Frequency: To (judges)

TO (judges)

to see her again

At the end of that weekend in Chicago, both Charlie and Helen knew that it would have to end. “I can barely look her in the eyes anymore,” he explained. She patted his hand and looked out over the skyline. “No one judges you, Charlie,” she said, “I don’t.”

to ask why

“We’re pretty good together. She never judges me too harshly for what I do, though I can tell that sometimes it turns her stomach that while she’s off saving the world, I’m just greasing the cogs that grind away at it.”

to make it through this

The two weeks in the South of France didn’t really have the desired effect on either of them. Great food, but it often rained and she kept playing Edith Piaf records. Neither one of them could get away from what they were missing, and they were both kind of blue that whole time, and Charlie felt like all of the locals were judges, offended by his poor French and his fucked-up sense of priorities.

to number the day

Dave found himself sipping pinã coladas with five federal judges who were enjoying a junket on the tab of the lobbying firm currently funding him and the remodeling of several of their kitchens. A lovely day with reasonable men, and he was sure that none of them would let some fucking tree frogs get in the way of progress.

to follow it through

In Anna’s dream, even the stones rise up, judges pronouncing the both of them guilty. She keeps a journal that gives her and her therapist something work with. Tragedies of all kinds on the news, torments that relate to her situation. She wept for weeks after the tsunami.

to want to need again

Even the sky judges her.

to be still

Roger inhales deeply, takes a whiff of the place, feels the texture of the stone wall, judges the light, closes his eyes, judges the light.

to call and answer

Even the wisest of judges can’t divide the memory of a child.

to learn why we came

Roger reckons that nature judges no one, in spite of what Darwin wrote.

to learn who we were

No one here judges you, Anna. We just want you to be free of that pain, to recognize it and acknowledge it, and then let go of it.