"Let me just exist with you..."

8 May 2025: This morning, I finished reading (well, listening to) Pageboy, Elliot Page's memoir. It's really a terrific book--smart, searing, sad, and, ultimately, uplifting. It's also structurally fascinating--non-linear, with some chapters that are just vingettes and others that stretch into deep dives. Ultimately, I just found myself rooting for him again and again, wanting him to find peace, love, and comfort, a set of wishes for him that extend so effortlessly (because of his artistry) to everyone else who struggles with their identity. 

Just a couple of powerful passages:

About the life-sustaining and indeed life-saving importance of representation and visibility: "My heart aches for my younger self. A tiny bug running to the rim of an upside-down juice glass. What a difference it would have been to sit with queer and trans pals and have them say, 'I feel that way, too. I felt that way, too. We don't have to feel that way. You don't have to feel that way.' Not a magic eraser of shame, but it would have undoubtedly quickened things up.”

And, towards the end: “Let me just exist with you, happier than ever.” Such a simple plea--"Let me just exist with you"--but one that is somehow controversial today.