let it rip

"Just once I wanted a task that required all the joy I had. Day after day I had noticed that if I waited long enough, my strong unexpressed joy would dwindle and dissipate inside me, over many hours, like a fire subsiding, and I would at last calm down. Just this once I wanted to let it rip.

What I was letting rip, in fact, was my willingness to look foolish, in [others’] eyes and in my own. Having chosen this foolishness, I was a free being. How could the world ever stop me, how I could betray myself, if I was not afraid?"

(Annie Dillard, An American Childhood)

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Photos from years and years ago.

We were different people then. We are different people now. That is how it should be.

More and more I crave being with those who are unconcerned with cool…or hippest, latest, best. Those who really live instead of talking about living.