UNBECOMING

I want to be famous to shuffling men who smile while crossing streets, sticky children in grocery lines, famous as the one who smiled back. I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous, or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular, but because it never forgot what it could do. -Naomi Shihab Nye, excerpt from “Famous” The stranger’s unkempt mane, fried and frizzy, invaded my line of vision as I perused the shelves. Her raspy voice exposed

I have 401 unread text messages on my phone. I never notice that number. Occasionally, someone will glance at my phone and see it. They are flabbergasted. "How do you live that way?" I am not exactly sure how it happened. I think I read some one liners without opening them. Group texts have definitely contributed to the excess. Most of the messages are irrelevant and out of date at this point. It is a textual wasteland. I am old enough to remember when the family shared one r