#Soldier and veteran psychology is not something any normal person can understand

[floralcavern]

My opinion on the IDF

(Because, yes, despite me being Pro-Israel, I still have ✨thoughts✨)

People need to stop comparing the I/P conflict to the Holocaust. It is nothing like the Holocaust and Israel is nothing like Germany. And you making that comparison really shows how little you actually know about WW2. Read any history book. Read Anne Frank, or Night. In fact, the closest thing to the Holocaust that is happening in this war is what is happening to the Israeli hostages. They are under way more of those conditions. 

No. If we are to ever compare this to any other war, it is more similar to the Vietnam War. 

The IDF is very similar to US soldiers in Vietnam.

Look. We can all agree that US was on the right side of Vietnam. They were helping the Southern Vietnamese from the Northern Vietnamese. So when you hear “They were on the right side/good side” you automatically think they were the good guys. Wonderful heroes. And, yes, Vietnam veterans were heroes. But they did some fucked up shit. 

For example, according to one veteran, one time when one of his friends had been murdered, out of anger, they all burned an entire town down. US soldiers took out a lot of their frustrations and anger onto the Vietnamese. So while we all agree that they are on the right side and are the good guys, they did some fucked up shit. Stuff that cannot be excused at all. 

Another example is in WW2! We all think of the allies as the good guys! They fought against the terrible Nazis and yadada. America was on the good side, they were one of the main sides that took down Germany! So while we acknowledge that America was the right side the be on, we cannot forget the horrible things they did. For example..

They had Japanese concentration camps. 

Bet you didn’t know that. 

The reason for this was because the amount of violence they saw and experienced was involved with Japan. They were traumatized but it is no excuse to do something like that!

America was the right side, but they weren’t the perfect military. 

No military is perfect!!!!!!!!!!!

That includes the IDF. 

But here’s the thing, on the side of the ‘good guys’, usually when there’s extremely violent people in the military, there are usually two reasons for this. 

They have experienced horrors beyond comprehension while fighting on the battlefield, causing them to become jaded and bitter

Or 

2. They were always a violent person and they joined the war to take that out onto others. 

It is the tragic reality that every single military has people like this. It is history. The historical ‘good guys’ did horrible things as well. 

That brings me back to the Vietnam War. 

The soldiers saw so many horrible things that could actually compare very well to what the IDF has seen. 

US soldiers had no way to tell if a citizen was Northern Vietnamese or Southern Vietnamese. 

Usually by the time they learned, it was too late. 

There are stories of US soldiers having a Vietnamese child come up to them, holding something. About to give them a gift! But when they opened their hand, they were holding a grenade. 

That is so similar to what Hamas is doing. They use suicide bombers and child soldiers. Things like that will create an idea of they can’t trust anyone. Anyone could be out to hurt them and there’s the idea of almost animalistic fighting for survival. How can you trust when Hamas could literally send a child out to kill you?!

So, really, if you think about it, the US soldiers of the Vietnam War are very similar to the IDF. 

That sense of they can’t trust anyone, violence due to the trauma and being surrounded by enemies trying to do the same fucking thing (hell, Hamas has been committing terrorist attacks on Israel for years now). Even what the two sides fight for are somewhat similar! 

The US fought to help the Southern Vietnamese and gain freedom from their Northern neighbors. Israel is fighting for freedom from their neighbors who are constantly attacking them and freeing Palestinians from their oppressive government. 

It starts out virtuous and those ideas do carry on for the most part, but it also dissolves into animalistic violence and anger because of the shit they have seen.

Also, the way US Vietnam soldiers were treated in America is actually really similar to how Americans treat the IDF. 

Nowadays when we meet a Vietnam veteran, we comment on how brave they are and how they’re a hero. Back then, though? Ohhhhh boy. Americans hated them. When soldiers would come home, Americans would yell at them, spit on them, etc. Now, doesn’t that sound familiar?

So, TLDR;

I support Israel and I support the IDF in the same way I support America in WW2 and the Vietnam War. They’re on the right side and have virtuous intent, but they sure as hell aren’t perfect and have done some fucked up shit. Yknow. Like every other military in the world. The sad reality we live in. Not everything is black and white.

[nickjunesource]

Full article below.

Max Minghella is sitting in his backyard in the LA sunshine, his t-shirt an homage to the French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve, his adopted shepherd mix, Rhye, excited by the approach of a package courier.

“You okay, sweetheart?” he asks — the dog, not me — tenderly.

Minghella, who at 35 has dozens of screen credits to his name, is best known as The Handmaid’s Tale’s cunning chauffeur Nick Blaine, a character who it’s difficult to imagine saying sweetheart. In airless Gilead, of course, a cautious hand graze with Elisabeth Moss’ June can pass for a big romantic gesture. In a Season 1 episode featuring child separation and hospital infant abduction, Nick’s major contribution is to trade stolen glances with a sex slave while “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” pumps discordantly along. I ask Minghella about playing the series’ closest approximation to a dreamy male lead against the show’s dark narrative of female subjugation.

“I know this is not the answer you want to hear,” Minghella says with none of Nick’s hesitation. “But I like that stuff, right? In the pilot, I think Nick only had a handful of lines. It wasn't clear that this is what the character would turn into. And it's quite fortunate for me personally, because I'm not a massively sort of intellectual person in my real life. I love Fifty Shades of Grey. That's like my Star Wars. It suits me to play a character like him.”

Minghella surmises that this enduring romanticism is an outcome of nurture. His father, the late British director Anthony Minghella, made grand romantic dramas like Cold Mountain and The English Patient. And there was the young, cinema-mad Max sitting on the living room sofa, absorbing everything. “It’s taken me a long time to understand this,” he says of his prolonged childhood exposure to love stories. “My dad made The English Patient when I was 10. So it was two years of watching the dailies to that movie and then watching 50 cuts of it. And then [The Talented Mr.] Ripley he made when I was 13, and it was the same thing.” These were an adolescent Max Minghella’s alternative to reruns. “I think they did shape my perspective on the world in a lot of ways, specifically The English Patient. That was a complicated love story, and I wonder sometimes how much it's affected my psychology.”

Some sons rebel; others resemble. Minghella’s co-star O-T Fagbenle, who plays June’s other lover from before the time of Gilead, got his first job acting in Anthony Minghella’s romantic crime film Breaking and Entering. “Anthony is one the kindest, most beautiful men that I've ever had the privilege of working with before,” Fagbenle says. “And Max has his gorgeous, sensitive, open-minded soul.”

Though Minghella spent his childhood on the set of The Talented Mr. Ripley, playing an uncredited Confederate soldier role in Cold Mountain, and tooling around with a Super-8 camera Matt Damon gave him, he insists his upbringing was normal. He grew up in South Hill Park overlooking Hampstead Heath in London with his father and mother, the choreographer Carolyn Choa. (Minghella also has a half-sister, Hannah Minghella, who is now a film executive.) Yes, technically, it was London, but that’s not how it seemed. “I feel like I grew up in a very small town. Every school I went to was in Hampstead. I was born in Hampstead,” Minghella says of the small map dot of his life before university. “When I went to New York, I felt I was going to the big city.”

Despite his illustrious surname, movie-watching was far from restricted to the classics. “Beverly Hills Cop is definitely the movie I remember having an unhealthy obsession with. I think I saw it when I was 5 for the first time, and I'd watch it just two or three times a day for years. I'm just obsessed with it.”

Plenty of actors can trace their love of movies back to a love of stories, but for Minghella the relationship seems to flow in reverse. When he left for Columbia University, Minghella opted to study history for its connection, through storytelling, to film. It was during the summers between his years of college that he started taking acting more seriously. Before his graduation, he’d already appeared in Syriana, starring Damon and George Clooney. Soon, he’d make a splash as Divya Narendra in The Social Network in 2010 and be cast in Clooney’s Ides of March. As all young actors eventually must, Minghella moved to Los Angeles.

It’s been over a decade since he last lived on the Heath, but, perhaps unusually for a person who’s chosen his profession, Minghella is adamantly not a “shapeshifter,” in his words. Home for Christmas this year, he started sifting through old journals stored at his mother’s house, “just like scraps of writing from when I was extremely young up through my teenage years,” before coming to America. “It was hilarious to me,” Minghella says of staring at his childhood reflection. “My review of a movie at 7 years old is pretty much what my review of a movie at 35 will be. My taste hasn't changed much. And when I sort of love something, I do tend to continue to love it.”

Which brings us back to his enduring love of romance, born of his bloodline, which is all over Minghella’s own 2018 directorial debut. Teen Spirit is a hazily lit film about a teenage girl from the Isle of Wight — the remote British island where Max’s father Anthony was born — who enters a local X-Factor-style singing competition. (It stars Minghella’s rumored girlfriend of several years, Elle Fanning.) The story is small, but its crescendos are epic.

Minghella calls the movie — an ode to the power of the pop anthem — “embarrassingly Max.” Max loves a good music-driven movie trailer — he’s watched the one for Top Gun: Maverick “many” times. And Max loves the rhythmic beats of sports movies like Friday Night Lights. Max loves movies with excesses of female energy, like Spring Breakers. He likens Teen Spirit to an experiment, his answer to the question, “Can I take all these things that I love and find a structure that can hold them?” The result is a touching “hodgepodge” of Minghella’s fascinations, inspired by the songs from another thing he loves: Robyn’s 2010 album Body Talk (itself a dance-pop meditation on love).

Minghella hasn’t directed any films since, but he sees now how making movies fits his personality — organized, impatient — more organically than starring in them does. Directing also helped him to appreciate that acting is “much harder than I was giving it credit for,” which, in turn, has made him like it more. Besides The Handmaid’s Tale currently airing on Hulu, Minghella appears in Spiral, the ninth installment in the Saw horror franchise and, from where I’m sitting, at least, a departure.

“I do like horror movies, but the thing that was really kind of magical is that I was feeling so nostalgic, right? We talked about Beverly Hills Cop earlier. I was just missing a certain kind of movie,” Minghella explains of his new role as Chris Rock’s detective partner. He was yearning for simple story-telling, like in the buddy cop movies of his youth, especially 48 Hours. It almost goes without saying that a buddy cop movie is another kind of love story. “And then I read the script and it was very much in that vein.” He clarifies: “I mean, it's also extremely Saw. It's very much a horror movie.”

His renewed excitement for acting translated onto The Handmaid’s Tale set, too. Veteran Hollywood producer Warren Littlefield describes casting Minghella in the role of Nick as an effortless choice: “Sometimes you agonize over things. [Casting Minghella] was instantly clear to me, and everyone agreed.” Now in its fourth season, the tone of the Hulu hit is graver than ever. Gilead is more desperate to maintain its rule, and so more audacious in its violence. Perhaps it’s fitting that the show’s romantic gestures finally match that scale.

In one particularly soaring moment, Elisabeth Moss’ June and Minghella’s Nick meet at the center of a bridge and crush into a long kiss. It’s been two seasons since they held their newborn daughter together, and it’s hard to see how this isn’t their last goodbye. Littlefield, like Minghella, is here for the romance among the rubble. “It's spectacular when they come together. In the middle of all of the trauma is this epic love story,” he says. “Max is just magnificent in the role.”

For Minghella, the satisfaction is more personal. He works with good people, he likes his scenes, and he thinks Nick is a complex character. Minghella read The Handmaid’s Tale for the first time in college in 2005. Like all the things Minghella has ever liked, he still likes it. He’s as proud of this most recent season as he is the show’s first. And he watched Nick and June race recklessly back to each other across the expanse of the screen exactly how you might expect. “I watched it like a fan girl.”

[felicia-cat-hardy]

Max Minghella On 'The Handmaid's Tale,' His Dad, Romance, & 'Spiral'

Max Minghella is sitting in his backyard in the LA sunshine, his t-shirt an homage to the French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve, his adopted shepherd mix, Rhye, excited by the approach of a package courier.

“You okay, sweetheart?” he asks — the dog, not me — tenderly.

Minghella, who at 35 has dozens of screen credits to his name, is best known as The Handmaid’s Tale’s cunning chauffeur Nick Blaine, a character who it’s difficult to imagine saying sweetheart. In airless Gilead, of course, a cautious hand graze with Elisabeth Moss’ June can pass for a big romantic gesture. In a Season 1 episode featuring child separation and hospital infant abduction, Nick’s major contribution is to trade stolen glances with a sex slave while “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” pumps discordantly along. I ask Minghella about playing the series’ closest approximation to a dreamy male lead against the show’s dark narrative of female subjugation.

“I know this is not the answer you want to hear,” Minghella says with none of Nick’s hesitation. “But I like that stuff, right? In the pilot, I think Nick only had a handful of lines. It wasn't clear that this is what the character would turn into. And it's quite fortunate for me personally, because I'm not a massively sort of intellectual person in my real life. I love Fifty Shades of Grey. That's like my Star Wars. It suits me to play a character like him.”

Minghella surmises that this enduring romanticism is an outcome of nurture. His father, the late British director Anthony Minghella, made grand romantic dramas like Cold Mountain and The English Patient. And there was the young, cinema-mad Max sitting on the living room sofa, absorbing everything. “It’s taken me a long time to understand this,” he says of his prolonged childhood exposure to love stories. “My dad made The English Patient when I was 10. So it was two years of watching the dailies to that movie and then watching 50 cuts of it. And then [The Talented Mr.] Ripley he made when I was 13, and it was the same thing.” These were an adolescent Max Minghella’s alternative to reruns. “I think they did shape my perspective on the world in a lot of ways, specifically The English Patient. That was a complicated love story, and I wonder sometimes how much it's affected my psychology.”

Some sons rebel; others resemble. Minghella’s co-star O-T Fagbenle, who plays June’s other lover from before the time of Gilead, got his first job acting in Anthony Minghella’s romantic crime film Breaking and Entering. “Anthony is one the kindest, most beautiful men that I've ever had the privilege of working with before,” Fagbenle says. “And Max has his gorgeous, sensitive, open-minded soul.”

Though Minghella spent his childhood on the set of The Talented Mr. Ripley, playing an uncredited Confederate soldier role in Cold Mountain, and tooling around with a Super-8 camera Matt Damon gave him, he insists his upbringing was normal. He grew up in South Hill Park overlooking Hampstead Heath in London with his father and mother, the choreographer Carolyn Choa. (Minghella also has a half-sister, Hannah Minghella, who is now a film executive.) Yes, technically, it was London, but that’s not how it seemed. “I feel like I grew up in a very small town. Every school I went to was in Hampstead. I was born in Hampstead,” Minghella says of the small map dot of his life before university. “When I went to New York, I felt I was going to the big city.”

Despite his illustrious surname, movie-watching was far from restricted to the classics. “Beverly Hills Cop is definitely the movie I remember having an unhealthy obsession with. I think I saw it when I was 5 for the first time, and I'd watch it just two or three times a day for years. I'm just obsessed with it.”

Plenty of actors can trace their love of movies back to a love of stories, but for Minghella the relationship seems to flow in reverse. When he left for Columbia University, Minghella opted to study history for its connection, through storytelling, to film. It was during the summers between his years of college that he started taking acting more seriously. Before his graduation, he’d already appeared in Syriana, starring Damon and George Clooney. Soon, he’d make a splash as Divya Narendra in The Social Network in 2010 and be cast in Clooney’s Ides of March. As all young actors eventually must, Minghella moved to Los Angeles.

It’s been over a decade since he last lived on the Heath, but, perhaps unusually for a person who’s chosen his profession, Minghella is adamantly not a “shapeshifter,” in his words. Home for Christmas this year, he started sifting through old journals stored at his mother’s house, “just like scraps of writing from when I was extremely young up through my teenage years,” before coming to America. “It was hilarious to me,” Minghella says of staring at his childhood reflection. “My review of a movie at 7 years old is pretty much what my review of a movie at 35 will be. My taste hasn't changed much. And when I sort of love something, I do tend to continue to love it.”

Which brings us back to his enduring love of romance, born of his bloodline, which is all over Minghella’s own 2018 directorial debut. Teen Spirit is a hazily lit film about a teenage girl from the Isle of Wight — the remote British island where Max’s father Anthony was born — who enters a local X-Factor-style singing competition. (It stars Minghella’s rumored girlfriend of several years, Elle Fanning.) The story is small, but its crescendos are epic.

Minghella calls the movie — an ode to the power of the pop anthem — “embarrassingly Max.” Max loves a good music-driven movie trailer — he’s watched the one for Top Gun: Maverick “many” times. And Max loves the rhythmic beats of sports movies like Friday Night Lights. Max loves movies with excesses of female energy, like Spring Breakers. He likens Teen Spirit to an experiment, his answer to the question, “Can I take all these things that I love and find a structure that can hold them?” The result is a touching “hodgepodge” of Minghella’s fascinations, inspired by the songs from another thing he loves: Robyn’s 2010 album Body Talk (itself a dance-pop meditation on love).

Minghella hasn’t directed any films since, but he sees now how making movies fits his personality — organized, impatient — more organically than starring in them does. Directing also helped him to appreciate that acting is “much harder than I was giving it credit for,” which, in turn, has made him like it more. Besides The Handmaid’s Tale currently airing on Hulu, Minghella appears in Spiral, the ninth installment in the Saw horror franchise and, from where I’m sitting, at least, a departure.

“I do like horror movies, but the thing that was really kind of magical is that I was feeling so nostalgic, right? We talked about Beverly Hills Cop earlier. I was just missing a certain kind of movie,” Minghella explains of his new role as Chris Rock’s detective partner. He was yearning for simple story-telling, like in the buddy cop movies of his youth, especially 48 Hours. It almost goes without saying that a buddy cop movie is another kind of love story. “And then I read the script and it was very much in that vein.” He clarifies: “I mean, it's also extremely Saw. It's very much a horror movie.”

His renewed excitement for acting translated onto The Handmaid’s Tale set, too. Veteran Hollywood producer Warren Littlefield describes casting Minghella in the role of Nick as an effortless choice: “Sometimes you agonize over things. [Casting Minghella] was instantly clear to me, and everyone agreed.” Now in its fourth season, the tone of the Hulu hit is graver than ever. Gilead is more desperate to maintain its rule, and so more audacious in its violence. Perhaps it’s fitting that the show’s romantic gestures finally match that scale.

In one particularly soaring moment, Elisabeth Moss’ June and Minghella’s Nick meet at the center of a bridge and crush into a long kiss. It’s been two seasons since they held their newborn daughter together, and it’s hard to see how this isn’t their last goodbye. Littlefield, like Minghella, is here for the romance among the rubble. “It's spectacular when they come together. In the middle of all of the trauma is this epic love story,” he says. “Max is just magnificent in the role.”

For Minghella, the satisfaction is more personal. He works with good people, he likes his scenes, and he thinks Nick is a complex character. Minghella read The Handmaid’s Tale for the first time in college in 2005. Like all the things Minghella has ever liked, he still likes it. He’s as proud of this most recent season as he is the show’s first. And he watched Nick and June race recklessly back to each other across the expanse of the screen exactly how you might expect. “I watched it like a fan girl.”

Get Relationship Advice Here

[lets-steal-an-archive]

Supernatural Psychology: Roads Less Traveled “Road Music” features

or, if you want to know why I can’t recommend this book (which I bought, used, using my Discover cashback bonus, so my actual out of pocket cost was $1.48), just start reading...

Zubernis, L. (2017). Road music: "A Single Man Tear" from Supernatural: The Musical. In T. Langley & L. Zubernis (Eds.), Supernatural Psychology: Roads Less Traveled. New York, NY: Sterling.

People crave belonging and acceptance. Written for Supernatural’s 200th episode, the song refers to the fandom’s love of Dean Winchester’s complex negotiation of repressed masculinity and overt emotionality, as evidenced by scenes in which one tear escapes and rolls down his cheek during an emotionally powerful moment. Within the fan community, that is referred to as the OPT, or One Perfect Tear. Such in-group references are markers of acceptance within the group.

Kus, E., Dickson, C., & Scarlet J. (2017). Road music: "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC. In T. Langley & L. Zubernis (Eds.), Supernatural Psychology: Roads Less Traveled. New York, NY: Sterling.

Healthy relationships -- including friendships, romantic couples, and families -- need trust and commitment. If trust is broken, individuals may become less satisfied with a relationship, feel less committed to it, or consider severing it altogether. When Dean returns from Purgatory, he learns that Sam did not try to find him. Dean is angry with his brother, feeling betrayed that Sam did not try to help him.

Taylor Kester, L. (2017). Road music: "Bad Moon Rising" by Credence Clearwater Revival. In T. Langley & L. Zubernis (Eds.), Supernatural Psychology: Roads Less Traveled. New York, NY: Sterling.

Those who lose a parent at an early age can grow up to feel like the worst, most horrible things will happen to them, at times due to their own behavior and self-fulfilling prophecies. One parent dies, the remaining parent checks out emotionally, and the child is left to navigate the world on his or her own. For some, this can be distressing, lonely, and daunting. Sam and Dean build a bond strong enough to withstand their own bickering and any other loses that might come their way.

Morales, D. (2017). Road music: "Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door" by Bob Dylan. In T. Langley & L. Zubernis (Eds.), Supernatural Psychology: Roads Less Traveled. New York, NY: Sterling.

Parentification is the act of placing a child in the role of a parent. That child is burdened with responsibilities that should be that of a parent, such as caring for younger children. As he always has taken care of his younger brother, it is no wonder that Dean’s version of heaven is being able to watch Sam enjoy his childhood, evidently by blowing up a field with Fourth of July fireworks.

[Road Music: chapters 5, 6, and “Final Word”]

Adams, T., & Scarlet J. (2017). Road music: "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Rolling Stones. In T. Langley & L. Zubernis (Eds.), Supernatural Psychology: Roads Less Traveled. New York, NY: Sterling.

Learning to name and understand one’s thoughts is key to many therapeutic interventions and can be especially important following a traumatic event, such as accidentally letting Lucifer out of Hell. Cognitive therapies examine a person’s errors in thinking, called cognitive distortions. Cognitive therapy allows individuals to examine their thoughts in order to change the cognitive distortions (for example, “All angels cannot be trusted”) into more adaptive thoughts (e.g., “Some angels cannot be trusted”). Through their experiences, Sam and Dean learn not to make such generalizations about angels, monsters, demons, and even God and Lucifer.

Parris, L. (2017). Road music: "Burnin’ for You" by Blue Oyster Cult. In T. Langley & L. Zubernis (Eds.), Supernatural Psychology: Roads Less Traveled. New York, NY: Sterling.

The Winchester brothers’ near-eagerness for self-sacrifice can be associated with their childhood trauma experiences, particularly incidents of emotional neglect. John Winchester’s inability to attend to his sons’ emotional needs is, in part, responsible for Sam and Dean’s continued success in saving the world through self-sacrifice because it leaves them with a lingering need to do things for others.

Boysen, M., & Goodfriend, W. (2017). Road music: "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. In T. Langley & L. Zubernis (Eds.), Supernatural Psychology: Roads Less Traveled. New York, NY: Sterling.

According to Erikson, we struggle to make healthy choices at major life crossroads, including our own career path. People who frequently change jobs may have a low level of career maturity, which can lead to a life of confusion and second guesses. After dealing with so much darkness, Sam decides to walk away from the hunter lifestyle. Leaving Dean to continue on by himself, he tries to forge a normal, more conventional life. Sometimes, stress in life -- something the Winchesters have in spaces -- leads to narrow limits, or a motivation to be content with a small and humble piece of the world.

San Juan, B., & VanPortfliet, P. (2017). Road music: "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor. In T. Langley & L. Zubernis (Eds.), Supernatural Psychology: Roads Less Traveled. New York, NY: Sterling.

A common feature of traditional conceptions of masculinity is aggression. Cultural stereotypes normalize the solution of male-male arguments through the use of fisticuffs, rather than conversation. Sam and Dean have sometimes settled their arguments by physically fighting each other. However, as their bond grows throughout the series, we see that expressing their emotions becomes easier for them. It’s important to note that they also playfully slap or punch each other at times, which is a socially accepted way for men to show affection for each other.

Mastin, J., & Blake Erickson, W. (2017). Road music: "Heroin" by Velvet Underground. In T. Langley & L. Zubernis (Eds.), Supernatural Psychology: Roads Less Traveled. New York, NY: Sterling.

The song “Heroin” by Velvet Underground has been an ode to living with substance abuse since it was released in 1967. Heroin is a highly addictive, opioid drug. Opoid addiction -- including both legal and illegal opioid use -- is widespread. In 2015 alone, 33,000 US deaths were attributed to opioid overdose, the most of any year on record. Few scenes encapsulate both the rapture and desolation of substance abuse as well as the scene showing a desperate Crowley injecting himself with human blood, set to this song.

Schaffrath, S., & Blunt, C. J. (2017). Road music: "Rooster" by Alice in Chains. In T. Langley & L. Zubernis (Eds.), Supernatural Psychology: Roads Less Traveled. New York, NY: Sterling.

“Rooster” by Alice in Chains plays as the Winchesters salt and burn the body of Nurse Glockner, whose ghost they have been asked to stop by a Marine Corps buddy of their father’s. In the context of the scene, the song punctuates the brothers’ removal of a threat and refusal to give up. However, “Rooster” has a deeper meaning. Guitarist Jerry Cantrell wrote the song for his father, a two-tour Vietnam War veteran, whose nickname was the “Rooster.” Rather than the immediate effects of war, the song was meant to address the long-term consequences of combat, specifically the baggage that soldiers are unable to leave behind on the field of battle. Thus, “Rooster” foreshadows the cost of the Winchesters’ endless war against supernatural evil.

Scarlet, J., & Busch, J. (2017). Road music: "Lonely is the Night" by Billy Squier. In T. Langley & L. Zubernis (Eds.), Supernatural Psychology: Roads Less Traveled. New York, NY: Sterling.

Loneliness is associated with increased risk of depression, anxiety, and addiction. Loneliness can also make the individual less likely to seek, accept, or recognize the availability of social support, potentially creating a viscous cycle in which feeling alone makes it harder to connect to others. When the Winchesters capture Crowley and isolate him in the dungeon, he begins to feel lonely. Because Sam repeatedly injects captive Crowley with human blood to make the demon become more human, it causes Crowley to struggle to manage his emotions and to feel disconnected from both humans and now demons, too. Both the feeling of loneliness and low perceived social support are associated with increased risk of risky behaviors, such as substance use and suicidal behaviors. Loneliness and disconnectedness might inspire even someone as powerful as Crowley to end his own life.

Langley, T. (2017). Road music: "Peace of Mind" by Boston. In T. Langley & L. Zubernis (Eds.), Supernatural Psychology: Roads Less Traveled. New York, NY: Sterling.

Living with a burden of mental illness obviously makes it difficult for many people to feel at ease in life. The slow pace of progress can be frustrating, even disheartening. The longer the problem lasts, the harder it becomes for some people to listen to others’ recommendations and to make the choices necessary to help them reach a brighter place. The clear majority, however, do get better, and that fact itself can offer some reassurances.

Mastin, J., & Blunt, C. J. (2017). Road music: "Cheek to Cheek" by Irving Berlin. In T. Langley & L. Zubernis (Eds.), Supernatural Psychology: Roads Less Traveled. New York, NY: Sterling.

Humans find both pleasure and release in skin-to-skin contact. When we touch, the hormone oxytocin, colloquially referred to as the “cuddle hormone,” is released, encouraging both physical and emotional bonding. Irving Berlin’s “Cheek to Cheek” is evocative of the pleasure stimulated by physical touch, but when this song is sung by Alastair before his torture, the effect is eerie rather than erotic.

Garski, L. A., & Mastin, J. (2017). Road music: "Ramble On" by Led Zeppelin. In T. Langley & L. Zubernis (Eds.), Supernatural Psychology: Roads Less Traveled. New York, NY: Sterling.

The monomyth can be found in stories across time and space; humans are hardwired to understand the framework of story. Dean Winchester says that one of his favorite songs is “Ramble On,” which draws on imagery from another famous Hero’s Journey, The Lord of the Rings, as it describes a cyclical journey without end.

Currie, E. (2017). Road music: "Won’t Get Fooled Again" by the Who. In T. Langley & L. Zubernis (Eds.), Supernatural Psychology: Roads Less Traveled. New York, NY: Sterling.

The monsters use the cognitive biases of humans to hide and hunt among them. When confronted with unavoidable proof of the truth, some people will integrate that truth into their understanding of the world, assimilating new information to fit existing schemas (patterns of associated ideas) instead of altering schemas to accommodate discoveries. After experiencing loss at the hand of monsters, characters such as John Winchester, Bobby Singer, and Sheriff Jody Mills can’t go back to their prior innocence, and so they get involved in the battle against the supernatural.

Jordan, J. S. (2017). Road music: "Born to Be Wild” by Steppenwolf. In T. Langley & L. Zubernis (Eds.), Supernatural Psychology: Roads Less Traveled. New York, NY: Sterling.

As Sam and Dean drive their Chevy Impala through small-town USA, they are constantly surprised by the behavior of demons and angels -- and even themselves. As a result, they become increasingly metacognitive; that is, they begin to have thoughts about their own thoughts, including the unconscious assumptions they make about the worthiness of demons, angels, and themselves. Regardless of any resulting guilt or remorse, however, their compulsion to confront the world as it is and protect others from the things they don’t want it know pushes the brothers back into their car and out onto the open road.

Wesselmann, E. D., & Nairne, J. S. (2017). Road music: "(Don’t Fear) the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult. In T. Langley & L. Zubernis (Eds.), Supernatural Psychology: Roads Less Traveled. New York, NY: Sterling.

Contemplating our morality and what (if anything) lies beyond death can provoke intense existential anxiety. The Winchesters face reminders of morality such as lethal threats, corpses, murders, and otherworldly beings (e.g., ghosts, reapers, angels, and demons). Research indicates that religious or spiritual beliefs, especially belief in afterlife and therefore some kind of continued existence, can help reduce death-related anxiety. The Winchester brothers are not particularly religious, but at various points they visit Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, thus confirming that an afterlife exists and probably emboldening them to face death willingly to achieve their goals.

[rottenappleusach]

Psychoanalytic Dualism of Mrs. Dalloway´s characters

José Garrido Geraldine Lara Virginia Woolf’s ‘‘Mrs. Dalloway’’ portrays an interesting post World War I society in which characters are being constantly influenced by the consequences of this historical event. Not only are the changes imposed by governments shaping our characters’ minds and personalities, but also the development of their own internal world. How they metabolize the direct or indirect exposition to death of that period is going to be an important process to the self of the beings. As we have to deal with these factors of the conscious and unconscious of the mind, it results wise to psychoanalyze the characters’ behaviour in order to comprehend and illustrate more profoundly certain interpretations. Through Freud’s ‘‘Beyond the Pleasure Principle’’ we are going to understand the instinctive drives manifested in Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren, which represent a relationship of dualism that clarifies the Freudian notions of Thanatos and Eros....

Through years, different types of criticism has been created in order to analyse literature in an effective way, this is to say, avoiding fallacies. One important school is Psychoanalysis that maintains the main characteristics that Freud has studied. Psychoanalytic literary criticism is understood as a tool that helps us discover and understand the reflection of the author’s most hidden desires and anxieties that are repressed by the conscious mind, inside a particular text. Freud, at first, bonded all human behaviour to the sexual instinct (‘‘Eros’’), but he realised that there was also another human natural instinct as a counterpart of the previous: the death drive (‘‘Thanatos’’). This way, the dichotomy between self-preservation and self-destruction is proposed as a constant identity struggle that, in literature, commonly ends with one of the two sides triumphing.

Jacques Lacan also refers to this idea that postulated Freud, but he centres the idea of psychoanalysis in four different perspectives: The Drive, the Unconscious, Repetition Compulsion and Transference. For our essay, the different conceptions of drive are important, thus are necessary to clarify. The notion of drive differs from Freud’s, in that Lacan’s drive is not a mean to accomplish satisfaction but to circle round the object, creating a repetitive enjoyable movement. Furthermore, Lacan’s drive presents a dual bond between the symbolic and the imaginary and not in opposition, both belonging to the same type of drive. As to Lacan drive is excessive and repetitive, all drives are destructive, so part of the Thanatos.

The death drive (Thanatos) pursues the self returning to an inorganic state, and as Julia Kristeva implies in her work ‘‘Black Sun’’, ‘‘he [Freud] considers the death drive as an intrapsychic manifestation of a phylogenetic going back to inorganic matter. Nevertheless… it is possible to note… the strength of the disintegration of bonds within several psychic structures and manifestations. Furthermore, the presence of masochism, the presence of negative therapeutic reaction… prompt one to accept the idea of a death drive that, … would destroy movements and bonds’’ (Kristeva 16-17). Here we notice that this perception indicates that there are two different death drives, one in the psyche manifested to the outside as a violent instinct, and the other manifested to the inner self, self-destructive. This last one can result in an accumulation and cultivation of death drive, and Kristeva questions if this process could be erotized by the self, being implicitly part of the pleasure principle and leading to a constant change of the satisfaction object.

Freud’s concepts of Thanatos and Eros are present in the characters of ‘‘Mrs. Dalloway’’ since they behave according to inner forces that propel them to do so. In the case of Septimus Warren Smith, it is important to say that he is a veteran soldier that is shell-shocked by the impact of World War I because one friend of his, Evans, was killed there and Septimus saw it. Before the war, he was a normal person and he liked poetry. But after that he became a numb person. Moreover he is becoming mad and has different kinds of hallucinations. At the time of the story, Septimus and his wife Lucrezia are waiting for a doctor in an apartment, who is going to treat Septimus’ problems. They both pass through a very lovely moment but then Septimus throws himself out the window and dies.

First, Freud’s Thanatos is highly related to the death instinct and to the self-destruction of the person. This is explicitly clear at the end of the work with Septimus death. Second, this sudden personality change after war is related to the Unconscious mind, proposed by Lacan, in which the repressed feelings change the way in which a person behaves. Also this is shown in the form of automatic thoughts that are the ones that appear without any apparent cause, which are represented by the desire of death at the end of the story. Moreover, the Lacan’s Repetition Compulsion concept is also present since, as the name says, Septimus repeated in his mind several things that happened in the war that made him feel distressed to the point he turns mad and suffers hallucinations which are also an important behavioural characteristic of this kind of phenomenon. This character present an extreme case of cultivation of death drive, and Kristeva’s notion of erotization of it seems possible as Septimus is always looking for the pleasure and liberation of death, re-encountering with his dead friend.

In the case of Clarissa Dalloway, Freud’s Eros is dominant. She had a strong relation with the life instinct. It has to do with solidarity and true love. Also she tries to relate people with each other because it is a pleasure for her, and this can be seen in the fact that she is giving a party to a high number of people.

“Every time she gave a party she had this feeling of being something not herself, and that everyone was unreal in one way; much more real in another. It was, she thought, partly their clothes, partly being taken out of their ordinary ways, partly the background, it was possible to say things you couldn't say anyhow else, things that needed an effort; possible to go much deeper” (Virginia Woolf, 134).

However, Clarissa is also affected by the World War I since she saw her sister being killed, so two of the Four fundamental principles of Lacan are present: Transference and the Drive Theory. The first is related to the reproduction of emotions related to past events since she constantly sees the changes that the war brings to society, and more importantly, she every now and then thinks about her sister. The second one is related to a negative state of tension created when some psychological needs are not satisfied. This is shown in the work through the Clarissa’s pessimistic way of seeing things because she is mostly interested in her own social gratification.

To contrast the ideas of different literary analytic schools, we want to talk about the Marxist criticism. The relation between this with Psychoanalysis is that both look for information inside the text but the difference is that Marxism tries to see things that exist outside the text represented in it, whereas Psychoanalysis tries to look for inner things that happen inside individuals represented in the work. Then, “Mrs. Dalloway” can also be analysed from a Marxist point of view: Clarissa Dalloway is disinterested with the “Eros” conception, but she behave in that specific way because of the individuals’ roles inside the society in which she is immersed where she is somehow obligated to do certain things. On the other hand, Septimus is mentally different to the rest of the society and he cannot comply with the personal established roles inside it, so he cannot find a viable alternative for the curse of his life because he has been rejected by his peers.

These ideas can be exemplified in Eagleton’s chapter “Form and Content”. Special attention is put to the form, meaning, and style of the work where context is important since it determines the way in which the story is understood. It is important to notice the society in which this story takes place has an established ideology, defined as “forms of social consciousness” (Eagleton 3), about the social roles of people. As context determines form, which is understood as “a complex unity of at least three elements: . . . literary history of forms, . . . certain dominant ideological structures, and . . . relations between author and audience” (Eagleton 12); both characters can be analysed from this perspective. Clarissa is a woman that behaves according to the dominant ideology of the period of time in which she is living, that the reader will understand if he/she is aware of the context. Although she feels the oppression of society, she is still part of the world she constantly critiques. Besides, Septimus is obviously affected by the World War I and it triggered a behavioural change in him. When the reader knows that, he/she can understand why he behaves in the way he does, because it contradicts the dominant ideology of that time since he is labelled as a mad man.

To conclude, it is important to understand that Psychoanalysis covers different areas of the conscious and unconscious of the mind, taking always beings and their internal worlds as the main object of study. The human instinctive deciphers a major part of characters when we need to analyse them. When a narration does not present tangible characters, we have to notice that the interpretation will focus on the author, who, despite its unwillingness, would reflect its own drive and satisfaction. If the focus of the analysis is not centred in any being but rather epoch, community or social environment, Marxist perspective is always useful to comprehend the outside elements that influence a literary work. Despite we do not mention equilibrium between the Eros and Thanatos in this work, it is always possible. Indeed, a ‘‘normal’’ person would be someone that has reached the equilibrium between these two instinctive desires. In literature, flat (simple) characters are often found with one of both sides more dominant than the other, but it is important to understand that the real world does not work as if it was black or white, nor does round (complex) characters.

Works Cited

Eagleton, Terry. Marxism and Literary criticism. London: Routledge, 2006.

Freud, Sigmund. Beyond the Pleasure Principle. New York: W.W. Norton & Company,

1961.

Kristeva, Julia. Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia. New York: Columbia University

Press, 1989.

Lacan, Jacques. Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. W.W. Norton, 1998

Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. South Australia: University of Adelaide, 2015

[hoynovoy]

Max Minghella On 'The Handmaid's Tale,' His Dad, Romance, & 'Spiral'

Max Minghella is sitting in his backyard in the LA sunshine, his t-shirt an homage to the French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve, his adopted shepherd mix, Rhye, excited by the approach of a package courier.

“You okay, sweetheart?” he asks — the dog, not me — tenderly.

Minghella, who at 35 has dozens of screen credits to his name, is best known as The Handmaid’s Tale’s cunning chauffeur Nick Blaine, a character who it’s difficult to imagine saying sweetheart. In airless Gilead, of course, a cautious hand graze with Elisabeth Moss’ June can pass for a big romantic gesture. In a Season 1 episode featuring child separation and hospital infant abduction, Nick’s major contribution is to trade stolen glances with a sex slave while “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” pumps discordantly along. I ask Minghella about playing the series’ closest approximation to a dreamy male lead against the show’s dark narrative of female subjugation.

“I know this is not the answer you want to hear,” Minghella says with none of Nick’s hesitation. “But I like that stuff, right? In the pilot, I think Nick only had a handful of lines. It wasn't clear that this is what the character would turn into. And it's quite fortunate for me personally, because I'm not a massively sort of intellectual person in my real life. I love Fifty Shades of Grey. That's like my Star Wars. It suits me to play a character like him.”

Minghella surmises that this enduring romanticism is an outcome of nurture. His father, the late British director Anthony Minghella, made grand romantic dramas like Cold Mountain and The English Patient. And there was the young, cinema-mad Max sitting on the living room sofa, absorbing everything. “It’s taken me a long time to understand this,” he says of his prolonged childhood exposure to love stories. “My dad made The English Patient when I was 10. So it was two years of watching the dailies to that movie and then watching 50 cuts of it. And then [The Talented Mr.] Ripley he made when I was 13, and it was the same thing.” These were an adolescent Max Minghella’s alternative to reruns. “I think they did shape my perspective on the world in a lot of ways, specifically The English Patient. That was a complicated love story, and I wonder sometimes how much it's affected my psychology.”

Some sons rebel; others resemble. Minghella’s co-star O-T Fagbenle, who plays June’s other lover from before the time of Gilead, got his first job acting in Anthony Minghella’s romantic crime film Breaking and Entering. “Anthony is one the kindest, most beautiful men that I've ever had the privilege of working with before,” Fagbenle says. “And Max has his gorgeous, sensitive, open-minded soul.”

Though Minghella spent his childhood on the set of The Talented Mr. Ripley, playing an uncredited Confederate soldier role in Cold Mountain, and tooling around with a Super-8 camera Matt Damon gave him, he insists his upbringing was normal. He grew up in South Hill Park overlooking Hampstead Heath in London with his father and mother, the choreographer Carolyn Choa. (Minghella also has a half-sister, Hannah Minghella, who is now a film executive.) Yes, technically, it was London, but that’s not how it seemed. “I feel like I grew up in a very small town. Every school I went to was in Hampstead. I was born in Hampstead,” Minghella says of the small map dot of his life before university. “When I went to New York, I felt I was going to the big city.”

Despite his illustrious surname, movie-watching was far from restricted to the classics. “Beverly Hills Cop is definitely the movie I remember having an unhealthy obsession with. I think I saw it when I was 5 for the first time, and I'd watch it just two or three times a day for years. I'm just obsessed with it.”

Plenty of actors can trace their love of movies back to a love of stories, but for Minghella the relationship seems to flow in reverse. When he left for Columbia University, Minghella opted to study history for its connection, through storytelling, to film. It was during the summers between his years of college that he started taking acting more seriously. Before his graduation, he’d already appeared in Syriana, starring Damon and George Clooney. Soon, he’d make a splash as Divya Narendra in The Social Network in 2010 and be cast in Clooney’s Ides of March. As all young actors eventually must, Minghella moved to Los Angeles.

It’s been over a decade since he last lived on the Heath, but, perhaps unusually for a person who’s chosen his profession, Minghella is adamantly not a “shapeshifter,” in his words. Home for Christmas this year, he started sifting through old journals stored at his mother’s house, “just like scraps of writing from when I was extremely young up through my teenage years,” before coming to America. “It was hilarious to me,” Minghella says of staring at his childhood reflection. “My review of a movie at 7 years old is pretty much what my review of a movie at 35 will be. My taste hasn't changed much. And when I sort of love something, I do tend to continue to love it.”

Which brings us back to his enduring love of romance, born of his bloodline, which is all over Minghella’s own 2018 directorial debut. Teen Spirit is a hazily lit film about a teenage girl from the Isle of Wight — the remote British island where Max’s father Anthony was born — who enters a local X-Factor-style singing competition. (It stars Minghella’s rumored girlfriend of several years, Elle Fanning.) The story is small, but its crescendos are epic.

Minghella calls the movie — an ode to the power of the pop anthem — “embarrassingly Max.” Max loves a good music-driven movie trailer — he’s watched the one for Top Gun: Maverick “many” times. And Max loves the rhythmic beats of sports movies like Friday Night Lights. Max loves movies with excesses of female energy, like Spring Breakers. He likens Teen Spirit to an experiment, his answer to the question, “Can I take all these things that I love and find a structure that can hold them?” The result is a touching “hodgepodge” of Minghella’s fascinations, inspired by the songs from another thing he loves: Robyn’s 2010 album Body Talk (itself a dance-pop meditation on love).

Minghella hasn’t directed any films since, but he sees now how making movies fits his personality — organized, impatient — more organically than starring in them does. Directing also helped him to appreciate that acting is “much harder than I was giving it credit for,” which, in turn, has made him like it more. Besides The Handmaid’s Tale currently airing on Hulu, Minghella appears in Spiral, the ninth installment in the Saw horror franchise and, from where I’m sitting, at least, a departure.

“I do like horror movies, but the thing that was really kind of magical is that I was feeling so nostalgic, right? We talked about Beverly Hills Cop earlier. I was just missing a certain kind of movie,” Minghella explains of his new role as Chris Rock’s detective partner. He was yearning for simple story-telling, like in the buddy cop movies of his youth, especially 48 Hours. It almost goes without saying that a buddy cop movie is another kind of love story. “And then I read the script and it was very much in that vein.” He clarifies: “I mean, it's also extremely Saw. It's very much a horror movie.”

His renewed excitement for acting translated onto The Handmaid’s Tale set, too. Veteran Hollywood producer Warren Littlefield describes casting Minghella in the role of Nick as an effortless choice: “Sometimes you agonize over things. [Casting Minghella] was instantly clear to me, and everyone agreed.” Now in its fourth season, the tone of the Hulu hit is graver than ever. Gilead is more desperate to maintain its rule, and so more audacious in its violence. Perhaps it’s fitting that the show’s romantic gestures finally match that scale.

In one particularly soaring moment, Elisabeth Moss’ June and Minghella’s Nick meet at the center of a bridge and crush into a long kiss. It’s been two seasons since they held their newborn daughter together, and it’s hard to see how this isn’t their last goodbye. Littlefield, like Minghella, is here for the romance among the rubble. “It's spectacular when they come together. In the middle of all of the trauma is this epic love story,” he says. “Max is just magnificent in the role.”

For Minghella, the satisfaction is more personal. He works with good people, he likes his scenes, and he thinks Nick is a complex character. Minghella read The Handmaid’s Tale for the first time in college in 2005. Like all the things Minghella has ever liked, he still likes it. He’s as proud of this most recent season as he is the show’s first. And he watched Nick and June race recklessly back to each other across the expanse of the screen exactly how you might expect. “I watched it like a fan girl.”

Get More Dating Advice Here

[othersportsnews-blog]

Warrior Games 2017 - 'That's what genuinely despatched me to the rock bottom,' claims Laura Knowles, British Army veteran.

New Post has been published on https://othersportsnews.com/warrior-games-2017-thats-what-genuinely-despatched-me-to-the-rock-bottom-claims-laura-knowles-british-army-veteran/

Warrior Games 2017 - 'That's what genuinely despatched me to the rock bottom,' claims Laura Knowles, British Army veteran.

CHICAGO — Eleven times of nonstop entertaining at the Warrior Games wrapped up Saturday at the pool for Laura Knowles of the United Kingdom. But for Knowles, a 26-year-outdated British Army veteran who performs on the U.K.’s wheelchair basketball group, the largest kick did not occur in real competitors.

It occurred Friday evening, when Knowles and her U.K. teammates took part in the celeb wheelchair basketball recreation with previous “The Every day Present” host Jon Stewart at the United Center. Stewart’s on-court docket chatter, as 1 might consider, proved very entertaining.

“Just the standard stuff, the regular banter,” Knowles stated with a smile. “He stated he was going to smash it. Factors like that.”

Groups from the U.K. Armed Forces and Australian Defense Force despatched groups to the Games, complicated the 4 U.S. assistance branches plus the U.S. Particular Operations Command. This was the initial Warrior Games for Knowles, from North Wales. Bodily, she’s sound. But like lots of competition, she offers with psychological well being concerns — bulimia, plus borderline temperament and bipolar disorders.

Over weight as a child and uninterested in sports, Knowles gravitated to tunes. She performed clarinet, saxophone and piano, signing up for the Army in part to participate in in the band. But she struggled with despair and self-abuse. Eighteen months ago, following virtually five decades of assistance, Knowles was presented her discharge. In a long Instagram write-up two months ago, Knowles thorough the psychological well being complexities that she believes expense her her army job.

“Some times are magnificent, specially the hypomanic moods, but some times I can scarcely move off the sofa,” she wrote. “I never prepare dinner so I possibly never eat or I buy in and finish up purging it which prospects to self hatred which is ordinarily when I made use of to minimize. I have flashbacks and worry assaults and it basically just sucks… I normally turn into suicidal when I’m in my minimal phases.

Melissa Klotz would not like to end. And when an personal injury on her ship turned into a hip substitute, she experienced to determine out how to get going yet again.

All you need to know about the 2017 Warrior Games, like dates, schedules, news protection and options on ESPN.

At the Warrior Games, 1 might presume that U.S. Army Maj. James Pradke is the hero in the relatives. But it was an individual much scaled-down who helped his relatives when they necessary it the most.

2 Similar

“But I’m understanding to cope with the assist of mates, relatives and Help for Heroes [the British equivalent of America’s Wounded Warrior systems]. I in all probability wouldn’t be listed here if it was not for these magnificent people today. I’m setting up to use a distinctive state of mind. If I have a negative day… then I try out and retain it to a day and I’ll approach my next day to retain myself hectic. I discover activity has been my greatest resource on coping with my psychological well being.”

Soon before Knowles left the Army, an officer directed her to Help for Heroes. That is how she acquired about the Invictus Games, started by Prince Harry in 2014 and encouraged by the Warrior Games. Knowles competed in the 2016 Invictus Games in Orlando, Florida.

Athletics, she learned, assist her cope.

“I however believe about abuse by itself and factors like that,” she stated. “That is what genuinely despatched me to the rock bottom. It genuinely was a very negative put. Help for Heroes genuinely saved my lifetime. I’m so grateful to them.”Possessing activity presents you distinctive emphasis. It really is a very mindful detail, to be immersed in what you executing, even for an hour. It receives you out of head space. The personnel are all remarkable. They are so favourable all the tine, encouraging and motivating. I just cannot thank them adequate.”

Each and every day, when she desires a boost, Knowles finds it in the two tattoos on her forearms. On the proper: The Master of My Fate/Captain of My Soul close to the text, I Am. She acquired that for last year’s Invictus Games. “It reminds me, anything’s possible,” she stated. And on the left, a phoenix.

“You have the personnel and every thing at Help for Heroes, and they can bend above backwards to assist you,” she stated. “But if you’re not keen to place the perform in, then it just falls on deaf ears, and you never get the assist you really need. It desires to occur from you.”

On Wednesday, Knowles received her initial Warrior Games medal, a silver in the standing shot place. Britain’s wheelchair basketball group did not make it to the medal spherical. Alex Garcia for ESPN

The U.K. sends independent groups to the Warrior and Invictus Games. This year Knowles chose the Warrior Games to try out a little something distinctive. “This is 1 of the greatest visits I’ve at any time been on, by far,” she stated.

It began fabulously, with Knowles serving as U.K. torch-bearer at the Opening Ceremony. Knowles stood on the stage at Soldier Discipline with reps of all groups, passing the torch down the row to U.S. Navy Petty Officer third Class Nate Hamilton, who lit the cauldron. “It was just this sort of an honor to have led the group like that, to be assumed of to be equipped to do that,” she stated.

Returning to Soldier Discipline on Wednesday, Knowles received her initial Warrior Games medal, a silver in the standing shot place. “That was magnificent,” she stated. “I was declaring the other day, a little something great has occurred each individual day. It really is like the cherry-on-leading-of-the-ice-cream magnificent.”

The U.K. failed to achieve the medal spherical in wheelchair basketball, but Knowles experienced a blast nonetheless. The groups are co-ed.

“I participate in wheelchair rugby back again at home,” Knowles stated. “It really is so much entertaining. So when I’m actively playing basketball, I have to keep in mind I cannot strike people today.

“But I genuinely loved it. I by no means genuinely performed basketball before. This was the initial time. But I just loved it, and I’m going to carry on when I get home.” She concluded Saturday with swimming, getting fifth in the fifty- and a hundred-meter freestyles and fourth in the fifty breaststroke for people with entire physical purpose. Races at the University of Illinois-Chicago natatorium ended with swimmers and spectators cheering on the last finisher right until they touched the wall, no make any difference how long it took. Knowles gladly stood in her lane each time and applauded people last strokes.

“That is the level of the Games, is not it?” Knowles stated. “It really is not about winning. It really is the journey everybody’s long gone on to get listed here. It really is a great environment.”

Resource backlink

[edc-creations-blog]

Charge of an Angel by Linda Diane Wattley

LOVE AND REDEMPTION SERIES – The truth will set you free beginning with “Charge of an Angel.”  Because you are silent does not mean the world does not hear you screaming.  “Charge of an Angel” the first book of the “Love and Redemption Series” is about getting to understand God, love, sex and spirituality. Children grow up eventually and we they pack their clothes to leave home; the world has no clue what they are carrying in their suitcases. 

  Charge of an Angel  (Love and Redemption Series Book 1) by Linda Diane Wattley

My name is Leona Tillard and I need your help. You see, I have been spending my whole life trying to know who I am. I was born and raised in Akron, Ohio, and a product of a temporary single-parent home, I was left without some pertinent information that could have possibly told me who I am. Eventually, still a child, my family structure evolved into a blended family situation. In silence, I cried far more than I laughed.

Don’t get me wrong, there was much love for me. I learned early in life that I was a very special little girl. People loved being in my presence, but more than anything, my body was always desired. I didn’t want for anything, life was good to me, I just didn’t understand love and what is considered being a normal human being. This is where I need your help. Will you listen to me as I tell you my story about my life? Tell me who really loved me. Am I really an angel or a freak of nature? Your help will be highly appreciated. In return, I promise to entertain you from beginning to end. Below find one of my thought processing moments. It came during a time I needed understanding. Until we meet, enjoy!

My body was betraying me in the worst way. “Oh, God, help me! I face you now in my naked and weakened state and beg you to save me.” I prayed silently.”

Customer Review 5.0 out of 5 stars by Leona Tillard

Charge Of An Angel is book one in Linda Diane Wattley’s series titled Love and Redemption.

This is an important quote directly from the book: “Charge of an Angel will reveal why the urgent questioning of sexuality from the home to the pulpit. The children in this story have a lot to show us, let’s get started. They are anxious to share their stories even their parents are going to be in awe when they see who they really are.”

Character Leona Tillard will touch your heart as you read her childhood account. I am certain that as you read this book, you will either relate to some of the family dynamics from your own life or you might know a family with similar dynamics.  Sadly, families usually look wholesome and intact when viewed by an outsider. However, when you pull back the layers like an onion, the raw truth can burn your soul. In Leona’s story, her family has many layers and although she felt loved as child, her perceptions were from a child’s point of view.

Right from birth (like you and me) Leona was set on a path and her encounters wrote on the pages of her life’s story and deep in her heart and soul. The most telling thing that you will discover as you read, is Leona’s perception of herself, her deep questions and even conflicting messages that cause her to even question God. For children who grown up in a dysfunctional home, this is how they think. I quote not to spoil the story, but to enlighten you so you will want to read further.

“We didn’t hear any more words after that. Sarah and I were just as quiet as Daddy and Priscilla. In fact, Sarah was already asleep. I could hear snoring from across the room, which was something she normally didn’t do. I couldn’t believe what I had seen between her and Daddy. I closed my eyes and tried to will myself somewhere other than where I was. I couldn’t help but wonder where my brother and my mother were. This new family thing just did not make me happy at all. I mean, trying to know myself was hard enough without this family mix. One minute I had a mother and then I had no mother. I had a big brother, then no big brother. Now I have two sisters and a brother to go with the one I already had. We were all lost and confused. We just wanted to know where we belonged.

After that night, we did what we had to do to keep Priscilla and Daddy happy. Nobody cared how we felt. This life was about them. None of us should have been born. We had no parents. All of us were victims of circumstance. We were just sheep—sleeping, eating, and doing what we were told. If Daddy and Priscilla hadn’t gotten married, maybe Momma and Mark might have come back. We could forget about ever seeing them now.”

While reading I was faced with the core truths written on the pages and maybe more importantly between the lines. I wait for Book Two to be published, as I will need to find out where it goes from here. I invite you to read and open your heart and eyes to children around you in your life. This book has adult content.

Chapter Excerpt: Charge of an Angel

I didn’t know what to say; I was shocked. I opened my eyes to a naked female body. Sarah stood in front of me with this nest of hair hiding her privates. I just looked at it. I had no idea hair grew like that down there.

“It’s just hair, Leona. It won’t bite,” she chuckled as she covered her body with soap and water.

I was locked in position. I tried to make my body run out of the shower, but my curiosity made me stay. I tried to cover up my private parts with my tiny little washcloth. Sarah laughed at me again. It was obvious her mind was made up; she was staying in the shower.

Sarah adjusted the showerhead so that it was more forceful and balanced the hot and cold to create a perfect flow of water.

“Don’t pay me any attention; just take your shower like I’m not even here,” Sarah said as she continued splashing water all over herself.

I just stood there and looked. She had curves I had never seen before. Her body was beautiful.

I wondered how boys saw her. Did they really see her beauty or did they just want to touch her?

No sooner than I had that thought, Sarah stopped washing her body and began washing mine. I wanted to stop her, but then I didn’t want to stop her. I wanted to know why it felt better for her to wash my body than it did for me to do it.

As she covered my whole body with suds, I realized that what I felt was familiar; these were old feelings from when I was bathed by grown people. Each stroke of the washcloth wiped away tension that I didn’t know I had.

I had to admit, it was the best shower I ever had. Sarah was still a little giggly from the wine. I had never seen her so happy and beautiful before. Sarah was caught up in her own world. It just so happened I was part of the scenery.

( Continued… )

© 2017 All rights reserved.  Book excerpt reprinted by permission of the author, Linda Diane Wattley.  Do not reproduce, copy or use without the author’s written permission. This excerpt is used for promotional purposes only.

Purchase Charge of an Angel by Linda Diane Wattley Link: http://a.co/ergkV6t

  About the Author Linda Diane Wattley is a proud veteran of the United States Army.  She was born in Akron, Ohio and attended the University of Akron majoring in Psychology.  While attending the University she learned during a writing course she had the gift of writing. This gave her confidence to submit her first work of art which was poetry. The poem, “I Wish” appeared in the Poetry Gem of the American Poets Society.

For over twelve years she had her own religious/philosophical column in the Frost Illustrated Newspaper in Fort Wayne, Indiana, titled “The Best Will Show Themselves” where she shared her personal perspectives of spiritual insights and covered current social and religious events in her community.

Linda has appeared as a contributing writer for the online magazines including: “Faith Writers”, “The Wright Side of Me Productions”, “The Blessed Room”, “Real Life Real Faith Magazine” and “The Cheers” where she shares inspirational and thought-provoking messages to readers. She is also a contributing author of anthologies: “The Triumph of My Soul” edited by Elissa Gabriel, “This Far by Faith” with Vanessa Miller as editor and “Testify: The Praise Literary Collection Testimonials” complied by Angel M Barrino.

God has awakened her to an extremely important message to share with the world. We must become more conscious of PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; Her work: “Soldier with a Backpack, Living and Dying Simultaneously”, has allowed Linda Diane Wattley to be a nominee for the ‘Best in Nonfiction’ during the African American Literary Awards Show in 2016. Her work continues as a voice for victims of every walk of life.  She is a registered member and speaker of RAINN, an organization supporting and encouraging victims of sexual assault.  She is available for interviews and speaking engagements.

Today she shares a very important message pertaining to our souls. “The Love and Redemption Series” is a trilogy taking readers on a soulful journey of discovering self from the inside out.  This dramatically written series is filled with spirit and a truth cutting to the core for anyone having a heart to understand the intertwining impact spirit and sex has on our lives as we grow into our unique individualities.  Before we know who we are, we must understand what we are not.  This is a work of spiritual and mental stimulation and renewal, a must to move forward. Books by Linda D. Wattley https://www.amazon.com/author/lindadianewattley

    Connect with Linda D. Wattley Online https://twitter.com/universalove https://www.instagram.com/lindawattley https://www.facebook.com/Lindadianewattley/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-d-wattley-b3601411/

  Charge of an Angel by Linda Diane Wattley LOVE AND REDEMPTION SERIES - The truth will set you free beginning with "Charge of an Angel…