From a Friend's Journal

One of my oldest and dearest friends -- now, by dint of serious dues-paying, a moderately successful author -- sent me an email in the middle of the night with the heading: "A Journal Entry from 1996."  The recorded entry, in its entirety, read:  "Pentimento says she goes into the office every day and cries."

I wrote him back to ask if I'd ever mentioned back then what I was crying about.

His reply: "I think 'the human condition' was pretty much understood."

Indeed.

I suggested that my lachrimosity had probably made me a less-than-sought-after office temp, but my friend reassured me: "I think they were perfectly happy to overlook the tears of a matchstick girl who could type as fast as you did. Perhaps they even found your suffering to be nectar."

It's an interesting thought.  I often pray that it might at least be a balm for someone else's suffering.