Journal Of An Ordinary Grief, Mahmoud Darwish

the cages had been let open; and the animals had attacked and ripped each other apart and jungle law replaced zoo law.

Aravind Adiga, The White TIger

THE WHITE TIGER (2021) | dir. Ramin Bahrani In the jungle, which is the rarest of animals that comes along only once in a generation?

the children of immigrants, by lenelle moïse

Please remember that almost everyone around you is traumatized. I didn’t understand this when I was younger. I wondered why people acted so strangely and irrationally. Maybe all children wonder this. The author Robert Anton Wilson said (paraphrasing), “We have never seen a completely sane adult human.” No one makes it out of this life alive. It’s not their fault. Mercy, kindness, forgiving — these are what makes one human. They are other names for love. People break in the strangest of ways.

Your purpose in life is not to love yourself but to love being yourself.

If you goal is to love yourself, then your focus is directed inward toward yourself, and you end up constantly watching yourself from the outside, disconnected, trying to summon the “correct” feelings towards yourself or fashion yourself into something you can approve of.

If your goal is to love being yourself, then your focus is directed outward towards life, on living and making decisions based on what brings you pleasure and fulfillment.

Be the subject, not the object. It doesn’t matter what you think of yourself. You are experiencing life. Life is not experiencing you.

fanfic is a modern concept that can only exist under capitalism and relies on copyright and the concept of intellectual property to exist. authors from centuries ago using characters that didn't originate with them isn't fanfic, especially if it's tied to religious beliefs that simply evolved over time, or if they're using them to make a point about society. arthurian literature isn't fanfic, the divine comedy isn't fanfic, greco-roman mythology isn't fanfic.

David Seidner, Ballet, 1979.

Comprehensive list of Umbrella Academy alignment charts from a certified, real life, Oldest of Seven sibling: 

“humanity is inherently selfish and bad” bbbrrrghuhjfkg. humanity is seeing a stranger’s grocery bag break open on the sidewalk and harvesting fruits and veggies from the branch-like cracks of the asphalt for them, just because you can. humanity is helping a lost child find their mother on a crowded beach, looking for the ladybug-patterned parasol with their hummingbird-small hand in yours. it’s an elder’s fingers wrapped around your arm as you help them up the stairs because the elevator is broken, and feeling like you’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing, like this is what you would’ve been doing had you been alive centuries or even millennia ago. there will always be a heavily pregnant woman who will smile at your when you give up your seat, a nice blind man in the fruit aisle who will ask you to please pick the riper plantain for him, a tired cashier whose face will light up when you compliment their tattoo sleeve. humanity is connection