xp_daytripper: (Default)
Amanda Sefton ([personal profile] xp_daytripper) wrote in [community profile] xp_communication2004-03-16 01:27 am

Email to Lorna

To: LDane@xaviers.ny.edu (Lorna Dane)
From: ASefton@xaviers.ny.edu (Amanda Sefton)



Um, hi.

I have no idea how to start this, or what to say, other than it's late over here and the house is quiet and it's starting to hit me, what I done, what I am. The first few days here were such a relief after everything, but now I'm settling down, and while I don't feel as bad as I did - I don't think that's possible - me conscience is bothering me. I done stuff, awful stuff, and the stuff I didn't do meself I let happen. And now I'm realising that people don't hate me, and I feel like I owe them an explanation for everything.

But I'm scared of saying it, because if I can't respect meself, knowing what I am, how can anyone else?

A.

Hoo-bloody-ray for moodswings. Was doing all right earlier.

[identity profile] x-polarisstar.livejournal.com 2004-03-16 12:03 am (UTC)(link)
To: Sefton, Amanda
From: Dane, Lorna


Hey,

Respect for yourself is the first thing you lose, I think. And the last thing you get back. I know there is this weird prevailing wisdom that says you can't love others until you love yourself but that's just nuts. It's much easier to forgive, respect and even love other people than it is yourself. You can get a respite from them. But there is no way to divorce yourself from you...

well not and remain out of Samson's clutches, yeah?

I can't absolve you of anything, not being of the proper sex or training for my particular religion to allow that sort of thing, but I can crib from the nice man with the kind eyes. Yeah, life sucked in the past. And yeah, that's going to hold on to you the way the past has a tendency to. But you're not in the past and you get to choose a future.

For myself that means that I can't believe what I see in the mirror. It means that, even though I have years behind me telling me that "you can never be too thin" and that just five more pounds lost and I'll be at the perfect weight, I have to be able to force myself to eat. That I have to act as if I believe that 100 lbs isn't fat.

--Lorna