the ugly side of society, people, and families -- and saw the hope - albeit cloudy and dipped in the muck of everything - in all of it. for a good long while i wanted to quote his books in everything, and i went on to fall for many more of his books, and find an amazing group of friends who felt similar, if not the same.

365 loves: shampoo planet by douglas coupland