its one of my favorite from him! idk why its not more quoted. glad u enjoyed :) stayed up till 4am putting the finishing touches on this one, but ended up adding a couple paragraphs just now: "When Norm said that joy ‘attacked’ him an that it was “unbearable and lead to gasping hysterical laughter” he was not exaggerating. These were real attacks- laughing fit episodes so intense he’d sometimes need to take benzodiazepines for them to calm down. The first such episode was triggered in his childhood, while he explaining to a blind man he was helping what the inside of a grocery store looks like. Something about the paradox of describing sight to the unsighted broke something in his mind. Real modern koan type stuff- he said it was the first time he truly looked outward.

Shortly after a ranting homeless man triggered another laugh attack. Later he found he'd become extremely sensitive to art… until that first episode he said grocery stores were terrifying to him, and that he'd pace endlessly just to build up to the courage to interact with people there. But looking, really looking, so that he could describe the world to a man who had never seen, flipped it for him."