Author: melissaicd
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But…
I thought I knew what love was.What did I know?Those days are gone forever,I should just let them go, but… I wrote those lines down years ago. I thought they marked an ending. I understand now that they marked a condition. I have been living inside that “but” for longer than I realized. There are…
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The Garden Closes Quietly
Near the end of No Other Choice, Mi-Ri says something that initially seems small. She mentions that she doesn’t want to resume her tennis lessons. It’s an understated line. No confrontation. No dramatic revelation. Just a quiet decision about something that once filled her time. The moment lands with unexpected weight. Tennis, earlier in the…
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The Edges of the Light
Greek myth offers another figure. The mirror of Cassandra. Pythia, the Oracle at Delphi, sat at the center of the known world. People traveled great distances to consult her. Kings. Generals. Ordinary people with impossible questions. They came bearing gifts. They waited. They listened. The Oracle did not go to them. This is worth remembering…
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Bureaucratic Aggro
Magistrix Clarienne <Guardian of Process> Administrative Wing Delve Encounter Log filed by Linnarra, Sentinel Scout of Darkshore I’ve just cleared the last of the Email Wraiths and Calendar Elementals. The corridor finally falls quiet. I take the opportunity to rest for a moment. Thunder settles beside me while I build a small fire and pull…
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When You See It
Cassandra, the Trojan princess. According to the Greek myth, Cassandra was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo. She could see the future clearly. She could recognize danger before it arrived. She could warn others about what was coming. But when she refused Apollo, he twisted the gift into a curse. Cassandra would still see…
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University of Azeroth
Sometimes the easiest way to understand a complicated system is through metaphor. Lately, I’ve been thinking about the university as something like Azeroth, but here I’m thinking of the planet more as a knowledge ecosystem populated by different kinds of specialists, each relating to knowledge in their own way. Here’s how it works in Azeroth:…
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Knowing and Choosing Anyway
On the surface, the 2016 movie Arrival is a story about first contact. Linguists and physicists trying to decipher the language of visitors who have appeared suddenly across the globe. Governments scrambling to determine whether the message being offered is a warning, a threat, or a gift. The part of the film that stays with…
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The Kind of Tired a Vacation Can’t Fix
One of the films I return to from time to time is The Adjustment Bureau. On the surface, it’s a scifi story about fate and free will. Unseen agents quietly adjusting the course of people’s lives so that the “plan” unfolds as intended. Doors open and close at the right moments. Meetings happen or fail…
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Turning the Inner Eye to See Its Path
The Bene Gesserit litany has been with me since undergrad. It has stayed with me through library school, my first job as an academic librarian, and many professional spaces and situations. Through the years, it functioned as a psychic shield. As an undergrad at SFSU, I carried the words with me on a notebook binder.…
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Spectral Sight
A thought occurred to me recently, and once it appeared I couldn’t quite unsee it. In the lore of World of Warcraft, demon hunters blind themselves so they can gain a different form of vision. The ability is called Spectral Sight. It allows them to perceive demons hiding in plain sight. Imperceptible corruption moving through…