Maybe it’s just because I’m Jewish but I do truly believe that life gets ten times better when you learn to complain cheerfully
I think a part of it is that it lets you acknowledge that something sucks, which is actually really good in a culture that wants us to pretend that everything is fine and we’re soldiering through all the time. Like, no, my grocery bag breaking and spilling all over the floor is not fine. I’ve had a long day and I’m really upset and on the verge of tears because I can’t handle one more thing and pretending like it’s fine only means breaking down later.
But if you let yourself complain, if you let yourself swear terribly and creatively, and you stare down at the bruised vegetables like they’ve personally disappointed you, and you make yourself smile because this is really just so, so stupid, you feel a little better. There’s a power to acknowledging that something sucks and making yourself feel better anyways. There’s a power to going “and THEN my bag broke, and it’s like—seriously? my day was bad enough” and doing it with a smile.
You shouldn’t have to pretend things are fine when they aren’t. You shouldn’t have to force yourself to smile through things that make you feel terrible. But if you can make yourself laugh by staring down at some strawberries that have decided to revolt, and give them a lecture on why they’re just terrible, really, and that makes you smile—then maybe that’s a good thing.
I really genuinely like this site and it’s original layout and premise. I like custom themes. I like mobile themes. I like how posting works. I like how tag search works. I like sending and receiving asks. I like how you can make your blog whatever the hell you want. I like this fucking platform and for some reason staff is vigorously sawing their limbs off like they have to but they’re in the middle of a grocery store and everyone there is going “why the hell are you doing that?” and staff cries “you all want me to”
the first priority of houselessness advocacy should not be housing (although this is an important option for those who want it) but the right to free movement and the right to camp. every culture in every period of human history has had itinerant individuals, and in many places those individuals made up the bulk of human beings. in our society houselessness is incredibly difficult, but it doesnt have to be. as a houseless individual my biggest concern at all times was police harassment (being told to move along or having my shit tossed for being too conspicuous), and without that i would have been able to aquire a lot more agency and self subsistence with things like a semi-permanent camp, and growing and catching my own food (meaning: existence outside of wage slavery and property ownership. this is what scares them!). the fact is that privatization of property and vagrancy laws have been making the lives of houseless individuals infinitely more difficult over the past few hundred years. and until housing is wrestled from concepts of property ownership and rental fuedalism, “housing” the homeless is effectively a matter of bringing “free elements” out of the wild and into capitalist control. besides, there will always be people who slip through the cracks bureaucratic initiatives, and these people are left out in the cold because a man in an office did not dain to imagine them when he wrote his legislation. if you actually care about quality of life for the houseless and not just unsightliness, deprivatize unused property, create more robust welfare systems that dont require documentation to access, give people the right to roam and plant and gather, and who knows- maybe in ten years the tent cities will be places of color and joy and life lived in connection with nature. and because people dont have to struggle to find a place to lay their head, instead of desperation our streets will be full of artisans and musicians and laughing people.
Chewbacca is buck wild as a character concept but so ingrained in the cultural canon that the full absurdity of him is often overlooked. Here’s a middle-aged 200 year old space fellow who’s eight feet tall with a full body perm, naked except for a bandolier he never uses, knows the local lingua franca but exclusively communicates by screaming and growling in his own language, has adopted Harrison Ford as a pet, will rip your arms out of their sockets if you beat him at chess. Go into any dog park and you’ll bump into at least one mutt bearing his name. Roger Ebert despised him. In 1997 MTV gave him a Lifetime Achievement award.
hey, can we talk for a second? it’s about your girlfriend. yeah, she’s great. no, yeah, I agree. It’s just that… she seems really devoted to you? Like really devoted. Almost as if you were the sole, fragile line mooring her to the shores of humanity. No, that’s not romant—ugh. Listen. Me and the girls, we’re worried you might be the last good thing to happen to her and that were some tragedy to inevitably befall you, she would tear the gods from their thrones and dye the infinite western seas wine-dark with their ichor. Do you think you could introduce her to a new hobby or something? we don’t want to have to argue over what color “wine-dark” is supposed to be
my dads recently been jokin a lot about “mystic runes” like i asked what we were gonna do when we took a rest stop in santa barbara and he said “look for mystic runes” and then i asked if we were gonna eat or just walk around while my mom shopped and he said “the runes will tell us”
