Did You Know that there's a Tunnel under Ocean Boulevard?
I heard this Lana Del Rey song this morning for the first time, and it hit me right between the eyes. It's such a beautiful metaphor for what I am going through right now, and I've been haunted by the song's message for several hours now, particularly the first verse, which immediately caught my attention. "Do you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard? Mosaic ceilings, painted tiles on the wall I can't help but feel somewhat like my body marred my soul Handmade beauty sealed up by two man-made walls" That is precisely how I feel about myself most of the time: nothing much to look at on the outside, but possessing an inner beauty that is just dying to be seen. A diamond in the rough, but the rough is so hard to break away so I can let that beauty see the light of day. To use yet another metaphor, I think a lot of us have developed something of a callus around that inner part of ourselves. The friction of careless words spoken to us by other...