Fortune Smiles

“In the North, we were like stars in the night sky, but here we are just streetlights.”

Those North Korean defectors in Seoul still feel like they live in the dark. Switching to a new world does not erase the old one.

“Cancer was a third party in our marriage.”

Living with a sick partner changes the air in the room. You start mourning them while they are still sitting right there.

“She was a collection of pixels and algorithms.”

Technology lets us build digital versions of people we have lost. It feels like a miracle until you realize a hologram cannot love you back.

“The wind was the only thing that made sense.”

The man obsessed with hurricanes is just looking for a storm big enough to match his own head. Sometimes catastrophe feels like a relief.