Let me take a moment to plug one of the most interesting and compelling stories I've seen on the Internet so far.
"Porn Star" is a memoir about a woman's college friendship with a student who did drugs and earned money as a sex worker. Over a series of blog posts, the writer, Natala, tells the story of her unlikely friendship with Marie, whom she meets the year Marie lives on the floor where Natala is a resident adviser.
The story focuses primarily on Marie's problems, which are severe, though it hints at times of the darker undercurrents in Natala's life as well.
It's a poignant, moving story because it delves into the heart of friendship and what it truly means to love another person, and to receive that uncompromising love back. Because it's evident that love is exactly what held these women together; not a sexual love, but the sort of commitment to another person that allows you to see someone in all their shame, and yet to see only them and not their shame.
It's not as polished as the latest inspirational bestseller, but it's raw and visceral. and more thought-provoking than just about anything I've seen in a Christian bookstore. In its honesty, "Porn Star" makes you care for people you probably will never meet, and even as it reaches its bittersweet conclusion, it makes you want to be a better, more compassionate person.
It's best summed up in the author's own words: "Perhaps the beauty of God is not only found in the neatly packaged salvation stories. Perhaps the beauty of God is instead found in the depth and ugliness of our lives."
Ed.: As things go with the Internet, the blog that "Porn Star" was written on has been deleted, but it was cached by the Internet archive. I hope that the original writer revists the story at some point, or at least reposts it elsewhere, but in the meantime you can read it here.
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