O.
This is one of those times I wish I spoke another language besides pidgin French, because I need a word that means "the feeling in your chest where you want to cry, but don't know if it's because you're sad that the person you just spoke to for work at your prison-focused law firm murdered his mother, step-father and, after raping her, his sister, or if it's because you're weirdly awed that he was easy to talk to, that he found a way to survive, that he got married while in prison, where he's been since age 16 after getting a life sentence without the possibility of parole, that he overcame an addiction to heroin, meth and cocaine...or maybe only that he was just a person, like you." Maybe the word I need is something approaching "redemption," but not so trite, so freshman year Humanities paper, or so patronizing, and not in application to this fellow human being, but to me, because I feel that my association with the species we call humanity has suddenly improved in dignity, maybe lurched forward, by a microscopic unit of measurement.
The other night, I felt my boyfriend's breath on my face as he slept. I thought to myself, if I died, this is one of those things that would make me homesick for life.
