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dwellordream · 3 years ago

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“...In 1700, as in 1500, the basis of the English economy was still agricultural, and most boys and girls were reared in a rural environment. Two factors influenced the recruitment and integration of children to work. On the one hand, children were bound to be drawn into the workforce early in their lives, since about one-third of the early modern English population was under the age of 15, and labour was the most important factor of production.

On the other hand, the economy was also characterised by chronic under-employment, and children, not to speak of those of tender years, were physically limited and less skilled than adults. So their work was also bound to have been irregular and characterised by a great deal of unemployment. All this meant that children were employed to carry out single tasks as they grew up, according to the needs and types of skill required by their families.

Some of the most common tasks allocated by families to children involved animal husbandry; most authors of autobiographies who made any reference to work they had performed in their childhood years mentioned some form of work with animals - for example, sheep, geese or draught animals. Sheep growing, rearing of cattle and horses, and dairy farming predominated in the western and the northern parts of the country, but enclaves of pastoral farming also existed in the south and the east, as well as in the less fertile soils of parts of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Many yeomen in these regions kept large flocks of sheep to manure the soil, and children assisted in bringing sheep to the unploughed hill pasture during the day, and returning them to arable fields at night.

Moreover, until well into the sixteenth century, many households in the south and the east were self-sufficient and kept some animals to provide for their basic needs. In the midland plains, for example, households relied on cereal production, but also on animals; a few cows, pigs, or small flocks of sheep which children could tend to were kept to provide cheese, butter and clothing. In other regions within the mixed farming zone there were still large enclaves of pastoral farming, as in Cambridgeshire and the forests of Suffolk, Kent, Essex and the Midlands, where wood pasture predominated and shepherding by young children must also have been common.

Where crop farming predominated in the south and the east, children assisted in a host of other agricultural tasks. Although the work was more seasonal than in the pastoral areas, some tasks were allocated to children nearly every season of the year. One major job was ploughing, especially in the autumn season, but sometimes also in the winter and the spring, depending on the crop schedules adopted by individual farmer. Thomas Carleton, William Stout, Simon Forman and Josiah Langdale all remembered working at the plough in their young years. In other seasons, children assisted in “harrowing, scaring birds once the corn was sown, weeding, picking fruit, and spreading dried dung to manure the soil in the spring and summer.

During the harvest, children also contributed their share by bringing food to those working in the field, leading horses, and helping to bind the corn into sheaves. Older children also participated in haymaking and shearing.'' Among the very poor, children assisted during the harvest weeks by gleaning alongside their mothers. Even in winter, children provided some assistance: threshing, stacking sheaves, cleaning the barn and, in places and soils that required it in the winter, ploughing as well.'' Children carried out household tasks throughout the year: fetching water and gathering sticks for fuel, going on errands, assisting mothers in milking, preparing food, cleaning, washing and mending.

In some rural industries, which expanded in the north and the west, children were also taught to spin and card, and girls were trained in hand-knitting, lacemaking and stocking knitting; the latter became, by the late seventeenth century, a large industry. In some towns, domestic industries such as clothmaking and pinmaking also provided work for children. The pinmaking industry could employ younger boys and girls to put knobs on pins by hand, and from the 1570s, when pinmaking with brass wire became more widespread, in London it was a source of living for many poor adults and their children.

Gender differences in the tasks allocated to children were to some extent already apparent at young ages. William Stout remembered that while he and his brothers were required to assist in husbandry, his sister was 'early taught to read, knit and spin, and also needle work'. When she grew up, she continued to work alongside her mother, assisting in waiting on her younger brothers, and in preparing food and clothing. Girls also provided assistance in housework: in washing, preparing food and marketing. In an estate near Bolton, payments paid by the bailiff to labourers included those for washing to 'wife Turner and her folks'. Some of these folks were probably young daughters.

But the division of tasks between boys and girls, especially among the very poor, was anything but clear-cut. In a petition of the inhabitants of Hertfordshire to King James I it was claimed that young girls in that region were employed in 'picking wheat a great time of the year'. In some estates in the north of the country, there are records of payments for 'divers women' for turf-gathering and for weeding; and tasks such as fetching water and milk, gathering sticks, picking and spreading dung, and doing errands were performed by young brothers and sisters alike. The account of Henry Best, a yeoman in Yorkshire, shows that his 'spreaders of muck and molehills' were for the most part women, boys and girls.

The pace of entry of children to work was gradual. While younger children could assist in various jobs - fetching water and milk, gathering sticks for fuel, bringing food to those working in the fields, or picking dung - the more demanding agricultural tasks were normally not given to children before they reached their early teens. Thomas Shepard remembered that he was put to keep geese when he was no more than three years old; but tending flocks of sheep normally did not start until around the age of 10. Thomas Tryon, Samuel Bownas and William Stout all looked after sheep when they were 10, 11 and 14 respectively.

Ploughing, which required physical strength and an ability to direct the animals properly, was not normally given to youngsters before 11 or 12 years of age. In the harvest, children under 10 or 12 years of age carried food and assisted the binders; but only at about 12 years and upwards did they begin to drive loaded wagons and lead horses, while participation in haymaking was probably delayed until the mid-teens. If they were strong enough for their age, and the family was poor and in great need, a child could be recruited to plough or join the older shepherds as early as the age of nine rather than at ten. But overall, training in the more skilled and demanding tasks normally began when children reached about 10 years.

…It is doubtful that a very young child worked full days or very long hours in weeding or threshing. Nor was it likely that spinning would become a normal routine at the age of seven. Evidence from autobiographies written in the nineteenth century by people who grew up in families who relied on handloom weaving for their living suggests that their entry to work was gradual. At seven they spread cotton to help an older brother who spinned; then they began to wind, and at the age of 10 or 11, to spin. Nor was the winding of bobbins done full-time; it began with assistance to mothers, and alternated with going on errands, fetching water, and taking some time off. This was probably how a Lancashire 10-year-old boy, who testified in the 1630s that his mother had brought him up to spin wool, learnt his craft.

…The pace of entry into most tasks, in agriculture as well as industry, was bound to be adjusted to the physical and mental limitations of the youngsters; so that while child labour was widespread, it did not begin 'as soon as children could walk,' as J.H. Plumb put it many years ago. Nor did it start at a standard age of seven or eight years old. By their mid-teens many children had acquired some agricultural proficiency.”

- Ilana Krausman Ben-Amos, “Early Lives: Separation and Work.” in Adolescence and Youth in Early Modern England

#children #renaissance #georgian #history #farming #adolescence and youth in early modern england #elizabethan #jacobean #caroline era #ilana krausman ben amos

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gtunesmiff · 5 years ago

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Ravi Zacharias (1946 – 2020)

When Ravi Zacharias was a cricket-loving boy on the streets of India, his mother called him in to meet the local sari-seller-turned-palm reader. “Looking at your future, Ravi Baba, you will not travel far or very much in your life,” he declared. “That’s what the lines on your hand tell me. There is no future for you abroad.” By the time a 37-year-old Zacharias preached, at the invitation of Billy Graham, to the inaugural International Conference for Itinerant Evangelists in Amsterdam in 1983, he was on his way to becoming one of the foremost defenders of Christianity’s intellectual credibility. A year later, he founded Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), with the mission of “helping the thinker believe and the believer think.” In the time between the sari seller’s prediction and the founding of RZIM, Zacharias had immigrated to Canada, taken the gospel across North America, prayed with military prisoners in Vietnam and ministered to students in a Cambodia on the brink of collapse. He had also undertaken a global preaching trip as a newly licensed minister with The Christian and Missionary Alliance, along with his wife, Margie, and eldest daughter, Sarah. This trip started in England, worked eastwards through Europe and the Middle East and finished on the Pacific Rim; all-in-all that year, Zacharias preached nearly 600 times in over a dozen countries. It was the culmination of a remarkable transformation set in motion when Zacharias, recovering in a Delhi hospital from a suicide attempt at age 17, was read the words of Jesus recorded in the Bible by the apostle John: “Because I live, you will also live.” In response, Zacharias surrendered his life to Christ and offered up a prayer that if he emerged from the hospital, he would leave no stone unturned in his pursuit of truth. Once Zacharias found the truth of the gospel, his passion for sharing it burned bright until the very end. Even as he returned home from the hospital in Texas, where he had been undergoing chemotherapy, Zacharias was sharing the hope of Jesus to the three nurses who tucked him into his transport. Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias was born in Madras, now Chennai, in 1946, in the shadow of the resting place of the apostle Thomas, known to the world as the “Doubter” but to Zacharias as the “Great Questioner.” Zacharias’s affinity with Thomas meant he was always more interested in the questioner than the question itself. His mother, Isabella, was a teacher. His father, Oscar, who was studying labor relations at the University of Nottingham in England when Zacharias was born, rose through the ranks of the Indian civil service throughout Zacharias’s adolescence. An unremarkable student, Zacharias was more interested in cricket than books, until his encounter with the gospel in that hospital bed. Nevertheless, a bold, radical faith ran in his genes. In the Indian state of Kerala, his paternal great-grandfather and grandfather produced the 20th century’s first Malayalam-English dictionary. This dictionary served as the cornerstone of the first Malayalam translation of the Bible. Further back, Zacharias’s great-great-great-grandmother shocked her Nambudiri family, the highest caste of the Hindu priesthood, by converting to Christianity. With conversion came a new surname, Zacharias, and a new path that started her descendants on a road to the Christian faith. Zacharias saw the Lord’s hand at work in his family’s tapestry and he infused RZIM with the same transgenerational and transcultural heart for the gospel. He created a ministry that transcended his personality, where every speaker, whatever their background, presented the truth in the context of the contemporary. Zacharias believed if you achieved that, your message would always be necessary. Thirty-six years since its establishment, the ministry still bears the name chosen for Zacharias’s ancestor. However, where once there was a single speaker, now there are nearly 100 gifted speakers who on any given night can be found sharing the gospel at events across the globe; where once it was run from Zacharias’s home, now the ministry has a presence in 17 countries on five continents. Zacharias’s passion and urgency to take the gospel to all nations was forged in Vietnam, throughout the summer of ’71. Zacharias had immigrated to Canada in 1966, a year after winning a preaching award at a Youth for Christ congress in Hyderabad. It was there, in Toronto, that Ruth Jeffrey, the veteran missionary to Vietnam, heard him preach. She invited him to her adopted land. That summer, Zacharias—only just 25—found himself flown across the country by helicopter gunship to preach at military bases, in hospitals and in prisons to the Vietcong. Most nights Zacharias and his translator Hien Pham would fall asleep to the sound of gunfire. On one trip across remote land, Zacharias and his travel companions’ car broke down. The lone jeep that passed ignored their roadside waves. They finally cranked the engine to life and set off, only to come across the same jeep a few miles on, overturned and riddled with bullets, all four passengers dead. He later said of this moment, “God will stop our steps when it is not our time, and He will lead us when it is.” Days later, Zacharias and his translator stood at the graves of six missionaries, killed unarmed when the Vietcong stormed their compound. Zacharias knew some of their children. It was that level of trust in God, and the desire to stand beside those who minister in areas of great risk, that is a hallmark of RZIM. Its support for Christian evangelists in places where many ministries fear to tread, including northern Nigeria, Pakistan, South African townships, the Middle East and North Africa, can be traced back to that formative graveside moment. After this formative trip, Zacharias and his new bride, Margie, moved to Deerfield, Illinois, to study for a Master of Divinity at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Here the young couple lived two doors down from Zacharias’s classmate and friend William Lane Craig. After graduating, Zacharias taught at the Alliance Theological Seminary in New York and continued to travel the country preaching on weekends. Full-time teaching combined with his extensive travel and itinerant preaching led Zacharias to describe these three years as the toughest in his 48-year marriage to Margie. He felt his job at the seminary was changing him and his preaching far more than he was changing lives with the hope of the gospel. It was at that point that Graham invited Zacharias to speak at his inaugural International Conference for Itinerant Evangelists in Amsterdam in 1983. Zacharias didn’t realize Graham even knew who he was, let alone knew about his preaching. In front of 3,800 evangelists from 133 countries, Zacharias opened with the line, “My message is a very difficult one….” He went on to tell them that religions, 20th-century cultures and philosophies had formed “vast chasms between the message of Christ and the mind of man.” Even more difficult was his message, which received a mid-talk ovation, about his fear that, “in certain strands of evangelicalism, we sometimes think it is necessary to so humiliate someone of a different worldview that we think unless we destroy everything he holds valuable, we cannot preach to him the gospel of Christ…what I am saying is this, when you are trying to reach someone, please be sensitive to what he holds valuable.” That talk changed Zacharias’s future and arguably the future of apologetics, dealing with the hard questions of origin, meaning, morality and destiny that every worldview must answer. Flying back to the U.S., Zacharias shared his thoughts with Margie. As one colleague has expressed, “He saw the objections and questions of others not as something to be rebuffed, but as a cry of the heart that had to be answered. People weren’t logical problems waiting to be solved; they were people who needed the person of Christ.” No one was reaching out to the thinker, to the questioner. It was on that flight that Zacharias and Margie planted the seed of a ministry intended to meet the thinker where they were, to train cultural evangelist-apologists to reach those opinion makers of society. The seed was watered and nurtured through its early years by the businessman DD Davis, a man who became a father figure to Zacharias. With the establishment of the ministry, the Zacharias family moved south to Atlanta. By now, the family had grown with the addition of a second daughter, Naomi, and a son, Nathan. Atlanta was the city Zacharias would call home for the last 36 years of his life. Meeting the thinker face-to-face was an intrinsic part of Zacharias’s ministry, with post-event Q&A sessions often lasting long into the night. Not to be quelled in the sharing of the gospel, Zacharias also took to the airwaves in the 1980s. Many people, not just in the U.S. but across the world, came to hear the message of Christ for the first time through Zacharias’s radio program, Let My People Think. In weekly half-hour slots, Zacharias explored issues such as the credibility of the Christian message and the Bible, the weakness of modern intellectual movements, and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. Today, Let My People Think is syndicated to over 2,000 stations in 32 countries and has also been downloaded 15.6 million times as a podcast over the last year. As the ministry grew so did the demands on Zacharias. In 1990, he followed in his father’s footsteps to England. He took a sabbatical at Ridley Hall in Cambridge. It was a time surrounded by family, and where he wrote the first of his 28 books, A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism. It was no coincidence that throughout the rhythm of his itinerant life, it was among his family and Margie, in particular, that his writing was at its most productive. Margie inspired each of Zacharias’s books. With her eagle eye and keen mind, she read the first draft of every manuscript, from The Logic of God, which was this year awarded the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) Christian Book Award in the category of Bible study, and his latest work, Seeing Jesus from the East, co-authored with colleague Abdu Murray. Others among that list include the ECPA Gold Medallion Book Award winner, Can Man Live Without God?, and Christian bestsellers, Jesus Among Other Gods and The Grand Weaver. Zacharias’s books have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been translated into over a dozen languages. Zacharias’s desire to train evangelists undergirded with apologetics, in order to engage with culture shapers, had been happening informally over the years but finally became formal in 2004. It was a momentous year for Zacharias and the ministry with the establishment of OCCA, the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics; the launch of Wellspring International; and Zacharias’s appearance at the United Nations Annual International Prayer Breakfast. OCCA was founded with the help of Professor Alister McGrath, the RZIM team and the staff at Wycliffe Hall, a Permanent Private Hall of Oxford University, where Zacharias was an honorary Senior Research Fellow between 2007 and 2015. Over his lifetime Zacharias would receive 10 honorary doctorates in recognition of his public commitment to Christian thought, including one from the National University of San Marcos, the oldest established university in the Americas. Over the years, OCCA has trained over 400 students from 50 countries who have gone on to carry the gospel in many arenas across the world. Some have continued to follow an explicit calling as evangelists and apologists in Christian settings, and many others have gone on to take up roles in each of the spheres of influence Zacharias always dreamed of reaching: the arts, academia, business, media and politics. In 2017, another apologetics training facility, the Zacharias Institute, was established at the ministry’s headquarters in Atlanta, to continue the work of equipping all who desire to effectively share the gospel and answer the common objections to Christianity with gentleness and respect. In 2014, the same heart lay behind the creation of the RZIM Academy, an online apologetics training curriculum. Across 140 countries, the Academy’s courses have been accessed by thousands in multiple languages. In the same year OCCA was founded, Zacharias launched Wellspring International, the humanitarian division of the ministry. Wellspring International was shaped by the memory of his mother’s heart to work with the destitute and is led by his daughter Naomi. Founded on the principle that love is the most powerful apologetic, it exists to come alongside local partners that meet critical needs of vulnerable women and children around the world. Zacharias’s appearance at the U.N. in 2004 was the second of four that he made in the 21st century and represented his increasing impact in the arena of global leadership. He had first made his mark as the Cold War was coming to an end. His internationalist outlook and ease among his fellow man, whether Soviet military leader or precocious Ivy League undergraduate, opened doors that had been closed for many years. One such military leader was General Yuri Kirshin, who in 1992 paved the way for Zacharias to speak at the Lenin Military Academy in Moscow. Zacharias saw the cost of enforced atheism in the Soviet Union; the abandonment of religion had created the illusion of power and the reality of self-destruction. A year later, Zacharias traveled to Colombia, where he spoke to members of the judiciary on the necessity of a moral framework to make sense of the incoherent worldview that had taken hold in the South American nation. Zacharias’s standing on the world stage spanned the continents and the decades. In January 2020, as part of his final foreign trip, he was invited by eight division world champion boxer and Philippines Senator Manny Pacquiao to speak at the National Bible Day Prayer Breakfast in Manila. It was an invitation that followed Zacharias’s November 2019 appearance at The National Theatre in Abu Dhabi as part of the United Arab Emirates’ Year of Tolerance. In 1992, Zacharias’s apologetics ministry expanded from the political arena to academia with the launching of the first ever Veritas Forum, hosted on the campus of Harvard University. Zacharias was asked to be the keynote speaker at the inaugural event. The lectures Zacharias delivered that weekend would form the basis of the best-selling book, Can Man Live Without God?, and would open up opportunities to speak at university campuses across the world. The invitations that followed exposed Zacharias to the intense longing of young people for meaning and identity. Twenty-eight years after that first Veritas Forum event, in what would prove to be his last speaking engagement, Zacharias spoke to a crowd of over 7,000 at the University of Miami’s Watsco Center on the subject of “Does God Exist?” It is a question also asked behind the walls of Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola Prison, the largest maximum-security prison in the United States. Zacharias had prayed with prisoners of war all those years ago in Vietnam but walking through Death Row left an even deeper impression. Zacharias believed the gospel shined with grace and power, especially in the darkest places, and praying with those on Death Row “makes it impossible to block the tears.” It was his third visit to Angola and, such is his deep connection, the inmates have made Zacharias the coffin in which he will be buried. As he writes in Seeing Jesus from the East, “These prisoners know that this world is not their home and that no coffin could ever be their final destination. Jesus assured us of that.” In November last year, a few months after his last visit to Angola, Zacharias stepped down as President of RZIM to focus on his worldwide speaking commitments and writing projects. He passed the leadership to his daughter Sarah Davis as Global CEO and long-time colleague Michael Ramsden as President. Davis had served as the ministry’s Global Executive Director since 2011, while Ramsden had established the European wing of the ministry in Oxford in 1997. It was there in 2018, Zacharias told the story of standing with his successor in front of Lazarus’s grave in Cyprus. The stone simply reads, “Lazarus, four days dead, friend of Christ.” Zacharias turned to Ramsden and said if he was remembered as “a friend of Christ, that would be all I want.” =====|||=====

Ravi Zacharias, who died of cancer on May 19, 2020, at age 74, is survived by Margie, his wife of 48-years; his three children: Sarah, the Global CEO of RZIM, Naomi, Director of Wellspring International, and Nathan, RZIM’s Creative Director for Media; and five grandchildren. =====|||=====

By Matthew Fearon, RZIM UK content manager and former journalist with The Sunday Times of London

Margie and the Zacharias family have asked that in lieu of flowers gifts be made to the ongoing work of RZIM. Ravi’s heart was people.

His passion and life’s work centered on helping people understand the beauty of the gospel message of salvation.

Our prayer is that, at his passing, more people will come to know the saving grace found in Jesus through Ravi’s legacy and the global team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

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ofaphrvdite · 5 years ago

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silence ! raise the royal standard, for the crown princess of the greek empire, MEGAIRA CONSTANTINOU, has arrived. being 30 years old, she is first in line to the throne. many around the court call her the pariah, by virtue of her being dauntless and astute, while also being distant and impetuous. — played by emilia clarke.

- THE BASICS.

full name: megaira calisto constantinou name meaning: megaira ‘to grudge’, calisto ‘most beautiful’ known in history as: the forgotten princess, phoenix queen, star of the sea date of birth: april 19th, 1636/1989 age: thirty star sign: aries profession: con artist (modern verse) / crown princess of the greek empire (royal verse) loyalty: greece, house constantinou, the entente alignment: neutral good mbti: intp spoken languages: greek, english (modern verse) / greek, english, advanced latin, advanced portuguese. intermediate spanish, intermediate ottoman turkish, basic albanian (royal verse) mother’s name: agata constantinou nee. doubreva father’s name: alexios constaninou siblings, if any: demetrios de bergano (half brother), isidora constantinou, deceased, aella constantinou height: 5’2” hair colour: silvery blonde eye colour: green

- BACKSTORY / MODERN VERSE.

the constantinou’s had begun a small family, decades and decades ago. they had made their money aiding petty crimelords in minor drug trafficking, dog fights, pickpocketing and weapons dealing. with every passing year they had climbed the slippery ladder until they finally clawed themselves to the top. building their family a throne from all the dismantled ones they had once served. slowly, they had moved on to bigger and better things. oil smuggling, protection rackets, bribery, police corruption, murder, prostitution, money laundering. the constantinou’s were bleeding money, yes, but they had sold their souls to do it. they were wolves, every one of them part of a vicious and feral pack. everyone in athens knew who the top family was by the time megaira had abandoned them all - but it had not always been the way.

one might associate the term ‘mafia princess’ with that of wealth and prestige. gold chains covered in blood, but pure gold nonetheless. such was not the case for megaira constantinou. greece was rife with crimelords, all vying for the top place. the most fearful, the most lucrative, the most established. raised in athens it was impossible to escape the reach of the godfathers of the night. especially when the family you were born into had been knee-deep in crime since long before you were even a thought in your father’s head. such was the case for little megaira.

her childhood had not been spent in comfortable luxury. there was no certainty with their business. not at the start. from a young age, megaira had been inducted into the family business, always half knowing what was going on - but never the true bloody depth of it. the young girl was used as a lookout more often than not. her tiny frame useful for hiding in impossibly tight places, away from view, where she could alert the others to danger afoot. her days were not spent playing with her friends at the park, or worrying over homework, but looking out for enemy gangs. or distracting police with feigned crocodile tears. snatching from the pockets of naive tourists. who would have thought those early days of struggle would prove to be her greatest life lesson? instilling the beginnings of talents she would only unlock in her adolescence. on the streets of athens, megaira had learned her livelihood without ever even realising it.

she had never given much thought to her future. always having assumed she would stay in athens forever, doing her fathers bidding until he was eventually shot dead in a raid or died an embittered old man in his bed, only for the next man in line to step up and pick up where he left off. why would she consider anything else when she had never known a life different to her own? though their family was a turbulent one, megaira loved each of them dearly, her siblings especially. to leave them sounded akin to treason to a young, and ultimately naive, girl.

and yet time could change everything, and their world had always moved so quickly. nothing was ever enough for the constantinou patriarch, alexios always reaching for more than he had, more than he needed. as the years passed, those that followed him were placed in more and more dangerous situations. they were gaining enemies faster than they were friends and their reign was nearing its end. the police, who had been in their back pocket for so long, were bolstered by new laws that gave them the power to put a stop to so much of the crime the constantinou and others thrived on. now in their better interests to put a stop to the criminal underground that had festered so long, rather than aid them. as their jobs began to dry up, alexios began to take more risks. rival gang members were murdered for cash, kidnap, extortion. all a perfect recipe for the brewing revenge to bubble over.

the culmination of years of backstabbing and betrayal took place on a stuffy september evening. the family had all gathered together for a sunday dinner, as they had since before megaira could even remember. one moment they were cheering as the lamb was carved, the next the air was filled with screams and gunshots as members from a recently angered rival gang stormed the constantinou compound. megaira, only sixteen, had watched in horror beneath the table as her cousins and friends dropped to the ground with blood staining their sunday best. hearing the dying yelps of her childhood dog, artemis who lived to protect her, and knowing she was powerless to stop it. nothing had prepared her for the butchering she saw, all she could do was hope and pray that no one would find her.

sirens could be heard in the distance, police arriving too late no doubt to see the destruction of their greatest menace. even that was not enough to disperse the invaders and megaira was dragged from her hiding place, kicking and screaming. she’d never given thought to how she might die, what might happen. just that it was inevitable. but there had been no highlight reel flashing before her eyes, just icy dread and fear as she stared down the barrel of a gun. she remembers little of what happened next, only brief blurs in her mind. a butter knife. blood pouring from a wound she inflicted on his thigh. sweaty hands finding the dropped gun. a loud bang. a death. her first victim. then running.

megaira fled athens that day, away from her beloved family ( those that had survived the purge ) and reckless father. with nothing but the dirty clothes she had on, she had manage to seek refuge. boarding a cargo ship that departed for england that night. she has not looked back since.

in london she was met with the realisation that she had nothing to her name, and nothing to offer. dropping lower than where she had first began in life. and so the first year had been rough sleeping and moving from shelter to shelter. learning english as best she could and scheming to find a way out of her self inflicted prison. surely she had a skill that she could use? all of her talents from her days in athens could not have all been a waste. she was small even now, easy to hide, easy to miss. would the tourists so busy staring in awe at stone monuments notice if a ghost of a girl snatched a watch or wallet here and there?

and so she began. slowly but surely she began to reap in a profit, pick-pocketing the obvious targets, scamming the odd lost tourist. as her skills improved, as did her ambition. she began to steal larger items, breaking into shops unnoticed to claim her prize. still, it wasn’t enough of a living to get her off the streets, only to survive. it wasn’t until her talents were noticed by those who knew to look that things turned around.

megaira was soon picked up by a talented troop of well known london con artists. initially she had been hesitant to trust another, insisting she was better off on her own than allowing others input in her life again. hadn’t that been her near downfall before? megaira had lived so long on her own, wild and untamed as the wolf, she no longer knew how to trust. but she was not someone who did well alone, even she knew that she was losing every part of herself to the struggle to survive, and so even as stubborn as she was, they had eventually worn her down. and her life took another sharp turn, only this time hopefully for the better.

she had spent years with the team, learning every trick and con known to man, garnering golden nuggets of knowledge from the very elite. eventually that team had disbanded, gone their separate ways into retirement and bidding the still youthful megaira goodbye. she was alone again, yes, but this time she was armed with skills and intuition, intelligence gained from listening to the worlds best, that would take her higher than just survival and allow her to thrive.

megaira now lives in a luxurious apartment in camden, with her dog cerberus. over the years she has developed a system that works well for herself. even now she appears more innocent than she seems, a beguiling siren that lures her unsuspecting victims in to get whatever it is she wants. by the time she’s gone, her victims will hardly notice, doing her best to make them want to be deceived. megaira is an expert in charm and seduction of every variety, so don’t be fooled by anything she says. it’s probably all a lie. her cons have taken her all over the world, and allowed her to meet other talented artists similar to herself - including her now partner, tae. the pair had found kindred spirits in eachother and are now as thick as thieves. quite literally.

megaira has no wish to return to athens, to enact any revenge on those who had torn her family apart. in her mind that was the past, and you can’t change that. the raid had brought balance for all the terrible things they had done and she felt no need to revisit all that pain. not to mention the gnawing guilt, that she could not forget, for leaving those she had claimed to love to die. only her siblings had managed to keep contact with her, but her updates are scarce. her half brother manages to stay close, and though she would never admit it, she is glad to have him still in her life. a tie to the few happy memories she had from home. her parents had not looked for her, and she certainly had no wish to find them. as far as they cared to know, she was long gone. death or disappearance, it was the same thing in their life. and she would be unrecognisable to them now. megaira had cut her long waves short, died the once silver strands a sleek dark brown. the old megaira, the little naive girl, had died long ago. the woman had risen from her ashes, and she would not bow to another so soon again. the world best remember that wolves and girls both have sharp teeth.

- BACKSTORY / ROYAL VERSE.

megaira comes from a long line of rulers that have fought, tooth and nail, to make their empire the greatest the world has seen. the constaninou line’s main goal has always been to restore greece to it’s former ancient glory. the heir to said legacy had been born on a stormy night in the ancient and great city of pella, birthplace of alexander the great. though villagers had spoken of her birth as a sign of her strength to come, a woman to weather the greatest of storms, it was perhaps a warning to the raging seas she would be made to navigate, blind, as she grew.

she would prove a disappointment to her parents, nothing but dismay that would end up surrounding her childhood and shaping her into the woman she would grow to be. not only was the king’s first legitimate child a daughter, but she was a weak and slight one at that. megaira did not grow as fast as the other noble girls, remaining a slip of a thing with ghost white hair. not the picture of a stern ruler her father had prayed for. two more daughters followed her, and it would be her mother and megaira that bore the brunt of the king’s discontent. agata a failure for being physically unable to provide a strong male heir, and megaira for simply having the audacity to live.

this made for a lonely childhood, as her parents dismissed her at every turn and there were no children at court for her to play with. she had her guard, elias, who she came to know as more a father figure than protector - though he was every bit that too. he had ignited her love for the stars, spinning stories of the skies and sharing the secrets of the constellations with her every night. always patiently would he play with the little princess, making no complaint as she thread poppies into his hair and forced him to attend numerous tea parties. but she had her brother too, when her sworn sword was elsewhere. though her mother would hiss that he was only her half brother, a bastard ( perhaps the only time she said anything to her eldest at all, when she wasn’t criticising her every move, was to remind megaira that demetrios was beneath them all ), she saw him as blood through and through. her big brother, her very best friend and closest confident. her mother could not twist her eldest against him. not when he was the one she sought out when tears sprung to her eyes, when her mother was cruel to her, or their father ignored her. when thunderstorms struck, it was his bed she would cower under, pleading for his stories of adventure to block out the booming claps of thunder. megaira had idolised him, there was no one greater in her eyes. until their father had forced a divide too big for either to cross.

when megaira was only nine years old, she was summoned to the throne room to meet with her father. even then she had known something was different, for her mother had made her wear her best dress and had reminded her of all her lessons on the way. it was there, all in her best, standing straight as can be with her chin held high, that her father told her she was to be his heir. and she had been thrilled. as excited as any child could be when all they knew of ruling was that it was a big, big job and she would get to wear a crown and do whatever she wanted. and so she did as any excited child would, and had ran to tell the person who had always been the first she told all her secrets to. expecting the same excitement in return from demetrios, she was going to make him her adviser! he was going to be at her side forever! a team! so imagine her heartache when, instead of celebration, megaira had been met with stone. how was she to know that all his life, their father had been readying him for the throne? that he had told that he would one day be legitimised and crowned over his sister. it had been the queen of greece who had bent her husband’s ear, refusing to see her children displaced for a bastard born from an italian harlot.

from that day on, their relationship had changed. near severed entirely. megaira, just a naive and confused child, had begged and pleaded her brother to stop ignoring her, asked him why he was being so nasty, was it something she had done wrong? she was so, so sorry, please could they still be friends? but demetrios had not relented, and as she grew, meg had grown bitter towards her brother. resenting him for pushing her away and, in her eyes, abandoning her. leaving her lonelier than ever. never did she stop to consider his side, the damage had been done and they were both too far gone to reconcile now.

it was her brother who had convinced their father that she ought to be sent away when the war began. a weak princess, now the heir to the throne, would surely be an easy target to their many enemies. and so the decision was made to send her away at aged fourteen to live on the island of crete, away from the city where she could be hidden from those who may wish to use a crown princess to their advantage. here her circle of friends grew smaller still, having only her handmaidens, guard and tutor for company, and the white wolf pup she had been gifted by her old childhood friend. named for the goddess she looked up to, artemis.

the only news she had of the outside world, came through the scarce letters she received from her sisters when they cared to write, her mother and old friends. letters that grew fewer by the year as the world forgot about her. it was through these letters that she learned she must be wed before she could ever take the throne. a plan concocted at court to keep her from her birthright. law was passed that if she did not marry before his death, her brother would rule as her regent until she found a suitable consort and thus convincing their failing empire that their crown princess was not capable of ruling without a man at her side. god forbid a country follow a woman’s lead. but megaira was not the same foolish girl she had once been, she had learned since then, and she knew that if her brother were to ascend to the throne, he would not pass it back quietly after she had forced herself down the aisle.

her years of isolation were not spent in vain. from then on, megaira used that time to plot and learn. learn every language she could, read every book, learn of strategies of war, how to fight with dagger and bow. if the greek nobles would not accept her as their ruler with no king at her side, then she would make them wish they had once she was crowned. she would prove to them all how worthy a queen she could be.

there was a brief period of time, less lonely than the others, when megaira spent half a year with her childhood friend sadiye at the ottoman court. no doubt a ploy to keep an eye on the princess who might one day be the queen they allied with. it was here she met the empress of china, xiulan. megaira had learned a great deal from the formidable queen, lessons she would take with her into adulthood. they struck up a strange relationship, even through letters when both women returned home, one that grew stranger still when megaira made good friends with her ward.

but her time away from court was not all spent quietly preparing in between frolicking in the ottoman empire. despite being sent away for her supposed safety, there were countless attempts on her life. assassins sent from enemy lands, some from her home who couldn’t fathom the idea of a woman leading, not ever. and they came close, some far too close. still to this day megaira wakes from screaming night terrors, seeing in vivid detail the man who had stolen into her room and pressed a knife to her throat. artemis had ripped his out in return, but megaira could still remember the smell of his breath and the blood that had stained her nightgown. an ordeal she had suffered near alone but for her beastly companion and elias. not even her parents had checked on her, only writing to confirm their heir still lived. in her all consuming fear, megaira had quietly begun to convince herself that her brother had been behind a fair few.

as the war finally came to a close, megaira was allowed to return to court at age twenty five. ending her eleven years of solitude. now a woman, she had returned vindictive and determined to see herself rise and her brother fall. unwittingly, her brother had created his own worst enemy. now truly worthy competition, and in her eyes, he no longer stood a chance.

megaira had pleaded with her father for the chance to go to bern, to prove that she would be a worthy leader and could garner the support she would need to rule. megaira had, afterall, spent most of her life away from court. putting her on uneven ground as the commoners did not know her, and the nobles did not care to. bern had been a rude awakening, all her training had been futile when she was as refined as a chambermaid. she would not bend to court expectations, donning her traditional attire as she would have on crete, and speaking bluntly in negotiations rather than dress up her words prettily to make them easier to swallow. demetrios had known the nobles for years, had fought with them and played with them. he was years ahead of her in experience, and already had twice as much support as she did. megaira faced a steeper climb than she had expected, with her socialisation leaving little to be desired, stunted after years on her own. not to mention the crown princess was stubborn and possessed a temper to rival the king’s.

it was amongst these negotiations at bern that megaira made her first decision as a future ruler, one that set in course actions that could not be undone. their alliance with the ottomans had been shaky at best. producing nothing in return for greece but stopping the ottomans from invading their weaker neighbours. the king had bowed to the sultan when his father had been found dead on greek soil ( igniting the war ), and so in a decision that had ultimately crippled their empire, he had sided greece with the coalition. something megaira had liked no more than the common people, who had seen it as their king trading their well-being for his personal safety.

the ottoman sultan had disappeared before the greek courts arrival, and had been presumed dead after the pirate invasion at bern. no one expected him to reemerge, with tales of the torture he had bore marking his body. worse still, he had been held captive by greek men. men who felt so disillusioned with their monarchy that they had taken matters into their own hands. if their supposed king would do nothing more but cower and bend to the ottoman will, they would do what he was too weak to do. the sultan, cruel and twisted from his time in captivity, had sought out megaira as the hightest ranking greek noble at bern and demanded that his captives be handed over for the ottomans to punish as they saw fit. and megaira had refused.

in a decision that might break her reign before it even began, she had refused the sultan but swore his captives would be executed. on greek soil, as greek men, by greeks. there was enough unrest in her country, she would not bow to his will as her father had and prove to the people that she was nothing but a copy of her father. the alliance was shattered that day, the greeks forced to side with the entente to escape the ottoman wrath. it had been the morally right decision, but strategically dire. for the ottomans were not quick to forget.

following the break of alliance, the ottomans returned to their old ways. starting border skirmishes, raiding their farms, pillaging their villages. leaving greece in a vulnerable position. with her people starving, the sultan did not stop there. he needed a more personal attack. seeing how close the princess was to her sworn knight, the sultan had arranged to have elias murdered in the black of night. megaira had found his body outside her chambers that next morning, and she had screamed herself into hysterics until she had been forced back into her rooms. no good deed went unpunished. though she had not known it at the time, her dearest friend and the only thing akin to a father she had known, had died to establish her as a stronger ruler to her people.

the tragedy had not ended there. the negotiations had come to swift and sudden end when a bomb had been set off in bern, ending the lives of many rulers and putting several more out of action. that day had taken what remained of her support system. in all the chaos the ottomans had made another attempt on her life, and artemis had saved her from certain death but in the process had lost her life. megaira had sat with her closest companion as she died, and only when her brother had found her amongst the rubble of the collapsing castle did she allow herself to be dragged away. the next morning, as chaos reigned, she found out her sister had too been lost, as had her betrothed. the portuguese prince she had known as a girl, a childhood friend she had come to care for, even love. with no one left to seek refuge in, megaira left for greece. to heal and rebuild.

since her departure from bern, megaira has wed another to settle her position. a prince of a powerful country whose reach keeps the invaders at bay. for now. she does not love her husband, and sees their marriage as something formed of duty more than anything. she cannot bring herself to love another, not after losing the only man she could ever see herself loving. it is a match that has made her claim stronger, and her husband is as keen as she is to secure her throne.

megaira does not like to be touched, physical contact makes her uncomfortable and if caught by surprise, afraid. gone is the girl who played in poppy meadows and played with her dog on the sands of crete, megaira has joined the talks of versaille a grown woman. colder, and distant from her former self. she no longer hesitates from doing as she must, as evidenced by her calculated murder of josephine, her brothers betrothed. the woman who had covered up elias’ murder. her death had come with the added bonus that her brother had been left without his rich bride. megaira feels no guilt for her actions, feeling they were entirely justified.

though she might not describe herself as a pessimist, she is certainly a realist. her country is starving and she cares little for europe’s new attempts at peace when they hold their talks in halls painted with gold. versailles signifies all of what she hates. their indulgence disgusts her when her people have little food for their tables and suffer through droughts and invasions. so she wants no part of it. refusing to dress as a future queen might and opting for more plain and simple clothes like those of her home. the talks seem a waste of time to her, with other royals problems seeming insignificant and petty in comparison to greece, in the midst of civil war and starvation.

megaira is still honest to a fault, refusing to bite her tongue to protect the feelings of others and so often comes across as insensitive or apathetic. though she has learned when she must turn on the charm, and has become more manipulative the closer she gets to the throne. in her time back in greece, she has learned the art of poison and has become adept with it. should an enemy cross her, she now has plenty in her arsenal to make a swift end of them. however she does still experience night terrors and so now suffers from insomnia, too afraid to sleep. there aren’t many she trusts to comfort her afterwards, but her new wolf ( black as night, named for cerberus, the hound that guards the gates of hell ) stands as her protector where his predecessor artemis had once stood.

megaira strongly believes in independence for greece, and longs to restore it to the great empire they used to be. and she is at these talks solely to achieve that. to make friends with powerful people, and to raise greece from the ashes. she does truly care for her people, but refuses to acknowledge that making peace with her brother may be a big step toward that. she still does not trust demetrios ( no matter how much she misses him and longs to seek his counsel ), and believes he will snatch her throne even now. in truth, megaira is nothing more than an outsider. lonely and desperate to belong somewhere. she craves the chance to prove herself to those she has pushed away. but don’t waste sympathy on her, she will not save any for you.

#! * INTRODUCTIONS.#! * INTRODUCTION / megaira.#meg is the female eli in that #there is no respite in her modern intro #its just shit fest after shit fest #i love that for her !#tw dog death ig but what were you expecting #tw blood #tw death #tw violence #tldr: meg is sad

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alekakers · 5 years ago

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The Story So Far (or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Existential Dread)

- 32-

When I was a kid I thought of thirty-two as this incredibly significant age. For whatever reason I viewed it as the epitome of reaching adulthood. Of course as a child I thought of everyone older than me as an adult. You know that weird skewed perspective thing, when you recall memories from childhood and even high school kids looked like grown ups. But in my head thirty-two was a mythical age that solidified your status as an adult. An age that once reached meant you were no longer a young man/woman, but a full fledged adult-y adult.

Now as I sit here looking back on thirty-two years of life I can say I had no idea how my perspective on age and life would change over the next couple decades. But in some strange way I wasn’t completely wrong either. I had wanted to do this kinda thing when I turned 30 but that was a chaotic time so I never got around to it. So now with two more years behind me, here is a reflection on a simple life and what I’ve learned from it. Let’s start at the beginning...

- Born On The Bayou -

I was born in the early afternoon in Nassau Bay, Texas. I grew up on the same 25 acre ranch my mom was raised on. 30 minutes outside of Houston, 20 minutes from the Gulf of Mexico, and 10 minutes from the Johnson NASA Space Center where my grandparents were instrumental in the Apollo and space shuttle programs. My grandfather was an Oklahoma farm boy that crossed the Mississippi in a covered wagon who ended up putting men on the moon. My grandmother came from New England and was breaking ground in the country’s fledgling space program when she fell in love with a cowboy rocket scientist and brought my mom into the world. Unfortunately they died when my mom was in college. I wish I could have met them.

My dad grew up in a sleepy suburb outside Portland, Oregon. His mother was an eccentric, loving, and strong-willed woman. It was her grandfather, Aleksander Justice, that I’m named after. A wolgadeutsche immigrant, he moved to America to start a new life for himself and his family. My grandmother was harshly old-fashioned to say the least, but she loved me and my sister with all her heart and was in our lives more than any other extended family member. Her passing a few years ago wrecked me more than I thought it would.

My father’s father was an orphan adopted and raised by his Uncle. As an angsty youth he enlisted in the navy to avoid jail time, served as a frogman in Vietnam, worked as a motorcycle cop for decades to support three kids, helped raise my cousin after my aunt got divorced, and was a volunteer firefighter and loving grandfather and great grandfather when he passed a couple years back. He was and will always be the prime example of the man I judge myself against. I miss him a lot.

- Beans and Cornbread -

My parents met in college and were soon after married and the proud parent’s of a baby boy. My dad was serving in the navy when both I and then my sister, Erin, were born. After his tour of duty my parents moved to the property in Texas that was left to my mom and my uncle. Despite being crazy young, dirt poor, and perhaps in retrospect being wildly unprepared to raise a family, my parents managed to keep us fed and clothed and sheltered. Most importantly they instilled in us the values and morals I still hold dear. Treat others with kindness. Be grateful for what you have. Work hard, try your best, and never give up no matter what life throws at you. In some ways I’m grateful for my modest upbringing and the appreciation it gave me for the little things in life.

Even though my friends lived in nice suburbs while I lived in a run down ranch house, even though they had nintendos and nerf guns while I had cheap plastic toys, even though we ate on a shoe string budget and couldn’t go on fancy vacations, even through the emotional trauma of it all, I still look back on my childhood fondly. I am eternally grateful for those years. Wandering around the pasture. Erin and I letting our imaginations run wild. Going to cub scouts every week. Making our own fun roaming around the church after hours while our mom was there to do whatever she was there to do. My parents scraping every penny to make holidays and birthdays special. I wouldn’t trade all the dinners of beans and cornbread for anything else. I’ll always be a humble country boy at heart.

- Misty Mountain Hop -

Three months after my 11th birthday we packed up the house, loaded the moving truck, and drove half way across the country to start a new life in Washington. My dad had been unemployed for a while and ended up finding a job with the boy scouts in Everett. It would give our family a modicum of economic security and put us closer to my dad’s family in Oregon. It was a jolting transition to say the least. Shortly after we moved puberty hit like a ton of bricks. My early childhood was firmly left in Texas and my teenage years made their angsty debut in Washington.

We moved into a quiet suburb 30 minutes north of Seattle and for the first time our family had a level of comfort we had never had. We could afford name brand cereal! But simultaneously my father’s anger issues were coming to a boiling point. Also my sister and I were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. It was a very tumultuous time. My defense mechanism was to retreat, and I became terribly introverted and detached, retreating into music and video games. My sister went the opposite direction and became a loud, boisterous spit-fire, finding herself at home in the world of theater. I think we both already had the predilections for these respective personality traits, but the dissonance in the family only exaggerated them.

After a few years we moved into another house around the block. It was around this time that my father’s temper finally became too much and he started seeking help to work through some things. It took some time but I can’t stress enough how much of a different person he was after that. Night and day. I was in high school at this point and it was also around this time that I started to become disillusioned with the status quo of society. The modern school system seemed pointless, I started smoking weed, and music became the end all be all of my existence. It still is. Music is life! I dropped out of high school and decided to live the life I wanted to live.

Throughout my teenage years I played in different bands, experimented with all kinds of drugs, met and broke up with my first true love, entered the work force, and started the slow painful transition from adolescence to adulthood. It was a wild time! While part of me wishes I had stuck out high school, I have never regretted the choices I made. I saw that so much of the reality around me was a construct of our culture and I sought to push the boundaries of that reality. And I’m glad I did. I learned lessons the hard way, on my terms. I saw past so many lies and illusions and fallacies of how we’re expected to live our lives and perceive the world. I created my own world of truths and morals instead of blindly accepting the ones being pushed on me. It was an incredibly eye-opening and freeing time in my life and I credit those experiences for a lot of the wisdom and knowledge that I’ve absorbed.

*Disclaimer: I am grateful that I came out of that time in my life relatively unscathed. I know/knew many people that couldn’t claim themselves so lucky. It takes an incredibly strong will to toe the line and step back without going over the edge. Even though I wouldn’t change a moment of it, I wouldn’t recommend the life I led to anyone.

- Retreat and Rebirth -

After the last band I was in during those days broke up, our collective friend groups started to dissipate. As the realities of adult life started to pull from different directions most people rose to the occasion. I did not. Burnt out from the crazy ride and being overwhelmed by life I retreated to a world of isolation. A little solitude is healthy. I consider myself an outgoing introvert (A term a like a lot). But I took it too far. Unemployed for three years. Letting many friendships dwindle and slip away. Spending my days doing nothing but smoking weed and playing video games. It was unhealthy and I didn’t know how to change. Then the universe decided it was time. Just after my 22nd birthday I finally cut ties with a very close but deceptively toxic friend. After smoking half a pack a day since I was 16 I decided to quit. And I decided to take a break from smoking weed. Then to top it all off my childhood dog that I had had for 14 years died. To this day that remains the most transformational time in my life.

I spent that spring and summer reconnecting with myself and what was important in life. Taking care of my diabetes. Eating healthier. Gardening. I leaned into making mixtapes like never before. It is still my main hobby. Musica es vida! I had what I can only describe as a spiritual awaking. Come fall I was smoking weed again but with a renewed respect for the plant. I had a job doing something I had unexpectedly developed a passion for, cooking. And I found myself coming out of my social isolation. It was like I ended a three year hiatus from the world. I still think of my life in terms of before that time and after.

Then three years after I hit the reset button on life I was ready for another change. I was 25 and the inexorable march of time wasn’t stopping. So I finally moved out of my parent’s house. No shame! Science says that adolescence in modern humans lasts into our early twenties. And I was definitely still weening out of my teenage years at that age and was lucky to have such amazing supportive parents. It wasn’t until 24/25 that the existential dread of life started to set in and I thought, shit I gotta get outta here. December 2012, the apocalypse didn’t happen, and I moved in with my sister in downtown Seattle. She herself had spent the last few years overcoming her own traumas and wrestling with her own demons, and she helped me step even further outside my comfort zone into the greater world. I am so grateful for the two years we got to live together as fledgling adults.

- She Saved Me -

Just shy of a year living among the sights and sounds of the city, I found myself falling into a dangerous rut. I had been at the same job for three years. Commuting between the suburbs and downtown. Six years since my last relationship. Not much of a social life. And finding escape from the dull routine at the bottom of a bottle. Get up. Go to work. Come home. Get drunk and high and play video games or watch tv. Rinse, repeat. I suddenly found myself back where I was. And again I didn’t know how to break the cycle. Then I met the one person that would change my life in ways I never could have expected. The one person that would rock my world, wake me up to the true possibilities of existence, and become the one person that I could truly never live without.

One fall day I walk into work to see a new face. Olivia was her name. Damn she’s cute, I thought. And I quickly became enamored with her personality. But it would take 6 months of quietly pining for her before I had the courage to try my hand. Then on a fateful day in May we spent a whole day together. Then a whole week together. Then the summer that would change my life forever. We fell madly in love. I stopped drinking like a horse. My heart was opened to another for the first time in many many years. My mind was awakened by a mind I so closely related to. My body was refreshed by the passion I had been so long without. It was another rebirth of the soul, the kind that shook me to my very core. I had almost resigned myself to being alone forever, working a dead end job and drinking the nights away. Then she saved me. She remains my best friend, my rock, and my favorite person in the whole world.

- My Place -

Invigorated and encouraged, I found a new job. A slight step up in the culinary sense. Challenging yet rewarding. Olivia moved in with us. Then a few months later we got our own place in north Seattle. Shortly after we got a pupper. It was an incredible time. Feeling truly independent and self-supportive for the first time. Developing an amazing relationship with the person that I quickly realized I could spent the rest of my life with. This was the first time in my life I could attest to feeling the slightest bit like an adult. Of course I had realized long ago that you never really feel like an adult. You don’t just wake up one day like a switch was flipped and go, oh I’ve got it now. Life is a constant journey of growth and learning. We’re all just faking it till we make it.

But this was the first time in my life where I felt like, ah okay this is it, this is life, this is being an adult. Waking up every day, doing your best to navigate life, and constantly trying to figure out what it means to be you, what's important to you. Then life set up to deliver another wave of challenges to overcome. It was around this time that my family experienced a huge upheaval. We almost lost someone very close to us and it rattled me to my core. Then my boss was involved in a car accident and as his assistant I was suddenly interim kitchen manager. A couple months later the owner was impressed enough to make it official and I toke my first salaried job.

I relished the opportunity and strove to run that kitchen the absolute best I could. I went above and beyond. I poured everything I had into it. I learned so much about the restaurant game, management, cooking, and above all about myself. It was an intense period of personal growth. At the same I was coming into my own as a leader and a cook, I was also dealing with multiple family tragedies. And as much as I loved the work, the restaurant, and the owners, the stress of the job started taking its toll. Salary is a double edged sword in any industry, but especially in food service. If you know you know. I was doing my best to soldier on but I got to a point where enough was enough. I had come into some money and decided to take some time off. I left on good terms and will never forget the lessons I learned and the people I met.

- Intermission -

I had just turned 30. I had spent the last two years running myself ragged as the kitchen manager of a bustling Seattle restaurant. I put my blood, sweat and tears into that place. It was time for a break. I invested most of the money I inherited, and then set enough aside to to take some time to live life again. I rested. I remembered how to not be anxious every waking moment. Olivia and I went on a cross country road trip to see the national parks and visit my home town in Texas. I proposed. She said yes! It was so incredibly cathartic and needed. I am still grateful I had the opportunity to take the time I needed to reset.

Later that year it was time to go back to work. I ended up back at the little place in the burbs where I started my journey. I was happy to take the lessons I learned and come back as kitchen manager. It was just what I needed to ease back into the industry. The perfect place to put into practice my new found appreciation for work life balance. Meant to be a temporary step, as soon as I did all I was able to do to help them right the ship, it was time to move on. My father in law put me in touch with the chef he worked with and he brought me on board. It was a significant step up in the culinary scene, and I’ve been tapped to take over for the sous chef.

- And Now For Something Completely Different -

Now here I am. 32 years old. That mythical age I held in random esteem when I was a kid. Looking back on my life and thinking about what I’ve learned along the way. Even though I still struggle with my less savory qualities - I fear change and the unknown. I’m scared of success. I suffer from impostor syndrome and doubt my own strengths. I avoid confrontation. - I’m working on it. For the most part I love who I am. I’m proud of the person I’ve become. But it took a time. And work. I made peace with childhood traumas. I fought through pain, did some serious introspection and soul-searching, and came out the other side a better person for it. I looked inside myself to find the strength to overcome my demons. I think it’s inside all of us. Some people attribute it to a higher power. Some people find peace and comfort in the company of others. Whatever it takes, we’re all capable of making changes for the better.

If there is one thing life has taught me it’s that we are never done learning. We never stop growing. We never “figure it out”. We’re constantly being tested by the realities of life and doing our best to rise to the occasion. At 32 I may be an adult by most standards, but I’m still sorting out what that even means, what my purpose in life is, and waking up every day just trying to be the best me I can be. That’s life. And I’m grateful for the safety and security that gives me the luxury of musing on such ephemeral topics. I’m grateful for every day I wake up and get another whack at this crazy thing called living. I’m grateful I got to exist at all. I don’t spend much time these days waxing on the countless possibilities of the what’s and why’s of reality. At the end of day it’s a mute point. My consciousness still inhabits this physical body in this physical realm, and if I wanna keep seeing how far I can take it I have to play by its rules. Even if I occasionally see how far I can bend them. Whatever comes next, whatever is beyond the great void, my reality exists in the here and now. I’ve come to terms (for the most part;) with my mortality and the existential dread. It reminds me that its up to myself to find purpose in life. So I try to live in the present, to work on my shortcomings, make the best of every day, and treat others how I would want to be treated.

As I stare down the barrel of the “best years” of my life, I am hopeful and optimistic about the future. If not for the world at large (jury’s still out on that one) than at least for my ability to navigate it and make the best of it for myself and others. I'm engaged to my best friend, I'm in a kick ass band making music with some of my oldest friends, and I've got a job that I'm incredibly excited about. Lao Tzu said, “If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future.” Wise words. But at the same time I think its important to remember where we came from and retain the lessons we’ve learned along the way. As well as looking to the future so that we may live with purpose. I think living is a delicate balance of keeping in mind all that was, all that is, and all that may be. And we’re all just doing our best to find the balance. Do whatever makes you happy as long as it doesn’t hurt others. Try to leave the world a better place for those that come after. Be nice and work hard. Love yourself so that you can love others. Namaste!

- Alek

TL;DR - I just turned 32. Life is crazy. Be nice and work hard. Love yourself and love others. Do your best. Namaste!

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trickstercaptain-archive · 6 years ago

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𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑹𝑨𝑪𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑺𝑯𝑬𝑬𝑻

repost, don’t reblog !

𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐬 !

FULL NAME. Jack Sparrow PRONUNCIATION. Sparrow. Not Sparra, or however Salazar decides to pronounce it that particular day. NICKNAME. Jackie, but you can only use that if your name is Edward Teague. GENDER. Cis male. HEIGHT. 5′10″ AGE. Default is 38. ZODIAC. Leo. SPOKEN LANGUAGES. English, Spanish, French, Latin, Mandarin and several others that he picked up while travelling the world.

𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 !

HAIR COLOR. Brown/black. EYE COLOR. Dark brown. SKIN TONE. Tanned. BODY TYPE. Wiry and lean. ACCENT. Somewhere between Estuary English and Cockney. VOICE. Deep, smooth and silky. DOMINANT HAND. Right, but he’s somewhat ambidextrous. POSTURE. Confident, with squared shoulders and open gestures ( he would normally rest his hands on his hips than cross his arms ). SCARS. A cut in his right eyebrow and bullet wounds on the right hand side of his chest that left scars, burns along his left arm that he never had skin grafted, a brand on his right wrist. TATTOOS. The sparrow tattoo on his right forearm, the Desiderata poem tattooed onto his back. BIRTHMARKS. None that are particularly noteworthy. MOST NOTICEABLE FEATURE(S). The cheekbones.

𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝 !

PLACE OF BIRTH. London, England. HOMETOWN. London. BIRTH WEIGHT. Around 5 pounds -- like in canon, he was born a little prematurely. BIRTH HEIGHT. Around 19 inches. MANNER OF BIRTH. Natural. FIRST WORDS. Oh it was definitely mama or mummy or something along those lines. SIBLINGS. None as far as “canon” is concerned, but he has a younger sister Isobel in an AU. PARENTS. Edward Teague and Maria Sparrow. PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT. Well, his mother was very involved in Jack’s early life up until her death when he was seven, particularly as she homeschooled him as well as being the dominant parent. Teague was always distant, but that only got worse after Maria’s death -- Jack effectively had to fend for himself after that point, although loosely speaking was provided for in the sense that he was enrolled at school, had a house to live in and food to eat -- although he had to learn to cook himself. So he learned all of those adult ‘survival’ skills at a pretty young age.

𝐚𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 !

OCCUPATION. Con Artist. CURRENT RESIDENCE. Primarily London. But depending on the timeline he’s lived in Europe, Singapore, the Caribbean and the US. CLOSE FRIENDS. Joshamee Gibbs is Jack’s best friend and flatmate in modern verse, and is pretty much the only steady presence in his life. He’s also close to Robby Greene during his childhood and adolescence, and the two do reunite later in his adult life. RELATIONSHIP STATUS. I generally write Jack as unattached, but I do have arcs where he’s in committed relationships. FINANCIAL STATUS. He’s neither poor nor rich; grifting people earns him enough to make a living and fund his expensive sailing hobby, but not to live in luxury or completely without money trouble. DRIVER’S LICENSE. Yup. The moment he turned 17 he started taking lessons. CRIMINAL RECORD. He was ordered community service in his youth for his involvement in Christophe’s criminal activity, although he’s spared prison because he was the one who brought the man to justice in the first place. He’s also had some near misses in his adult life, but Jack is careful enough not to be caught. VICES. Alcohol is probably his constant vice, although it’s more of a symptom that arises from his emotional damage, insecurity and fear of abandonment.

𝐬𝐞𝐱 & 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 !

SEXUAL ORIENTATION. Bisexual. ROMANTIC ORIENTATION. Demiromantic. PREFERRED EMOTIONAL ROLE. submissive | dominant | switch ( he does try to emotionally take care of his partners but he’s much better at being taken care of lmao ) PREFERRED SEXUAL ROLE. submissive | dominant | switch LIBIDO. High. TURN ONS. Intelligence. That’s the big one. You need to be able to keep up with him, and you also have to be able to challenge him. Jack doesn’t want someone who blindly follows or agrees with him, so strong personalities are definitely a major appeal for him. Danger and dominant/possessive behaviour is also a turn on, anyone who has shipped with me knows that lmao. TURN OFFS. Stupidity, ignorance, being too possessive or controlling, cruelty. LOVE LANGUAGE. Touch. He’s terrible at words and telling people that he cares, so you have to be able to pick up on his non-verbal signs of affection. He’s essentially a touch-starved puppy. RELATIONSHIP TENDENCIES. Jack isn’t the dominant personality in a relationship at all, he’s much more likely to let his partner take the lead, which I guess could be misconstrued as disinterest if you didn’t know any better, but he’s always seeking validation and approval from his partners so that manifests itself in a bit of people pleasing. But if he genuinely cares, you couldn’t really ask for a more loyal partner.

𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐬 !

CHARACTER’S THEME SONG. It’s so much more difficult to pick one for modern, but this has always been one of my favourite songs to associate with him, regardless of verse. HOBBIES TO PASS TIME. Sailing is the major one in modern. Jack is good enough that he can and does compete professionally as well as purely for leisure, and it’s genuinely one of the few passions in his life. Music is another one: Jack can play the guitar and a little piano as well, and collects records and other musical memorabilia in his flat. He also enjoys swimming, card games ( including playing poker, roulette and other casino games ), sleight of hand and amateur magic tricks, learning languages and reading. MENTAL ILLNESSES. PTSD and depression, although neither are ever diagnosed because Jack would resist any kind of counselling or therapy for what he’s been through. PHYSICAL ILLNESSES. None. LEFT OR RIGHT BRAINED. Can I say both? Jack probably leans more towards right-brained though. PHOBIAS. He doesn’t really have any phobias, but things that he’s afraid of include not being good enough, failure, abandonment and fire. SELF CONFIDENCE LEVEL. Heartbreakingly poor tbh. Jack has an ego and he comes off as very confident and cocky, but it’s all just a shield to hide some deep insecurities of his. Not so much to do with appearance -- Jack is vain and knows that he’s attractive -- but it’s his fear of not being good enough that creates this grand facade that he hides behind. So you can flatter the ego and Jack will absolutely lap it up, but if you genuinely pay him a compliment, he’ll have no idea how to react. VULNERABILITIES. Jack likes to think that he’s completely invulnerable, but I think his vulnerability comes across more strongly than he thinks. Physically speaking, he’s on the smaller side so he can quite easily be outmatched, but also despite his claims to the contrary, he still has a bit of a blind spot when it comes to judging character and letting the wrong people in.

TAGGED BY: @murroyilodel <33 TAGGING: @cptwhizbang, @thecodekeeper, @aglaecan ( pick whoever you’d like! ), @iniziare, @peaceinourrtime, @traumaturgic, @timelessoldier, @talktoten & anyone else who would like to do this!

#;what fire does not destroy it hardens ( about jack. )#*dash meme #v; make sure you can walk away in a second #this took me like three days lmfao

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left-where-nothings-right · 7 years ago

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THE DEATH OF JAMES BULGER BY THE HANDS OF ROBERT THOMPSON AND JON VENABLES LADY VARYS James Patrick Bulger (16 March 1990 – 12 February 1993) was a boy from Kirkby,Merseyside, England, who was murdered on 12 February 1993, at the age of two. He was abducted, tortured and murdered by two ten-year-old boys, Robert Thompson (born 23 August 1982) and Jon Venables (born 13 August 1982).Bulger was led away from the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootlewhilst his mother was distracted. His mutilated body was found on a railway line two-and-a-half miles (4 km) away in Walton, Liverpool, two days after his murder. Thompson and Venables were charged on 20 February 1993 with Bulger's abduction and murder. They were found guilty on 24 November 1993, making them the youngest convicted murderers in modern English history. They were sentenced to custody until they reached adulthood, initially until the age of 18, and were released under new identities and on alifelong licence in June 2001. In 2010, Venables was sent to prison for violating the terms of his licence of release, and was released on parole again in 2013. CCTV surveillance from the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle taken on Friday 12 February 1993 showed Thompson and Venables casually observing children, apparently selecting a target. The boys were playing truant from school, which they did regularly. Throughout the day, Thompson and Venables were seen stealing various items including sweets, a troll doll, some batteries and a can of blue paint, some of which were later found at the murder scene. One of the boys later revealed that they were planning to find a child to abduct, lead him to the busy road alongside the mall, and push him into the path of oncoming traffic. That same afternoon, James Bulger (often called "Jamie" by the press, although never by his family), from nearby Kirkby, went with his mother Denise to the New Strand Shopping Centre. While inside the A.R. Tym's butcher's shop on the lower floor of the centre at around 3:40 p.m., Denise, who had been temporarily distracted, realised that her son had disappeared. Thompson and Venables approached him before taking him by the hand and leading him out of the shopping centre. This moment was captured on a CCTV camera recording timestamped at 15:42. The boys took Bulger on a meandering 2.5-mile (4 km) walk across Liverpool to theLeeds and Liverpool Canal where he was dropped on his head and suffered injuries to his face. The boys joked about pushing Bulger into the canal. During the walk across Liverpool, the boys were seen by 38 people. Bulger had a bump on his forehead and was crying, but most bystanders did nothing to intervene, assuming that he was a younger brother. Two people challenged the older boys, but they claimed that Bulger was a younger brother or that he was lost and they were taking him to the local police station. At one point, the boys took Bulger into a pet shop, from which they were ejected. Eventually the boys arrived in the village of Walton, and with Walton Lane police station across the road facing them, they hesitated and led Bulger up a steep bank to a railway line near the disused Walton & Anfield railway station, close to Anfield Cemetery, where they began torturing him. At the trial it was established that at this location, one of the boys threw blue Humbrolmodelling paint, which they had shoplifted earlier, into Bulger's left eye. They kicked and stomped on him, and threw bricks and stones at him. Batteries were placed in Bulger's mouth. Police believed some batteries may have been inserted into his anus, although none were found there. Finally, a 22-pound (10.0 kg) iron bar, described in court as a railway fishplate, was dropped on him. Bulger suffered tenskull fractures as a result of the iron bar striking his head. Dr. Alan Williams, the case'spathologist, stated that Bulger suffered so many injuries—42 in total—that none could be isolated as the fatal blow. Police suspected that there was a sexual element to the crime, since Bulger's shoes, socks, trousers and underpants had been removed. The pathologist's report read out in court stated that Bulger's foreskin had been forcibly retracted. When questioned about this aspect of the attack by detectives and the child psychiatrist, Dr. Eileen Vizard, Thompson and Venables were reluctant to give details; they also denied inserting some of the batteries into Bulger's anus. At his eventual parole, Venables's psychiatrist until he was aged 21, Dr. Susan Bailey, reported that "visiting and revisiting the issue with Jon as a child, and now as an adolescent, he gives no account of any sexual element to the offence." Before they left him, the boys laid Bulger across the railway tracks and weighted his head down with rubble, in the hope that a train would hit him and make his death appear to be an accident. After Bulger's killers left the scene, his body was cut in half by a train. Bulger's severed body was discovered two days later on 14 February. A forensic pathologist testified that he had died before he was struck by the train. The family of one boy, who was detained for questioning but subsequently released, had to flee the city due to threats by vigilantes. The breakthrough came when a woman, on seeing slightly enhanced images of the two boys on national television, recognised Venables, who she knew had played truant with Thompson that day. She contacted police and the boys were arrested. The fact that the suspects were so young came as a shock to investigating officers, headed by Detective Superintendent Albert Kirby, of Merseyside Police. Early press reports and police statements had referred to Bulger being seen with "two youths" (suggesting that the killers were teenagers), the ages of the boys being difficult to ascertain from the images captured by CCTV. Forensic tests confirmed that both boys had the same blue paint on their clothing as found on Bulger's body. Both had blood on their shoes; the blood on Thompson's shoe was matched to Bulger's through DNA tests. A pattern of bruising on Bulger's right cheek matched the features of the upper part of a shoe worn by Thompson; a paint mark in the toecap of one of Venables's shoes indicated he must have used "some force" when he kicked Bulger. The boys were each charged with the murder of James Bulger on 20 February 1993, and appeared at South Sefton Youth Court on 22 February 1993, when they were remanded in custody to await trial. In the aftermath of their arrest, and throughout the media accounts of their trial, the boys were referred to as 'Child A' (Thompson) and 'Child B' (Venables). While awaiting trial, they were held in the secure units where they would eventually be sentenced to be detained indefinitely. The full trial opened at Preston Crown Courton 1 November 1993, conducted as an adult trial with the accused in the dock away from their parents, and the judge and court officials in legal regalia. The boys denied the charges of murder, abduction and attempted abduction brought against them. The attempted abduction charge related to an incident at the New Strand Shopping Centre earlier on 12 February 1993, the day of Bulger's death. Thompson and Venables had attempted to lead away another two-year-old boy, but had been prevented by the boy's mother. Each boy sat in view of the court on raised chairs (so they could see out of the dock designed for adults) accompanied by two social workers. Although they were separated from their parents, they were within touching distance when their families attended the trial. News stories reported the demeanour of the defendants. These aspects were later criticised by the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in 1999 that they had not received a fair trial by being tried in public in an adult court. At the trial, the lead prosecution counselRichard Henriques QC successfully rebutted the principle of doli incapax, which presumes that young children cannot be held legally responsible for their actions. Thompson and Venables were considered by the court to be capable of "mischievous discretion", meaning an ability to act with criminal intent as they were mature enough to understand that they were doing something seriously wrong. The child psychiatrist Dr. Eileen Vizard, who interviewed Thompson before the trial, was asked in court whether he would know the difference between right and wrong, that it was wrong to take a young child away from his mother, and that it was wrong to cause injury to a child. Vizard replied, "If the issue is on the balance of probabilities, I think I can answer with certainty". Vizard also said that Thompson was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after the attack on Bulger. Dr. Susan Bailey, the Home Officeforensic psychiatrist who interviewed Venables, said unequivocally that he knew the difference between right and wrong. Thompson and Venables did not speak during the trial, and the case against them was based to a large extent on the more than 20 hours of tape-recorded police interviews with the boys, which were played back in court.Thompson was considered to have taken the leading role in the abduction process, though it was Venables who had apparently initiated the idea of taking Bulger to the railway line. Venables would later describe how Bulger seemed to "like" him, holding his hand and allowing him to pick him up on the meandering journey to the scene of his eventual death. The prosecution admitted a number of exhibits during the trial, including a box of 27 bricks, a blood-stained stone, Bulger's underpants, and the rusty iron bar described as a railway fishplate. The pathologist spent 33 minutes outlining the injuries sustained by Bulger; many of those to his legs had been inflicted after he was stripped from the waist down. Brain damage was extensive and included a haemorrhage. The two boys, by then aged 11, were found guilty of Bulger's murder at the Preston court on 24 November 1993, becoming the youngest convicted murderers of the 20th century. The judge, Mr. Justice Morland, told Thompson and Venables that they had committed a crime of "unparalleled evil and barbarity... In my judgment, your conduct was both cunning and very wicked." Morland sentenced them to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure, with a recommendation that they should be kept in custody for "very, very many years to come", recommending a minimum term of eight years. At the close of the trial, the judge lifted reporting restrictions and allowed the names of the killers to be released, saying "I did this because the public interest overrode the interest of the defendants... There was a need for an informed public debate on crimes committed by young children." Sir David Omand later criticised this decision and outlined the difficulties created by it in his 2010 review of the probation service's handling of the case. Laurence Lee, who was the solicitor of Venables during the trial, later declared that Thompson was one of the most frightening children he had seen. He compared Thompson to the pied piper

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degerbils · 6 years ago

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By Iliana Magra

Feb. 4, 2019

LONDON — Students in England already learn about mathematics, science and history, but hundreds of schools are preparing to expand the traditional curriculum with a new subject: mindfulness.

In up to 370 English schools, students will start to practice mindfulness as part of a study to improve youth mental health, the British government said on Monday.

They will work with mental health experts to learn relaxation techniques, breathing exercises and other methods to “help them regulate their emotions,” the government said in a news release announcing the program.

The goal of the program is to study which approaches work best for young people in a world of rapid change. The government said the study, which will run until 2021, is one of the largest of its kind in the world.

“As a society, we are much more open about our mental health than ever before, but the modern world has brought new pressures for children,” Damian Hinds, the British education secretary, said in a statement.

“Children will start to be introduced gradually to issues around mental health, well-being and happiness right from the start of primary school,” he added.

The initiative comes months after a survey commissioned by the National Health Service found that one in eight children in England between the ages of 5 and 19 suffered from at least one mental disorder at the time of their assessment in 2017.

The survey, which was published in November, also indicated a slight increase in mental disorders in five to 15-year-olds, which rose to 11.2 percent in 2017 from 9.7 percent in 1999. Disorders like anxiety and depression were the most common, affecting one in 12 children and early adolescents in 2017, and appeared more often in girls.

Imran Hussain, the director of policy and campaigns for Action for Children, a British charity, in the United Kingdom, called it a “children’s mental health crisis.”

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“Every day our front-line services see children and teenagers struggling to get to grips with how they fit into the increasingly complex modern world — contending with things like intense pressure at school, bullying or problems at home, all while being bombarded by social media,” he said in a statement on Monday.

He added: “Services like these can lessen the anxiety, pain and anguish that some teens go through, but also reduce their need for intensive support further down the line.”

But two Parliamentary committees have criticized the government reports on which the program is based, for focusing on handling emotional problems rather than preventing them. In a report released last May, the Education and Health and Social Care Committees wrote, “the Government’s strategy lacks ambition and will provide no help to the majority of those children who desperately need it,” while increasing the workload of teachers.

“The role of prevention appears to be a missing link in building better support for children and young people, especially in the early years,” the committees wrote. They found that social media and the schools’ system of high-pressure exams can have particularly negative effects on the mental health of young people.

But Dr. Jessica Deighton, an associate professor in child mental health and well-being at University College London who is leading the government trials, said that the new initiative was intended to offer more than quick fixes.

“There is a tendency to think that the solution is mental health intervention,” she said on Monday. “We will try to reduce the stigma against mental health problems, by making the school environment literate in mental health.”

She said the program included several tactics, including training teachers to hold role-playing exercises, teaching relaxation practices and inviting professionals for group discussions.

“It’s not just to make them feel better in the short-term,” Dr. Deighton said, “but to better equip them for later in life.”

#england #mental health #self care #education #children #youth

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biofunmy · 5 years ago

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Greta Thunberg Prepares to Set Sail for U.N. Climate Talks

PLYMOUTH, England — Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old climate activist, climbed nimbly aboard the Malizia II, the racing yacht that will set sail Wednesday afternoon whenever the wind is right and take her across the Atlantic to New York. The journey is expected to take two weeks. The sea is likely to be rough at times.

Ms. Thunberg is making this epic voyage because she has been invited to participate at the United Nations climate talks in September, and she refuses to fly because aviation has such an enormous carbon footprint.

And so, on a Tuesday morning, under gray skies, here she was, aboard a sleek racing machine that had made many journeys across the ocean, but never with a 16-year-old novice. The boat was fitted with solar panels to power its equipment. The conditions inside were spartan: There is no toilet nor much light in the cabin, so she will have to read by headlamp. In a particularly acute challenge for a teenager with more than 871,000 Twitter followers, she will not have much access to the internet.

Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter.

Ms. Thunberg has never done anything like this before. She said she was looking forward to being without the familiar luxuries, to “being so limited.” She acknowledged being a bit nervous. “Whether it’s seasickness or homesickness or just anxiety or I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know how tough this journey will be.”

Also, she said, she will really miss her two dogs.

She has packed many books (she is currently reading “Quiet,” a book about introverts, like her); eight writing journals, some partly filled; and boxes of freeze-dried vegan meals. (Ms. Thunberg stopped eating meat a few years ago, because of the emissions associated with animal protein.)

There is a satellite phone on board, so she plans to send some pictures and text messages from her voyage to friends who will upload them on her social media accounts. Going to the toilet will mean going to the back of the boat with a bucket. Her drinking water will come from a tiny desalination machine that treats seawater.

“By doing this it also shows how impossible it is today to live sustainable,” she said. “That, in order to travel with zero emissions, that we have to sail like this across the Atlantic Ocean.”

The epic journey of the Malizia II is the latest stage in an epic journey that Ms. Thunberg has been on for the last few years. As a child, doctors told her she had Asperger’s syndrome. In early adolescence she battled severe depression, so much so that she stopped eating for a while and stopped growing.

Recovery came slowly, and only after finding a sense of purpose. “I’ve had my fair share of depressions, alienation, anxiety and disorders,” she wrote in a recent Facebook post. “But without my diagnosis, I would never have started school striking. Because then I would have been like everyone else.”

Her weekly school strikes began in Stockholm, her hometown, a year ago. They sparked a global youth movement to demand climate action and then turned her into something of a modern-day Cassandra, a target of praise and pointed attacks. In March came a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, said he trusted young activists like her to “push societies to save our planet.” This week, Steve Milloy, a former member of the Trump transition team, described her on Twitter as “the ignorant teenage climate puppet.”

Ms. Thunberg on Tuesday shrugged off the attacks. “They are doing everything they can to switch the focus from the climate crisis to me,” she said. “That is what you have to expect when you talk about these things.”

Ms. Thunberg is taking the year off school. She is scheduled to attend the United Nations climate summit talks next month, speaking at a youth summit on Sept. 21 and then at the main meeting on Sept. 23. She also plans to travel to Chile for the next round of United Nations-sponsored climate talks in December.

Both meetings are to be attended by world leaders, all of whom have agreed, under the Paris Agreement, to keep global temperatures from rising to levels that would produce climate catastrophes. Still, global emissions continue to grow, and the world as a whole is not on track to meet the targets of the Paris Agreement.

“This is a big opportunity for those world leaders who say they’ve been listening to us to actually show that they’ve been listening to us, to actually prove that,” Ms. Thunberg said.

The voyage has drawn enormous media attention. Ms. Thunberg gave four face-to-face interviews Tuesday, spoke to other reporters on the phone in between, and greeted a few youth strikers who had come to Plymouth from elsewhere in Britain before heading into an emergency training session.

There were many handlers and helpers. And there was Greta swag. One woman moving chairs for her well-wishers wore a sweatshirt that hollered, “Be Like Greta.” Ms. Thunberg, for her part, wore a red hoodie and lilac sweatpants with a hole at the knee.

Boris Hermann, the 38-year-old German captain, said he had crossed the Atlantic many times. In fact, he has sailed around the world in this yacht, finding routes where the wind was in his back, steering it through rain and darkness. This trip, though, would be different. “I feel a special responsibility also because it’s an important trip for Greta and we promised to bring her over,” he said. “I admire her leadership.”

The captain said he would try to take a southerly route to the United States to avoid the strongest headwinds, to find what he called the “softest” variations. If the wind is calm, it could be smooth sailing and his passengers would be able to relax and read. Or, there could be gusts of wind and rain.

There are two beds for Ms. Thunberg and her father, Svante, who is accompanying her. The others on the voyage — Mr. Hermann, the skipper; Pierre Casiraghi, the head of the Malizia II racing team; and a documentary filmmaker named Nathan Grossman — plan to sleep on beanbags. The boat has a motor and generator in the event of an emergency. The slogan on the mainsail was chosen by Ms. Thunberg. “Unite Behind the Science,” it reads.

Ms. Thunberg will be close to Mr. Hermann’s age in 2040, which is when, scientists say, climate catastrophes could strike the world unless we move swiftly away from a fossil fuel based economy.

“I have no idea how the world is going to look,” she said. Either the world will have tackled the problem in time, she went on, or it will have crossed what scientists call “tipping points,” beyond which it’s impossible to return to normal weather patterns.

“I can’t really start planning my future,” she said.

That profound uncertainty animates the activism of many people of her generation. It explains, in large part, why she is taking this voyage across the ocean — and why, for the voyage, she wants to focus on the basics.

“My goal is to feel as good as possible during the trip,” she said

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thegloober · 6 years ago

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Teen ‘Boys Will Be Boys’: A Brief History

Over the past 12 days, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s actions as a high school and college student have been at the center of a public conversation.

As accusations of sexual misconduct and even assault mount against him, Trump surrogates such as Kellyanne Conway dismiss his actions are merely those of a “teenager.” The adult Kavanaugh cannot be held accountable, such logic goes, because these alleged acts were only youthful indiscretions of a 17- or 18-year-old.

What exactly do we mean by teenage behavior? And who gets to be this kind of teenager? These questions are central to the conversation.

In the United States, the teen years are frequently assumed to be a time of experimentation, risk-taking and rebellion. But this notion of adolescence as a phase of irresponsible behavior is a relatively new invention.

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The idea of adolescence: A history

It was only in the first decade of the 20th century that U.S. psychologists came up with the idea of a separate life phase called adolescence and began treating these years as an extension of childhood.

The term “adolescence” – emerging from the Latin word for youth, adulescence – had circulated in English since the Middle Ages, but modern psychologists carved it out as a chronologically specific phase during which a person prepared for adulthood while legally remaining a child. And, as my research shows, U.S. psychologists’ idea of adolescence took time to take root and traveled slowly to other parts of the world, even encountering resistance in places such as India.

In the U.S., compulsory schooling and age-based classrooms inaugurated in the 1870s laid the groundwork for imagining teen years as a sheltered phase. By the 1910s, educators came to a consensus that compulsory high school should extend until age 18. Before then, most men and women under that age could be, and were, expected to work, get married and even have children.

The most forceful explanation of adolescence as a distinct phase appeared in the work of G. Stanley Hall, founder of the American Journal of Psychology and the first president of the American Psychological Association. His 1904 “Adolescence” described a phase that spread out between the ages of 12 and 18, encompassing the breaking of voice and facial hair for boys and the first menstrual period and breast development for girls – and the emotional maturation following these physical developments.

While the end of childhood had been marked in many cultures with a rite of passage at puberty – such as the bar mitzvah or the quinceanera – he proposed that the emotional transition actually lasted longer and ended later.

Rebelliousness

Hall described adolescence as a period of rebelliousness and individualism. Rebelliousness, he believed, was a developmental requirement for the full flowering of self. He also expressed anxiety around how to manage boys’ sexual impulses during the teen years, devoting an entire chapter to the “dangers” of sexual development. More than any other psychologist, Hall contributed to the understanding of adolescence as a time of heightened storm and stress and emotional turbulence. His chosen constellation of features – rebelliousness, emotional turbulence, sexual recklessness – became the blueprint for analyzing and assessing the problems of young people.

But here’s the catch. Many of these early descriptions of adolescence were written for and about boys of the same social background as the author – white and middle-class. It was primarily such boys who could enjoy an extended childhood characterized by social and sexual experimentation. Lower-class boys and most black boys were expected to grow up earlier by entering the manual labor market and assuming responsibilities in their teens. A prolonged preparation for adulthood was actually available only to those with economic means.

Double standards

A similar double standard is echoed today in the way Kavanaugh’s supporters grant him leeway. Sympathetic accounts contextualize Kavanaugh’s behavior as part of boys’ culture at the elite institutions where he studied and just “rough horseplay.” This reaction is part of a social tendency to see wealthy white boys’ actions as innocently naughty, rather than dangerous. Black boys, on the other hand, routinely experience “adultification,” as historian Ann Ferguson called it – the assignment of adult motivations and ability. We do not need to look far for contemporary examples: Trayvon Martin, age 17, was stalked and killed by a vigilante neighbor who suspected he was a threat. Even 12-year-old Tamir Rice was killed because police officers thought he was a danger. And 17-year-old boys of color are regularly tried as adults and sent to prison.

What about adolescent girls?

Expectations for teenage behavior are also deeply gendered in the United States.

Innocently naughty behavior has historically been the prerogative of teenage boys rather than girls. Rebelliousness was frowned upon if girls – whether black or white – expressed it. Historian Crista DeLuzio goes so far as to depict much of the early writing on adolescence as “boyology.” Girls were simply not imagined, in psychologists’ work, to have the same entitlement to experimentation and innocent risk-taking.

This double standard continues to permeate U.S. culture. There is a telling relevant example from the U.S. college context: Sororities, unlike fraternities, are bound by a ban on alcohol by the National Panhellenic Conference.

Kavanaugh’s alleged actions as a teen under the influence of alcohol have not tainted his reputation as a judge for many on the political right. But Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez are pilloried by Donald Trump as unreliable because they were possibly drunk at age 15 and 18. Kavanaugh’s own views on teenage girls’ accountability are telling: In a controversial decision he offered as a federal judge, he called to delay a 17-year-old pregnant undocumented girl’s access to an abortion. Although he claimed it was because she was a minor and needed parental consent, his delay could have forced the 17-year-old into motherhood – an adult consequence.

Social expectations

Humans going through puberty certainly experience endocrine changes and neural growth. But our social expectations for behavior are what permit – and indeed elicit – specific types of acts, such as drunken unruliness. As psychologist Jeffrey Arnett notes, Hall’s ideas about adolescent storm and stress have been widely repudiated by subsequent generations of psychologists, even if some of the physiological changes he tracked are still considered accurate. And Crista de Luzio notes that in the 17th century, youth was experienced as a “relatively smooth” period in New England Puritan culture in contrast to Europe in the same era. Widespread youthful rebelliousness, she argues, corresponded more generally with social instability.

Ultimately, there is no necessary physiological reason for holding that unruly or rebellious behavior has to accompany endocrine changes in the teen years. Our uneven expectations about teenage behavior – condoning white wealthy boys’ actions but not those of girls or other boys – say more, then, about us than about teens themselves.

This article was originally published on The Conversation by Ashwini Tambe, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies at the University of Maryland. Read the original article.

Source: https://bloghyped.com/teen-boys-will-be-boys-a-brief-history/

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dwellordream · 3 years ago

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“In many ways the decisions regarding marriage and the choice of a marriage partner reflected the past experiences of couples: their family relations and interactions, their material fortunes or disadvantages, their divergent gendered roles, and the independence - in actions and habits of mind - they had already gained.

Given the important role of parents and kin in providing security and assistance at critical moments throughout adolescence and beyond, it is hardly surprising if parents interfered with, or tried to exert influence on, matters concerning the marriage of their children. This was of course true of the upper classes and some families of the middling classes, among whom there was considerable parental influence in the choice of marriage partner. But lower down the social scale parents also had a say, and their consent was considered essential to successful marriage.

…The social and economic standing of prospective spouses were important considerations in the choices people made regarding their marriages. Many recognised the benefit of a good marriage, and social patterns of marriage during this period show many endogamous unions: people tended to marry within their own ranks. This was a consequence partly of the values inculcated in children at an early age - especially among the upper and more prosperous social groups - but also of the experiences they encountered during many years of service and labour outside home.

…Among more prosperous groups, young men chose women from their own social milieu, even when their parents were deceased and they were relatively free to pursue their own tastes and inclinations. …The independence of mind and the social skills the young had obtained by their mid-twenties were also evident in most of these decisions on marriage. Gender-related roles diverged quite dramatically: while men became heads of households and owners of shops and land, women entered matrimony in a subservient status, and legally lost whatever financial independence they had obtained.

Nevertheless, the skills and independence of judgement they had acquired in many years of service and other work were indispensable, and ensured a certain cooperation and mutuality between spouses. Women entered marriage as 'true help-meets . . . both inwardly and outwardly,' as George Bewley put it. Many autobiographies also point out the love and affection that drew two people into married life, and the autonomy with which both made their choice. Gervase Disney, the son of a gentleman, was offered the opportunity to meet a potential future wife, but was also assured that he could choose to decline the offer.

Lower down the social scale the independence in choice of spouse was more marked. Edward Coxere, who expected and obtained the permission of all the adults concerned, approached his parents and those of his future wife only after the matter was 'confirmed between us both'. Other autobiographies suggest similar procedures.' Social skills can also be seen in the interaction of youngsters with their parents. Marriage cases dealt with by the ecclesiastical courts show that some children boldly confronted parents who opposed their choice of spouse, and even took legal action against them, although they often lost their cases.

Most people, however, used means and tactics other than the law, and these are bound to have been much more effective. The autobiographies give a glimpse of the intricate ways in which children put pressure on their parents to obtain their approval, and so make their marriage economically successful and socially legitimate. Caution in approaching parents and in preparing the ground during the long months of open courting which preceded the marriage, persuasion, arguments and discussions, and negotiations and manoeuvring based on long years of acquaintance with parental tastes and habits of mind, were all involved.

Phineas Pett met with resistance from his kindred, but being 'determined resolutely' to marry his chosen woman, was able to persuade them, admittedly 'with great difficulty'. He was then 28 years old and already quite competent in his craft as a shipwright. Elias Osborn's father was opposed to his intention to marry a widow's daughter, who lived nearby, because of her religious persuasions. 'But I believed, and so did not make haste, but would wait Times when he was in a loving Temper, and then speak to him again.' Soon after, Elias's father realised that his son was 'grounded' in his decision, and so he gave in.

Such tactics often met with considerable success, for by the time they were in their mid- and late twenties the relationship between children and their parents had been transformed. People who reached this age - and who for many years had earned their own living, relied on a wide range of social ties, dealt and negotiated with masters and other adults - were likely to use, with a degree of sophistication, a variety of means to counter or circumvent parental opinion and achieve cooperation. And while considerable moral and financial pressure could be exerted by parents, their adult offspring were at times no less likely to use similar pressures.

When he was about to marry, Edward Coxere took parental cooperation and assistance for granted, for, as he himself explained it, there were wages and monies he had sent them while he was still an apprentice.' By the time most people - men and women - married, they had already achieved a delicate balance of power with their parents, and simple obedience to parental dictates was unlikely to occur. Nor was such blind obedience always expected, even by adults.”

- Ilana Krausman Ben-Amos, “Rites of Passage: Transition to Adult Life.” in Adolescence and Youth in Early Modern England

#ilana krausman ben amos #adolescence and youth in early modern england #marriage #history #renaissance #elizabethan #jacobean #caroline era #restoration #georgian

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peteuplink-blog · 7 years ago

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Healthy Eating and How to Prevent Obesity

Obesity, also referred to as being overweight, is a social and health problem affecting many people across the world, especially in Europe. Being obese simply means having weight not medically accepted. Various studies show that obesity exposes people to the risk of contracting multiple diseases ranging from cancer to other serious infections. This serious condition usually comes as a result of high consumption of junk food. It is also associated with hereditary factors. The 21st Century has had many obese persons because most people consider sedentary lifestyles over exercise and practice. With such information, it is important to note that the adolescents between the age of 16 and 18 are the ones mostly affected due to their lifestyles.

1. Target Audience

1.1 Selected Target Audience

The major target of this study concerns the people who are from 16 to 18 years of age.

1.2 Reasons for Selecting This Target

The major reason for choosing this group of persons is because they have the highest risk of being affected by obesity. The teenagers have a busy lifestyle where they get involved in various activities. They value sedentary lifestyles; they play video games or watch movies. While they stay indoors during their free time, they ignore the events that would otherwise make them stay fit.

Many adults having born in 21st century engage in indoors activities for longer hours without any exercise. The advice of doing exercises should be taken with seriousness in order to handle obesity; so that the budget of treating diseases associated with being overweight is minimized. The body of a human being is influenced by the type of food consumed, and fat content increases the chances of obesity and diabetes. Encouraging children to lead healthy lifestyle will help them not only in their health but also will improve their self-esteem.

The selected target audience is individuals between the age of 16 and 18. They are selected because according to the Department of Health, in England, 61.9% of the adults and 28% of the children are obese, hence, have a higher risk of getting fatal diseases like diabetes type 2, heart diseases and also certain cancers. Department of Health also states that Health problems associated with obesity cost the government more than £5 billion annually.

Most adults in modern times engage in indoor activities for long hours with no exercise. Consumption of excess fats leads to high hormonal production which affects the way cells work in the body. The fats are released in the bloodstream, so when the chemicals meet the blood it causes cancer. Also, the presence of the fat in the belly affects the functionality of the kidney.

1.3 Reference Study

Research done by Lifestyles Statistics Team, Health and Social Care Information Centre is a good example of the information concerning the obesity issues related to the people living in the United Kingdom, especially the youth. This group of youths – 16 to 18 years of age – have the potential of being healthy and ensuring that they maintain their health until they grow old. The early stages of life require high exercise and practices which ensure the body keeps fit and free from infections.

1.4 Origin of the Research

Research done by Health and Social Care Information Centre supports healthy eating by stating the higher risk of health problem in individuals age 16-18 if they are not eating healthy food. The research is focused on the obesity statistics from the 1990s until 2015. The description in the research proves that indeed obesity is a challenge that should be handled as an urgent issue. The matter has been prevalent over the 21st century, and this can be explained by the choices made towards nutrition, health and sports.

2. Health Promotion Setting

2.1 Health Promotion Setting

The health promotion event would take place in City of Wolverhampton College where these adults age 16 to 18 years old studies. It is a proven fact that the best results in nutrition education have always achieved when information on food / nutrition has been offered within the formal education provided by the group leader teaching itself, without forgetting the possible complementary interventions of other professionals or other parallel nutritional programs that reinforce the teacher's action.

2.2 Actual Implementation

If I was to undertake this health promotion package in real life, it would have been carried out in City of Wolverhampton College.

2.3 Using the Health Promotion Package

The health promotion setting that is utilized in this case is a health awareness program where there are nutritional brochures that contain information regarding the health benefits of balanced diet. The avoidance of junk foods should also be taken into considerations. Steph Garside Beattie’s approach on health information ensures that health is not only viewed in medical approach but can also be analysed through social and cultural issues that have a wide scope. The mode of enlightening the youths in this group is through organizing seminars which discusses the benefits of eating healthy foods and also explaining the effects of poor eating lifestyles.

2.4 Reason for This Setting

Targeting the youths between the ages of 16 to 18 helps in making them understand that eating healthy such as balanced diet and avoiding junk foodstuffs will always help them remain healthy all their lives, as they have the opportunity of reducing the risks of getting health infections that are associated to nutritional habits. Through the change of lifestyle, the teenagers will also be flexible by interacting with their peers during training, ensuring that they also improve on their self-confidence. Enlightening the teenagers concerning this matter will be able to help them understand the types of foods to eat and different predisposing concerns and therefore make good decisions. They will always read the nutritional information in the labels put on the foodstuffs they purchase.

3. The Model and Approach Utilized

3.1 Educational Approach

The chosen approach to health promotion is educational approach. The promotion of healthy eating through nutrition is an effective strategy. Adolescence is the period where they settle many life habits to be followed into adulthood. It would be necessary to consider behavioural changes in individuals who begin to have a high degree of self-determination both in nutrition and in the type of activities they perform. It is essential to teach people about content in order to develop a range of skills.

It is necessary to publicize the role of the different food groups in our body/ It is necessary to report on the health hazards of current nutrition departs from dietary balance (excessively rich diets in calories, fat, diets "miracle") as well as the combination of some with sedentary lifestyles that cause the most common diseases in the developed world (cardiovascular disease).

3.2 Why I Chose This Approach

The approach was selected because reviewing the behaviour of the youth especially of this age is important, because it helps make some choices regarding their health. According to Triggs, the main advice on behavioural change is avoiding the urge to do shopping when a person is hungry. At this stage, the person has a longing for food, and most of the fast foods sold at the supermarket are junk. Therefore, this step will ensure a person reduces the risk of being tempted to purchase these items. In addition, Triggs (1984) had an objective for persons to maintain a healthy lifestyle through a healthy diet program.

The individuals in this stage consume junk foods such as pizzas, crisps and French Fries while they still prefer to sit back at home and play games. The change of behaviour is therefore required, and this will not be spontaneous or instant. It is a change that is intentional, where the people perpetually focus on healthy behaviour, including going for exercises such as running, playing games like soccer and rugby. That is not enough, avoiding junk food will be important in maintaining their health and also development.

4. Model of Health Promotion

The model used for health promotion in this situation is the Beattie model. This model focuses on the four approaches including individual, authoritarian, collective and negotiated. The authoritarian and collective dimensions ensure that there is legislation, policy making and health surveillance towards the obesity issues. The discussion should revolve around the importance of the laws regulating the way health matters should be handled.

4.1 Reason for Choosing the Approach

However, the main reason for selecting this approach is because of the argument between individual and this includes counselling, education and group work. The focus of intervention is also through lobbying, action research, sharing of skills and training and also the community development. The health concern in this case – obesity – is very crucial in the community and therefore the target audience will be advised on how they can maintain their action on better health statuses. The youths have to be encouraged in form of health persuasion to focus on how they view the health issue in their own perspective.

5. Project Evaluation

The evaluation of the project will be conducted after meeting the target audience. This can be effected by ensuring that individuals in this group are asked concerning the benefits they have achieved through the discussion. This analysis is done through a feedback questionnaire which would later be analysed to fully understand their feelings.

6. Teamwork and Team Role

Tuckman came up with a theory that described the process of teamwork and team roles. In the four step analysis, the theory focused on how a team is created until it fully performs its tasks. The first process is forming, which is the process where the team members are excited about the success that lies ahead without looking at how it will be achieved. This stage is important when discussing the issue of obesity through teamwork. This is the point where the leader takes control of the whole process.

The second process is about storming, where the members of the team are getting more information concerning their roles. At this stage, most of them want the process to be done their way, causing conflicts. In dealing with the youth, the leader has to be keen on the roles given to these people when tackling obesity. The third stage, norming, is important in handling teamwork on obesity. At this stage, the youths in the group have already known each other’s strengths and weaknesses and therefore they are serious in handling the roles. The leader should discuss the terms and responsibilities, hence the youths should be cautious. Obesity requires proper attention while discussing the remedies for the nutritional challenge. The fourth stage is performing. At this stage, the leader will only give directives concerning the methodologies of handling obesity among the youth.

Another theory that describes the importance of team roles is described by Belbin. According to him, team roles were assigned to persons after realizing their strengths, weaknesses and abilities concerning that goal (1993). From that discussion, it is important to conduct an assessment of the willingness to change behaviour concerning junk foods so that the team roles are given to persons who cannot give in to temptations about the items.

Conclusion

In summary, obesity is a critical and controversial issue in various countries across the world. However, the issue is even adverse in the United Kingdom, where the persons have sedentary lifestyles affecting their weight issues. The youths have the highest risk, especially when they play more indoor games, such as video games. This study focuses on the youths between the ages of 16 to 18. With such a group, the approaches used in helping the youths in avoiding obesity include educating and behavioural change. Through the awareness creation, children will be able to live a healthy life full of exercises.

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recentanimenews · 7 years ago

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The Wonderful World of Fantasy: Uncovering The Ancient Magus Bride and Diana Wynne Jones (Part 2)

Welcome back to the Wonderful Worlds of Fantasy! In Part One, we talked about how Diana Wynne Jones and The Ancient Magus’ Bride mangaka Kore Yamazaki are similar in the way they construct their fantasies and tie together the power of magic with themes of adolescence. Today, we’ll be discussing about how these two fantastic authors make their female protagonists work, and whether their works are low or high fantasy!

Agency, Youth, and the Female Protagonist

One of the most immediate similarities between many of Jones' works and The Ancient Magus’ Bride is how they both feature a young protagonist. For fantasy stories, this is not an uncommon element, as it’s necessary to create a stand-in character to let readers empathize with their experiences and conditions. This holds true especially in stories aimed at younger audiences. In the case of Magus’ Bride, the main protagonist is a quiet girl, Chise, introverted due to circumstances and just starting to learn more about herself and the world around her. Emotionally stunted and harassed by unnerving monsters and humans on a regular basis, she's a perfect choice for a coming of age story.

Jones' most notable work, Howl's Moving Castle, features a similar young female protagonist. Early on in the book, Sophie Hatter is cursed with appearing as an old woman after angering a witch. Lacking in self confidence and always looking down on herself, Sophie starts out as an anxious character. But as she moves on in her journey and regains confidence in herself, the magic begins to wane and Sophie appears younger and younger. By the end of the story, she's able to break the curse and regain her natural appearance. Katherine from Dogsbody is also similar, in that she has no self confidence and only gains the courage and inner strength through her journey with Sirius to overcome the bullying in her household and properly endure the grief that comes with parting with people you love. Chise falls more in line with the characters of Dogsbody – like Katherine, she too has suffered an intense dose of trauma and loneliness, to the point where she is willing to give up her own agency because she no longer has any desire to live. Her journey with Elias – of coming to terms not only with Elias' almost non-existent sense of humanity, but also her own self worth and abilities – is the underlying power behind The Ancient Magus’ Bride and its tight connection with the audience.

Why a girl like Chise though?

“When I write a book, it seems useful to extend the group to include both sexes, so that both girls and boys can enjoy it, but I do not find I can completely ignore the one-sex nature of the games in the wood. Oddly enough, this means that if I want a neutral character, not particularly girlish or boyish, I would have to use a boy. A neutral girl would strike most girl readers as a tomboy. Otherwise, it is obvious that all other characters in a fantasy ought to be very real and clear and individual, and to interact profoundly – real, colorful people, behaving as people do.” - Diana Wynne Jones, The Children in the Wood

“The Ancient Magus' Bride started out targeting the female audience more, but it has readers of all age groups and all genders.” - Kore Yamazaki, “Meet the Woman Behind Ancient Magus Bride”

Jones consistently balances the portrayal of her protagonists across her works. Some feature girls, some feature boys, but nearly all of them are young in age and at heart. Both her and Yamazaki are careful to portray characters that are a gateway into the worlds they create, but are not restrictive based on gender. Chise is a girl, but her traits and characteristics are not defined as feminine or masculine – rather, they are representative of the experiences she's faced and the result of who she is. She personally reminds me most of Polly Whittacker from Jones’ Fire and Hemlock: stubborn yet simple, and always fighting against the constant impulse to give in to self-destructive emotions as she steps closer toward acceptance and loving herself.

“I do find, myself, that the Hero, the protagonist, is the story. This is not to say that the other people in it are of no importance. Before I can write about anyone, I have to consider them as my close personal friends, even the Baddies.” - Diana Wynne Jones, Heroes

Is The Ancient Magus' Bride High Fantasy or Low Fantasy?

High fantasy is often defined as a subgenre of fantasy that contains epic elements. Some examples of this would be J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice, or Beowulf. It includes high stakes, grand levels of political warfare, and voyaging through many landscapes, usually due to a prophecy or quest the main character has to complete. While Diana Wynne Jones studied high fantasy extensively, most of her works are what we consider to be low fantasy – where fantasy is a component of reality and not reality itself. Jones found that low fantasy better served the kind of themes and worlds she was trying to design: accessible landscapes that didn’t require intense exposition.

Yamazaki seems to do the same in The Ancient Magus’ Bride, in a subgenre known as urban fantasy. The series takes place in the modern world and in an international setting; Chise is originally from Japan, but her adventures with Elias take her as far as places like England and Iceland. In a low fantasy, it’s easier for Yamazaki to immerse us in recognizable settings, twisted or manipulated by wondrous elements beyond our imagination. But she also makes mundane the fabulous, and in doing so, the magic of the series becomes a background for the powerful and accessible decisions that drive many of the forces in the story.

Why is this so important, though? How does this create a different experience from that of Harry Potter facing dragons or evil wizards? The main difference is challenging fictional conventions. By playing upon our standard definitions of what we consider normal, both Yamazaki and Jones recontextualize “normalcy” itself. Take for example, the comfort of a home, or the warmth of a loved one. In a normal world, these are things we take for granted, but both creators twist our expectations of the standard and turn them into places of unfamiliarity and horror. What turns out to be a helping hand of a doctor turns out to be a horrible experiment gone wrong, manipulating kindness and love into something far more insidious. In Howl’s Moving Castle, what is originally presented as a whimsical castle turns out to be a far more complicated and powerful setting that hides dark secrets.

This ties in with the biggest element of low fantasy: metaphor. In Jones’ and Yamazaki’s works, the main characters are continuously introduced to the wonders of fantasy, only for them to contextualize it within their knowledge of mundanity. By preserving both sides, the creators open a gateway into their worlds, but also create accessible and relatable metaphors that both the main characters and audience can understand. Chise’s inherent traits of being a Slay Beggar stem from her birth and circumstances, but they also serve as a metaphor for her lack of self respect and will to survive.

And this is where the metaphor ends, and the journey of fantasy begins again, with us. It’s in the imaginative minds of Yamazaki and Jones, in the open-ended answers they bestow upon us, but lastly, in the audience, in ourselves – what we take away from the wonderful worlds these creators have given us. It’s been sometime since I’ve read a book, but recently I’ve picked up Philip Pullman’s A Book of Dust. I’ve found myself diving into its pages, absorbing every word and every detail with a renewed appreciation for the fantastical and the wild. Maybe after I’m done I’ll dive again into Jones’ stories, wander in her prose, get lost in her worlds. Who knows what magic I’ll find this time? It’ll be my own personal fantastical quest, filled with a scenery I’ve never seen before: the wondrous, and the mundane.

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When not finding ways to doom all her ships, Natasha can often be found on her twitter as @illegenes, or writing more about anime on the blog Isn’t It Electrifying! Feel free to swing by and say hi.

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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christinaepilzauthor-blog · 7 years ago

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The True Will Shakespeare

by Linda Fetterly Root

A comparison of the three earliest portraits, compiled by Stratford Brice from Public Domain Art- Wikimedia

The faces of William Shakespeare The three earliest portraits of Will Shakespeare are compared above. The first two were likely painted while he lived and the third was used when his first Folio was published. All three portraits are ante-dated by the sculpted image at Shakespeare's burial site in Trinity Church, shown below. A Man of Natural Talent or a Ghostwriter? I realize there are otherwise credible people who deny the Holocaust, the moon landing, the existence of the historical Jesus, and the assassination of JFK by Lee Harvey Oswald. Most of them are motivated by a political point-of-view compatible with their belief structure. I find no such justification for questioning the contribution to world literature by a guy named William Shakespeare. This does not mean other writers might not have contributed to his works. But does anyone claim Jim Henson did not create the Muppets simply because a second inventive genius named Frank Oz was involved? In treating the question, it would be disingenuous of me to claim the insight of the many distinguished thinkers who have raised the point: Freud, Samuel Clemons, and Helen Keller, to name a few, but their acknowledge genius does not make them right. Some of the disclaimers are based on mathematical analysis of word use and structure, others on principles of linguistics or the viewpoints expressed in the plays. Mine is simplistic and based on what we do know about Shakespeare, and what I know about the nature of writers.

Shakespeare was real

Those disclaiming Shakespeare's authorship of his many plays do not go so far as to claim there was no such person as William Shakespeare, the young man from Stratford-on-Avon. There is no question a merchant named John Shakespeare and his wealthy wife Mary Arden gave birth to a son named William, who was baptized by that name on April 26, 1564, at Trinity Church in Stratford-on-Avon. The custom of the times would suggest the ceremony occurred approximately three days after birth, which is why April 23rd is accepted as Shakespeare's birthday. Below is the record of John Shakespeare's son William's baptism.

While some doubters stress the paucity of information about Shakespeare's early years to question the authenticity of his achievements, that is not the case when one factors in the profile of his father. John Shakespeare was politically active at the rural level, with ties to Midland England's aristocratic families including the Catesbys and probably the Treshams and Vauxes. At one time he was the Bailiff of Stratford—in modern terms, its mayor, a position unlikely to have been awarded to a highly visible recusant.

The restored family home on Henley Street, Stratford-on-Avon

At the time of Shakespeare's birth, his father was probably what was called a closet Catholic—those who gave the outward appearance of embracing Anglicanism, but embraced the auld religion in the privacy of the home. His wife Mary Arden was Protestant and came from a wealthy family. She gave birth to eight children, five of whom survived into adulthood. William Shakespeare probably attended the parish school in Stratford, which kept no surviving records. Some writers presume he was home schooled, but that is unlikely. While there was no compulsory education in early modern England, there were penalties imposed for homeschooling to avoid the curricula of parish churches, and until 1762, it was against the law for Catholics to teach. In addition, the prevailing evidence indicates both of his parents were illiterate. That single fact has been used to attack Shakespeare's authorship of the large body of literature published in his name, but it confuses literacy with intellect. Literate or not, Shakespeare's father was a civic leader. Snitterfield, the village where John Shakespeare grew to adulthood, had no parish school, but Stratford did. In all accounts, John Shakespeare was a successful designer/fabricator of leather gloves and headgear, with more than an average dose of entrepreneurship. He did, however, suffer an economic set-back possibly associated with his association with his Catholic leanings, or because his real estate investments were lucrative, but his other money lending was not, and at one point he had been charged and fined for usury. He became reclusive and ceased attending counsel meetings. Some writers state he was rehabilitated before his death, but by that time, his son William had acquired considerable wealth and influence, and may have been responsible for his father being granted a Coat of Arms which Shakespeare himself later used.

Sketch of the Schoolhouse at Stratford (PD Art)

Shakespeare was influenced by historical and religious events, consistent with themes expressed in his poetry and plays John Shakespeare and William Catesby, father of the leader of the Gunpowder conspirators, were both dignitaries in their separate Midland communities and were friends. On one occasion, both appeared on the same list of those who had been fined by the Protestant church hierarchy for missing mandatory services. Both families had ties to the nascent Jesuit mission to England launched by the priests Edmund Campion and his Jesuit superior, Fr. Robert Persons. Shortly after their arrival, the priests traveled to the Midlands, a hotbed of recusancy and Counter-Reformation sentiment. Father Campion likely stayed in the Catesby home, a mere 18 miles from Stratford-on-Avon. Persons is believed to have stayed with the Shakespeares.[1] There is evidence the two Jesuits distributed copies of a document to the recusants who harbored them. It was designed to be used as a model Spiritual Will and constituted a declaration of its testator's abiding Catholic Faith. A handwritten copy signed by John Shakespeare and believed to be, for the most part, genuine was found in the rafters of one of William Shakespeare's houses in 1757, although the first two provisions were likely forged by the man named Jordan who discovered them. Unfortunately, the entire document was later lost. Only it's translation survives.[2] Some historians use the materials concerning John Shakespeare as proof his famous son William knew the later martyred and Canonized Edmund Campion personally, but while it is possible, it is speculative. Shakespeare would have been a child at the time. What is apparent is Shakespeare's youthful exposure to the English Catholic cause and thought which surely shaped his works. During his career, Shakespeare demonstrated the ability to treat issues in a provocative manner nevertheless inoffensive to his sovereign.

The lack of record does not mean Shakespeare was uneducated

One argument against Shakespeare as the likely author of his plays is a lack of education, a highly Charlatan point of view fed by its companion argument raising the lack of historical record of his youth. Each argument feeds the other, and neither considers what I consider to be a highly salient fact: in Shakespeare's day, a Catholic education was illegal. It is likely that a child born of a recusant family might be overlooked in a rural schoolhouse, but those who advanced to England's few universities were vetted and culled. This does not mean there were no highly educated Elizabethan Catholics, but those who were had been educated abroad. The prime mover of the Gunpowder plot, Robert Catesby, attended nearby Oxford but dropped out rather than sign the Oath of Supremacy demanded of university graduates. Had Shakespeare been sent to Oxford, he would have faced the same obstacle. As stated above, homeschooling was a criminal offense. Also, Shakespeare's parents did not have the expertise to teach, but once the Jesuits appeared in the Midlands during Shakespeare's early adolescence, it would not have been that difficult to place an educated priest or layman tutor in the home under the guise of a footman or a stablemaster. Before his father's financial problems arose, the Shakespeare household could have afforded one. Other Midlanders such as the female recusant Eliza Roper, the Dowager Lady Vaux, held her own when interrogated by men like Lord Robert Cecil and his henchman Coke when suspected of harboring the much-sought-after Hunted Priest [3]John Gerard, and survived to establish a clandestine Jesuit boys' school at the family estate at Great Harrowden .There is evidence the Wizard Earl of Northumberland intended to establish a similar school in the courtyard at Warkworth Castle. We cannot eliminate Will Shakespeare and the author of plays like Lear simply because he did not make his way to Oxford. Nor would he have been ignorant of the dramatic form. Not only were plays written in Latin, a part of the grammar school curriculum at parish schools like the one in Stratford, but during Shakespeare's youth, aldermen issued licenses to more than twenty traveling theatrical companies [4] . And while It is tempting to confuse the terms educated and smart, even in modern times, such assumptions invite mistake. Think of John Steinbeck packing his duffel and leaving Stanford. Ben Franklin was homeschooled, and Ben Affleck dropped out of both the University of Vermont and Occidental College. Ever hear of a guy named Bill Gates? Frank Lloyd Wright? No one accuses self-taught Abraham Lincoln of having hired a ghostwriter to draft the Gettysburg address[5]. Look at your own life and think about gifted people you have encountered and ask yourself how many of them did not acquire their genius in a classroom.

What about William Shakespeare's early history?

From the china cabinet of Linda Root, photo by the author

To illustrate the weakness of the argument of those who find insufficient evidence of Shakespeare's potential because of the lack of documents from his youth, I entered the name of the most famous of my grammar school classmates into several search engines, and did not find enough information to distinguish him from others of the same name, although he has served as head of a federal financial entity. Next, I tried the same with the most successful graduate of my high school class and was overwhelmed by posting and videos, but none which dated back to his youth and early successes and failures. Why should we demand more of William Shakespeare than we do of Ron Rosenfeld or Dan Spinazzola? With Shakespeare, images of his birthplace, the site of his christening, and the houses of his mother, Mary Arden and his wife, Anne Hathaway can be found in the dinnerware in my credenza. We know William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway and they raised three children in Stratford-on-Avon, where his family remained when he moved to London. Details as to how he amassed his moderate fortune are sketchy, but hardly to the point to justify labeling his life as a husband and father living in rural England as 'Lost Years.' While there are several plausible stories as to what might have lured Shakespeare into the theater, and thus, to London, all of them are speculative. The fact, however, is he went, and by the time he arrived, he already had a reputation as an actor and fledgling playwright sufficiently widespread for a presumably jealous colleague, successful and prolific author Robert Greene, to call him an 'upstart crow'.[6] ,[7] What Greene did not call him was a plagiarizer. Robert Greene was not a fan of his youthful rival. He wrote his contemporary dramatists and begged them to put the upstart in his place. He may have thought Shakespeare's early works borrowed heavily on extant histories, but he never accused Shakespeare of putting his name to works penned by colleagues. The informative book, The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization, vol 13, ed. Alfred Bates, London, Historical Publishing Company, 1906, pp. 104-107 makes a compelling case for Shakespeare's authorship of his plays by referring to Robert Greene's acerbic criticism, written shortly before Greene's death in 1592 in critiques approaching the polemic. In The Drama, Bates make the following point concerning Shakespeare's productivity during the years prior to the bard's arrival in London only a year before his detractor's death:

'Even in his wrath, however, Greene bears eloquent witness to Shakespeare's diligence, ability and success, both as actor and playwright. Of Shakespeare's amazing industry, and also of his success, there is ample evidence. Within six or seven years he not only produced the brilliant, reflective and descriptive poems of Venus and Adonis and Lucrece but at least fifteen of his dramas, including tragedies, comedies and historical plays'.

In conclusion, an argument I find compelling is based on my experience as a writer and a former prosecutor: Shakespeare's contemporaries most often propounded as the true authors of his plays never raised their claim. Those of us who write or perform are a prideful lot. We also have acquired the gift of access to a public audience: in essence, we have Voice. Would Ben Johnson, Francis Bacon and Christopher Marlowe, all of whom have been nominated as the true Will Shakespeare have remained silent when their colleague from Stratford-on -Avon claimed their masterworks? Never.

Christopher Marloew

Sir Francis Bacon

Ben Johnson

The Stratford Bust, possibly taken from a death mask.

References: [1] Pearce, Joseph, The Quest for Shakespeare, Ignatius Press, 2008. [2] Roth, Steve, Hamlet: The Undiscovered Country, Open House, 2 edition (December 23, 2013)3. [3]Gerard, John. S.J., The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest (Translated from the Latin by Philip Caraman, S.J., Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1952 [4] Wikipedia, 'Shakespeare's Life: The Lost Years' [5] See https://despicablewonderfulyou.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/brilliant-minds-and-great-people-not-necessarily-with-a-college-degree/ [6] Robert Greene, Wikimedia, Shakespeare's Life: The Lord years, and ` http://www.theatrehistory.com The Drama; Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization: British drama – Alfred Bates, James Penny Boyd, John Porter Lamberton [7] Bates, et al, Ibid.

~~~~~~~~~~ Linda Fetterly Root is a writer of historical fiction set in Marie Stuart's Scotland and Early Modern Britain. She is a retired major crimes prosecutor living in the Morongo Basin area of the Southern California hi-desert, on the edge of Joshua Tree National Park. She is a member of the Marie Stuart Society, the Historical Novel Society, and the Bars of California and the United States Supreme Court. William Shakespeare appears briefly in her current work-in-progress, The Deliverance of the Lamb, based upon the escape from England of flamboyant Jesuit John Gerard.

Hat Tip To: English Historical Fiction Authors

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dwellordream · 3 years ago

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“...Everyday diversions occurred most frequently around the house, and often at the nearest ale-house, a place where many servants and apprentices, both male and female, congregated to pass the time in drinking, playing cards, talking, and just 'being merry,' as Roger Lowe referred to it. Lowe spent a great deal of his time with friends and neighbours at ale-houses, drinking, playing and talking. During the month of September 1663, for example, he mentioned in his diary going to the ale-house seven times, mostly on weekdays, but once also on a Sunday, from noon on. Lowe was a devoted Presbyterian who also spent a great deal of his time at prayer and religious meetings, so his experience may underestimate the frequency with which other youngsters attended the local ale-house.

Some holidays and other days in the year were also specifically associated with young people and with servants. Shrovetide and its customs of games, contests and cockfights, May Day with its maypoles, games and revels, were primarily festivals for unmarried young people, and they attracted many youths in both towns and countryside. In Gloucestershire in 1610, a maypole was set up at the parish church of Bisley, with piping and dancing by the 'youth of the parish'. Hiring fairs, especially from the late seventeenth century on, were occasions for the diversion and recreation of farm servants, who spent the day drinking, racing and dancing.

There was a variety of competitive, sometimes dangerous, games and sports in which the young men could display their physical prowess and masculinity: football and other ball games, skittles, archery, throwing the sledge, and cudgel and sword play. There are indications of customs involving coronation of lords of misrule: for example the young men who invaded the parish church in 1535 with pipes and minstrels, preparing to choose a lord of misrule to preside over the Christmas holidays.

There were also, on occasion, initiation rites involved in becoming journeymen, perhaps apprentices, too. Some types of popular literature, especially romance and heroic stories and ballads, catered mostly for the young; and small, cheap 'merry' books - with jests, old tales, sometimes with woodcuts and pictures - were bought by 'young men laughing', 'maides smiling' and 'pretty lasses feeling in their bosomes for odde parcells of mony wrapt in clouts'.

Dancing, organised in the open space, the barn or the ale-house, attracted mostly the young. Patrick Collinson has shown that if there was one youthful activity which aroused the particular anxiety of moralists it was dancing, 'the vilest vice of all’. Compared with adults, young unmarried people were likely to spend more time in these types of diversion and recreation. William Lilly remembered that during the spring of 1624, dozens of boys would congregate near the house of his master in London, 'some playing, others as if in serious discourse' from about five or six o'clock in the afternoon and until 'it grew dark'.

Young people had fewer responsibilities than adults, and once they finished their daily routine of work, in the fields or in shops, they spent their time in leisure, play and talk. Urban apprentices were especially notorious for their habits of drinking, playing dice and cards, and gambling; Gervase Disney described how on Sundays he and other companions, all London apprentices, spent time in 'walking from place to place for pleasure'. Such leisurely excursions could continue throughout the night, as is suggested by ordinances of Bristol's merchant adventurers who forbade their apprentices to walk abroad late at night.

…Youths walking in the streets late at night, sitting in the front of shops during the days, walking in the fields, drinking at the ale-house, chatting, joking, perhaps engaging in some forms of cruising or loitering were a normal part of the urban and rural scene. As one disapproving contemporary summarised it: 'many lazy losels and luskish youths both in towns and villages. . . do nothing all the day long but walk the streets, sit upon the stalls, and frequent taverns and alehouse.’ Youths were also more liable to become unemployed. In between periods of an annual service, when their service contract was broken, when they were dismissed and left service and were unable to find a new master, some youths returned home and worked on an irregular basis, or failed altogether to find some form of work or service arrangement.

…Nevertheless, the cohesiveness of these forms was undermined by other, no less powerful, forces, and such cultural forms were an integral part of broader patterns of recreation and culture shared by youths and adults. The streets, the fields, the marketplaces and fairs, even the ale-houses, were seldom monopolised by the young. The ale-house catered for the young, but along with them came the craftsmen, the labourers, and other married men, young and middle-aged. Within the alehouse, youths sometimes congregated, but they also intermingled with married men, and at times with their own masters. The small numbers of people who attended the local ale-house on a single evening made the interaction of generations almost inevitable.

…Even dancing was often a community affair from which the middle-aged and the old were not wholly excluded. Sometimes dancing was an event designed specifically for farm servants, milkmaids and domestic servants from several villages in the area. But more often, organised dancing took place as part of festivities in which the whole community took part: parochial ales, which still flourished in some places, fairs, weddings, and a host of other celebrations. Midsummer celebrations frequently included feasting, singing and racing, as well as organised dancing, and harvest dinners and feasts could include masques and masquerading, as well as dancing.

On these occasions older people were generally spectators, but sometimes they participated as well. Even May Day dancing was not an event organised exclusively for or by the young. Richard Baxter, a keen observer of 'youthful' follies and young people's predilection for sin, noted how in his Shropshire village 'all the town did meet together' under a maypole, spending a great deal of their day in 'dancing'. His description of the event evokes the strong sense of a community event in which the ages intermingled; the piper, he recalled, was one of his father's tenants, probably an adult.”

- Ilana Krausman Ben-Amos, “Spirituality, Leisure, Sexuality: Was There a Youth Culture?” in Adolescence and Youth in Early Modern England

#apprentices #servants #history #renaissance #elizabethan #jacobean #caroline era #restoration #georgian #ilana krausman ben amos #adolescence and youth in early modern england

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dwellordream · 3 years ago

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“In the course of their teens, most young people gained a range of skills through working as annual servants, seasonal servants and labourers. Annual servants were normally hired to do the least seasonable tasks, mostly in animal husbandry - shepherding, carting - but also ploughing. So the agricultural servants hired between the years 1702 and 1711 by Nicholas Blundell, a landowner in Lancashire, worked as dairy maids, plough-drivers, cowmen and shepherds. When hired as servants for short periods, young people did such seasonal jobs as mowing; and when employed as daily labourers, they did a wide range of mainly seasonal jobs: weeding, threshing, planting and gathering, haymaking, hedging and ditching.

The range of skills required in these employments was diverse, demanding physical strength as well as manual skill, some agricultural knowledge and understanding, and a great deal of responsibility. Some jobs, like threshing, were relatively simple and were done indoors, but they still required skill in handling tools, and the work itself was monotonous and straining. To properly use the flail, for example, took some time to learn. Ploughing required strength, skill in directing the animals properly, in repairing, sharpening and taking care of the plough, and in horse-keeping.

Mowing, shepherding, cattle-herding, hedging and ditching each required its own range of skills. The long-handled scythe demanded both stature and the expertise to swing the scythe in steady movements so as to leave the corn in the least possible disorder. On some large estates, skilled mowers were brought from farther afield, and there were yeomen and gentlemen who were ready to look for good mowers 15 miles and more away.

Some tasks involved in annual service were quite specialised and demanded daily attendance of animals: watering and foddering cattle and horses several times a day, making sure animals were well and safely tied, keeping them in good condition, detecting ailments, applying cures and medications, setting broken legs or bones, bathing and oiling wounds properly. Shepherding entailed a great deal of responsibility in going great distances, making sure no sheep were lost, and guarding the sheep against other animals.

It was lonely work, and demanded independence and endurance; a shepherd had to protect the sheep in winter snows, assist the ewes in lambing, change damaged fold hurdles, wash, grease, and do the dusty and itchy work of shearing. In the late nineteenth century the older shepherd was still considered one of the most skilled and independent persons in a village community.

…Other evidence shows that some time between 16 and 18 years old, young people would have been recruited to do all the jobs done by mature men and women. Adolescents of 13 or 14 were already employed in carting and harrowing, but in haymaking and shearing their productivity was still considered only half that of adults; 'two of us at 13 or 14 being equal to one man shearer,' as William Stout recalled. By mid-teens, however, adolescents could already be considered 'three-quarter-men', as they were referred to in nineteenth-century Suffolk. A description of harvest work at that late date suggests the types of skill adolescents could acquire as they grew up in earlier centuries as well. At 10 and 12 years old, boys and girls assisted only in bringing the food to the fields and in tying the sheaves.

Then they turned 'lads', adolescents between 12 and 17, who began with lighter jobs, such as carting, and by about 16 years old were already considered 'three-quarter-men', doing all the jobs the 'full men' did except lifting the sheaves from the ground to the wagon, the heaviest job of all. A year or two later they were no longer considered 'lads'. Ploughing, too, was normally mastered at 16 or 17 years of age. As we have seen, some adolescents could plough alone by their mid-teens.

A year or two later, having worked as servants, they acquired a great deal of experience in driving two- and four-horse teams properly, and could obtain the reputation of being 'a good plowman', and a 'happen ladder, as Henry Best referred to them. Their wages could then rise substantially. Some time in their late teens servants also learnt to sow and mow, as well as hedge and ditch. In early eighteenth-century Westmorland the magistrates made a distinction between 'inferior servants only fit for husbandry', and older more experienced servants who could 'mow and reap corn, hold the plough, hedge and ditch.

…There must also have been variations depending on the size of agricultural holdings and the responsibilities demanded in them. Large landowners and prosperous graziers had hundreds of cattle and sheep and specialised in products such as mutton and beef for a wide market. On such estates, shepherding involved largescale marketing and management, and the job was given to adults rather than to younger servants. The shepherds of Nathaniel Bacon in Stiffkey, Norfolk, were four mature married men.

Yet on medium-sized and small holdings of husbandmen, clergymen, and rural craftsmen or traders, young unmarried servants could be hired as shepherds, and they were then given charge of small flocks of sheep on their own. In addition to the husbandman or craftsman and his wife, such holdings could include a servant in husbandry, one maidservant in charge of the dairy, and another servant-shepherd.

…Wage assessments from the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries also show that female servants systematically received only a fraction of the wages earned by men. But these divisions were not always rigid. Some young women, for instance, participated in reaping during the harvest in places where the sickle rather than the scythe was used. …Many young women were hired as haymakers, and although the jobs they did differed from those of adolescent males, they still acquired a range of invaluable skills. On the Stiffkey estate, women did not mow or cart, but they participated in weeding, haymaking, shearing, and tying sheaves, planting, picking and gathering.

Domestic servants were also sometimes employed in the hardest and more skilled agricultural tasks. When William Stout's father died, in 1680, his mother hired a female servant to do the hardest house service, and to harrow, hay and shear during the harvest. Women servants did specialised work involving poultry and cows; like their male counterparts, unmarried dairymaids must have gained a great deal of understanding and some responsibilities in animal husbandry.”

- Ilana Krausman Ben-Amos, “The Mobility of Rural Youth.” in Adolescence and Youth in Early Modern England

#renaissance #servants #farming #shepherds #history #georgian #adolescence and youth in early modern england #jacobean #caroline era #restoration #ilana krausman ben amos

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