I fall in love often. I like the sensation of it: the lightheadedness, the short intake of breath. The nearly nauseating feeling that settles in my guts.

Meet my current (living!) girl crush, Martha Nussbaum.

I typically fall for deceased women. Ursula Le Guin. Simone Weil. Octavia Butler. Marion Woodman. To name a few.

9 qualifiers for my crush list:

• Acknowledgment of personal and global suffering

• Tantric view of totality: we are and are not, and this dualism gives birth to identity/cosmos.

• Open to feeling all the intensities of being human…

• And to create ART as a means to cope with said feelings!

• Socialist values.

• She goes into the darkness to reveal the light.

• Hopeful, curious, problem-solving mindset.

• Looks inward to resolve external grievances.

• Loves people, enjoys living, and gets their hands dirty!

Martha Nussbaum is my most recent discovery to add to the list of women I rever.

Why?

I admire her activism for animal rights.

I support her views on emotions being central to human judgment and philosophy. She argues that shame and greed create hierarchies that allow individuals to be more easily manipulated and that envy is more toxic than anger.

I agree with her view that everyone should study philosophy to develop the skills to question everything and stay curious!

Those are a few highlights of Nussbaum in action.

Whenever I have a (new) girl crush, I spend HOURS on the internet looking for everything the person has created. I read all of Octavia Butler's novels over the summer - not a humble brag, just showing the lengths of my obsession when I catch the tail of someone I enjoy!

Sometimes, my crushes fall to the wayside if I discover something that doesn’t align with my values or inner landscape. Isn’t romance like this? You’re all in until you’re NOT all in, and the sensation is glorious up to that point.

Other times, I become more devoted and less frantic as I go into the depths of the individual’s psyche and creative process.

I find it fascinating to get to know someone like this: my nose tucked in a book, scrolling the ethernet, or searching keywords on Google to see what will turn up.

It is a private process, this falling in love!

I wrote two poems last summer when I was in Turkey. I was brokenhearted and bursting at the edges; something inside of me was coming undone. With decay, we make space for the new little buds to blossom.

You can read the poems here and here.

Sending you love, light, and a smile,
Seraphina.

“The condition of being good is that it should always be possible to be morally destroyed by something you couldn’t prevent.

To be a good human being is to have a kind of openness to the world—an ability to trust uncertain things beyond your control that could lead you to be destroyed by uncertain circumstances. 

Part of being a good person, and being part of life, is dealing with intense feelings, continuing to trust, and not retreating into something that’s far more simple and comfortable.”

–Martha Nussbaum. 

2 questions to brew on:

• Do you have a girl crush/someone you admire?

• What makes some one a morally good person in your eyes?