Soulshine

Meet Harriet Craig. She is the title character from the 1950 movie of the same name. And Harriet Craig is a woman of steel. As such, she is very aptly played by Joan Crawford, who was almost always portrayed as a woman of steel. Despite being a mere 5 foot 2 inches tall, almost all of Crawford’s portrayals were of women who stood 10 feet tall, and who could stare a hole right through your soul, nearly killing you instantly. And Harriet Craig is no exception. Harriet Craig is not a very likeable person. When we first meet her it’s obvious that she is extremely unapproachable. She puts on a good appearance: She dresses immaculately in the latest fashions, her hair is perfectly sculpted around her head and she has great physical beauty. But as we approach Harriet and begin to see her up-close, we realize that she is made of steel and we immediately grow uncomfortable in her presence. Harriet has no warmth to her. In fact, she has daggers in her eyes. And she is so rigid that...

I’m not sure I know what it’s like to feel fully alive. It’s scary to think of experiencing a moment to the fullest; to actually 100 percent feel the pain, the ecstasy, the thrill, the turbulence of any given moment. I hadn’t been conscious of my fear of being fully alive in the moment until last Wednesday. I was at Knott’s Berry Farm in Los Angeles with a friend of mine named Richard—who we also affectionately refer to as Bubba. For those who don’t know, Knott’s Berry Farm is an amusement park in Southern California. Both Bubba and I like rollercoasters, and so the first ride we jumped on was the Silver Bullet, one of the best rollercoasters in my opinion. It scared me so much that I don’t think I had my eyes open more than a couple of seconds here and there. And this was evident in the picture that was snapped of Bubba and me on the ride. My eyes are closed tight and the expression on my face is even tighter. I look like I’m taking a really painful dump! Bubba, however, ha...