Freedom, As Distance

"Because freedom, I am told, is nothing but the distance between the hunter and its prey."

Ocean Vuong's new novel 'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous' — written in the form of a letter from a Vietnamese-American son to his mother — is a delight. Of people, emotions, memories and relationships caught between worlds, it's also an exploration of race and generational trauma.

The above line made me pause and reflect on freedom, and how, over and over again in my life, it has been about letting go: about putting distance between myself and what doesn't serve me any longer: a marriage, a startup, most recently and painfully, the country of my birth (which I left for the second time), and sometimes — between me and my own thoughts.