This letter will wrap up the recent sprint through my recent reading into Byung-Chul Han’s work, though I’m certain I’ll be back. In this one, The Disappearance of Rituals, I find myself impressed but also lost. There are truly impressive ideas in this book. Here is one to behold: “We can define rituals as symbolic techniques of making oneself at home in the world. They transform being-in-the-world into a being-at-home. They turn the world into a reliable place. They are to time what a home is to space” (2).

What struck me as unique to this book, Saving Beauty, apart from the immediate idea that beauty is something needing saving, was Han’s notion of “the smooth” which seems to counter, or at least relate to, his notions of Negativity and Positivity.

To say that I am excited for this is an understatement. I am going back to school. I am returning for a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership at Johns Hopkins. I am ecstatic. I adore learning; I want you to know this about me. Learning makes me want tomorrow.

It has brought me closer to the happiest way of life I’ve yet known. I am so close to so many of the things that bring me joy. I think of a comment a friend shared with me; DC is a city of contemplation. With so many monuments, memorials, and museums, it is a city poised for thought and reflection. When I add in functional public transit, a planet of cultures, and wonderful people, this city connects me to things that bring me power and happiness.

We are staring at each other. I start boiling again, but this time I know there is just no way through it. I am not sure, but I thought that meant she was going to place the blanket over me, as if tucking me in. Who am I to reject this extension of the lux? But she isn’t moving. I am wrong.

Finally, I ask: “what happens next?”