Tragedy - Gaza

 Tragedy - Gaza

I will say that for days as the conflict has been unfolding this week. It is very difficult to feel equipped to comment in any meaningful or fair way. But it's also important to me at least that I say something, anything. And saying anything is to condemn the politics and policies of attacking civilians of Palestine. It is impossible to categorize the 'war' going on as anything other than aggression of a colonizing force, and possibly at worst, some form of ethnic cleansing.

Writing - Elvish Aging Story

Writing - Elvish Aging Story - by What-even-is-thiss

Wait a minute, if elves take hundred years to grow up that has some weird implications.

So... if we say a human comes of age in fantasy worlds at 16, that means it takes an elf 6.26 years to age one human year. If we say the age of maturity is 18 that's 5.55 years.

So then... okay with people that live a long time have to see their human friends die and probably see them like pets yeah that's been explored to death. But what about a human just seeing their friend not grow up?

West Marches - Home

West Marches - Home

Ceridwen pushes open the heavy oaken doors. Were they ever so heavy before? The rust on the hinges squeals, and the mildewed rugs and must of rain and fungus mixes with a strange nostalgic feeling. She can almost see Petyr, he bounces ahead of her, stumbles on a wrinkle in the carpets. But he’s not there.

Behind her, Oadira, Quiz and Veles step in, taking in the grand foyer.

Age has worn this patch of manor. The section of night sky is visible through the broken roof, and beneath their feet, vine and moss have begun to creep their way up. And they have enrobed the bodies of the fallen from that fell night long ago.

Ceridwen steps on the skull of one of the butchers, there is a dry leaf-like crunch. The corpse, long since turned to bone, crumbles beneath the papery weight of its own chainmail armor. She continues to step forward, unmindful.

Tragedy - Notre Dame Burns

Tragedy - Notre Dame Burns

"And in the middle of all that grief, there are harmonies. Humans are such magnificent creatures."

https://twitter.com/mikegalsworthy/status/1117881594847612928

Life - Altschmerz

Life - Altschmerz

n. weariness with the same old issues that you’ve always had—the same boring flaws and anxieties you’ve been gnawing on for years, which leaves them soggy and tasteless and inert, with nothing interesting left to think about, nothing left to do but spit them out and wander off to the backyard, ready to dig up some fresher pain you might have buried long ago.

Art - Mad Magazine - Ghastlygun Tinies

Art - Mad Magazine - Ghastlygun Tinies

Shit.

Indigenous - What do you see?

Indigenous - What Do You See?

"A white man and an elderly Native man became pretty good friends, so the white guy decided to ask him: “What do you think about Indian mascots?” The Native elder responded, “Here’s what you’ve got to understand. When you look at black people, you see ghosts of all the slavery and the rapes and the hangings and the chains.

When you look at Jews, you see ghosts of all those bodies piled up in death camps. And those ghosts keep you trying to do the right thing. “But when you look at us you don’t see the ghosts of the little babies with their heads smashed in by rifle butts at the Big Hole, or the old folks dying by the side of the trail on the way to Oklahoma while their families cried and tried to make them comfortable, or the dead mothers at Wounded Knee or the little kids at Sand Creek who were shot for target practice. You don’t see any ghosts at all.

“Instead you see casinos and drunks and junk cars and shacks. “Well, we see those ghosts. And they make our hearts sad and they hurt our little children. And when we try to say something, you tell us, ‘Get over it. This is America. Look at the American dream.’ But as long as you’re calling us Redskins and doing tomahawk chops, we can’t look at the American dream, because those things remind us that we are not real human beings to you. And when people aren’t humans, you can turn them into slaves or kill six million of them or shoot them down with Hotchkiss guns and throw them into mass graves at Wounded Knee. “No, we’re not looking at the American dream. And why should we? We still haven’t woken up from the American nightmare." -Chief Guanikeyu. Jatibonicu Taino

Tragedy - Anthony Bourdain

Tragedy - Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain.

I watched a lot of his shows, and I thought that one of the best things about him was how he talked honestly, and passionately about elevating the idea of experiencing culture and other humans. He talked about travel, about living, and about listening.

I really can't overstate just how incredibly 'honest' Bourdain was on his traveling shows. He chose to explore and engage, and fearlessly try things without portraying himself as having 'discovered' customs. He went off the beaten path. It wasn't about 'tourism', it wasn't about self-gratification of himself as a tourist.

It was about meeting people, hugging people, smoking with people. It was about talking and going over things he himself loved and hated, what things offended him, and why that might've been legitimate or awful. How he responded to things that were frightening or strange, and why more often than not they actually weren't.

It's a tragedy, and a reminder that you can 'have it all' but the insidious nature of depression, mental illness, and suicide means little in the face of that. We need to find more ways to engage, encourage, and uplift one another. We need to find better ways to protect the people that need protecting.

Rest in Peace Bourdain.

Tragedy - Gaza, May 14, 2018

Tragedy - Gaza, May 14, 2018

Bilal Badeer Hussein Al-Ashram, 18 years old
Nasser Ahmed Mahmoud Ghrab, 51 years old
Omar Jomaa Abu Ful, 30 years old
Talal Adel Ibrahim Mattar, 16 years old
Mohamed Samir Duwedar, 27 years old
Abdelsalam Yousef Abdelwahab, 39 years old
Ali Mohamed Ahmed Khafajah, 21 years old
Mahmoud Saber Hamad Abu Taeemah, 23 years old
Kamil Jihad Kamil Mihna, 19 years old

Politics - Student's March

Politics - Student's March

Explain to me what is today, because this is the only thing I can see:

Thousands, thousands and thousands of students who rose up in protest.

Maybe a million. Maybe millions.

Students, teenagers, CHILDREN. Protesting their right to live. To draw attention to the fact that adults have failed them. Adults have failed them again, and again, for 19 years. Since a fateful day in April, 1999, when 13 people died and Americans did nothing.

The pattern repeats itself. Over and over, until Sandy Hook. 20 children are shot and die. Their ages are between 6 and 7.

America does nothing.

Stoneman Douglas literally one month ago. Another 17 students are shot dead, another 17 wounded. In the face of despair, and the agony of what they shared, those same teenagers now are demanding MORE. They are rising up, they are angry and RIGHTLY so.

They have been failed, and they recognize it. You have a country where a dude tried to blow up his shoes and now we all check our shoes before we go on an airplane. But the response to a gun in a school was to arm every teacher.

No one believes it. The NRA has become an organization lobby for the profit of itself and to maintain its stranglehold grip on power by any means necessary.

Including sacrificing children.

Politics - Stoneman Douglas - On Evil

Politics - Stoneman Douglas - On Evil

Consider this: Right now, someone is doing a calculation on how much money it costs for the lobbying and marketing campaign to ensure that yesterday’s tragedy happens again. It happens so often, they might already have a spreadsheet for it. They plug in what state, elementary, junior high, senior high, or post-sec, how many children died, how many teachers, was the shooter black, or muslim, or white? They put in the guns the shooter was carrying, the put in whether the shooter killed themselves at the end. The put in a bunch of variables from the long list of shooting history

That spreadsheet kicks them back a number in the millions. That's the dollar value they spend on ads about 2nd amendment rights, on 'protect yourself and your family', on botnets and forum posters that 'the Democrats are coming for your guns'. On lobbying politicians to push their agenda.

That's the kind of evil we're up against.

Writing - On Wonder

Writing - On Wonder

We spent thousands of years looking up at stars. Naming them, calling them, creating stories around them and weaving myths. We promised them to one another, and dreamed, is anyone out there? We were hoping and wondering and imagining.

Life - Fort McMurray

Life - Fort McMurray

Garrett Shaw wrote this a few days ago.

Musings - Son

Musings - Son

The greatest failing I have as a son, is that I cannot seem to make myself known to my father. I am an extension of an idea, an archaic concept, but not a human. I am this collection of synapses in error.

To him, I am not a being, but a thing.

Life - Unhelpfulism

Life - Unhelpfulism

Jerry (Tycho) Wrote this. I copied it here to archive it while I think on it.

Thoughts - Statistical Death

Thoughts - Statistical Death

I'm deeply uncomfortable with comparison discussions about tragedy and death. I'm uncomfortable because a person compares a tragedy in Kenya of 142 dead and implies that it is more tragic than a death of 129 in Paris. I'm uncomfortable because the discussion becomes a statistic then. Lives become numbers, names are no longer victims, but the tallies of bodies on a sheet. I'm uncomfortable because I don't want to have a discussion on the state of the world with people whom I have either no respect for, or have no interest in impressing.

The debate is cyclical in nature, and no one is listening. But those people are dead, and all anyone seems to care about are the numbers.

Not the names.

Humans of New York - Refugees (Greece)

Humans of New York - Refugees (Greece)

“My husband and I sold everything we had to afford the journey. We worked 15 hours a day in Turkey until we had enough money to leave. The smuggler put 152 of us on a boat. Once we saw the boat, many of us wanted to go back, but he told us that anyone who turned back would not get a refund. We had no choice. Both the lower compartment and the deck were filled with people. Waves began to come into the boat so the captain told everyone to throw their baggage into the sea. In the ocean we hit a rock, but the captain told us not to worry. Water began to come into the boat, but again he told us not to worry. We were in the lower compartment and it began to fill with water. It was too tight to move. Everyone began to scream. We were the last ones to get out alive. My husband pulled me out of the window. In the ocean, he took off his life jacket and gave it to a woman. We swam for as long as possible. After several hours he told me he that he was too tired to swim and that he was going to float on his back and rest. It was so dark we could not see. The waves were high. I could hear him calling me but he got further and further away. Eventually a boat found me. They never found my husband.” (Kos, Greece)

Tragedy - Roald Dahl - Loss

Tragedy - Roald Dahl - Loss

Roald Dahl wrote this heartbreaking account about his daughter Olivia, who died of Measles.

Awful drive. Lorries kept holding us up on narrow roads. Got to hospital. Ambulance went to wrong entrance. Backed out. Arrived. Young doctor in charge. Mervyn and he gave her 3mg sodium amatol. I sat in hall. Smoked. Felt frozen. A small single bar electric fire on wall. An old man in next room. Woman doctor went to phone. She was trying urgently to locate another doctor. He arrived. I went in. Olivia lying quietly. Still unconscious. She has an even chance, doctor said. They had tapped her spine. Not meningitis. It's encephalitis. Mervyn left in my car. I stayed. Pat arrived and went in to see Olivia. Kissed her. Spoke to her. Still unconscious. I went in. I said, "Olivia Olivia." She raised her head slightly off pillow. Sister said don't. I went out. We drank whiskey. I told doctor to consult experts. Call anyone. He called a man in Oxford. I listened. Instructions were given. Not much could be done. I first said I would stay on. Then I said I'd go back with Pat. Went. Arrived home. Called Philip Evans. He called hospital. Called me back. "Shall I come?" "Yes please." I said I'd tell hospital he was coming. I called. Doc thought I was Evans. He said I'm afraid she's worse. I got in the car. Got to hospital. Walked in. Two doctors advanced on me from waiting room. How is she? I'm afraid it’s too late. I went into her room. Sheet was over her. Doctor said to nurse go out. Leave him alone. I kissed her. She was warm. I went out. "She is warm." I said to doctors in hall, "Why is she so warm?" "Of course," he said. I left.