#hopepunk

[hope-for-the-planet]

From the article:

A hole that opens annually in the ozone layer over Earth’s southern pole was relatively small in 2024 compared to other years. Scientists with NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) project the ozone layer could fully recover by 2066. During the peak of ozone depletion season from September 7 through October 13, the 2024 area of the ozone hole ranked the seventh smallest since recovery began in 1992, when the Montreal Protocol, a landmark international agreement to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals, began to take effect.

There's a reason you don't hear about the hole in the ozone layer much anymore--it's been on the mend since the global community banned ozone-depleting chemicals in 1992. Remember that it is possible for the world to come together to solve large scale environmental problems.

[im-a-loaf]

@ghostertoasted

i love seeing best friends goofing around in public. i love seeing couples laughing together. i love seeing little kids walking hand in hand with their parents. i love seeing dogs running happily back to their owners. i love seeing closeness and positive relationships, and knowing all that love is out there

[hopepunk-humanity]

I found a kitten in the snow last Saturday, and found out that not only is he not microchipped but also my landlord is going to fix our lease so I can legally keep him and I am so happy he’s such a sweetheart things get better ahhhhhh

No one can tell me the world is doomed to be cruel when so many things had to come together to produce this happiness, both for you and your kitty. May he have a long, warm life, and his days in the snow be a distant memory.

[reasonsforhope]

If the world wasn't a dystopia when half of all people died before the age of 15 (aka all of human history until the past 250 years x, x), it's definitely not a dystopia now

[ivebeensetonfire]

[im-a-loaf]

@ghostertoasted yes i'm scrolling through a hopepunk blog. how did you notice

thinking about when i was small, how my mom told me that pipe cleaners were just a tool until people started idly shaping things with them and it grew so popular that they were marketed as crafting materials. and that story about how the original frisbees were disposable pie plates that students flattened to throw. and how when i was a child i had a wooden mancala set with shiny, colorful stones, but on invention it was played with rocks and grooves dug into the dirt. and middle school, paper football and tic-tac-toe and mash and mad libs, games that just need pen and paper. and before that, games of pretend with pirates and princes and masked marauders. how at slumber parties after lights out, we used to whisper storytelling games, i say one sentence and you say the next. and shadow puppets. and the way all the kids in the neighborhood used to divide into teams and throw fallen pine cones at one another. and the floor is lava game, and the quiet game, and the games i play with my coworkers that are just words and retention. and "put a finger down" on the high school bus. and little girls clapping together, and how the first jump-rope was undoubtedly just a length of rope who knows how long ago, and how natural it is to play, how we seek play at every age and with any resources we have and with whatever time we can squeeze it into in a day. i'm not an anthropologist or a psychologist but i think after food and shelter and water and air what comes next is games and stories and laughter. i think that there is nothing -- not sex or fighting or forming unlikely bonds with animals -- there is nothing more human than to play.

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Have a little good news to start the week. One little butterfly may not seem like a big deal, but every species we manage to save means better biodiversity and a healthier ecosystem overall. Moreover, there is something profound in knowing that you've helped to protect a unique evolutionary lineage that has fluttered on for thousands of years, and which once lost would be gone forever.

I know the world can feel overwhelming at times, with extinctions happening at a much higher rate than normal, ecosystems worldwide in peril, and headlines focusing primarily on the negative. But remember that there are also so, so many people working every day--right now, in fact--to protect these most precious, wonderful beings and their homes that we share this planet with. The above story is just one of thousands, most of which never hit the news cycle, but which are still having a positive impact quietly, behind the scenes.

I think it's an important thing to remember in these days. I know this particular Gandalf quote only came from the Hobbit movies, not the book, but I still think it's appropriate here: "It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love." And what else motivates someone to save a tiny butterfly, but an intense love for the natural world?

[opabiniasarecool]

Remember kids: one of the punkest things you can do right now is to look out for your neighbors and make sure they are safe

[im-a-loaf]

@ghostertoasted

To The People I Pass On The Train At Night - Jordan Bolton

My first book ‘Blue Sky Through the Window of a Moving Car’ is now available to pre-order! Get it here - https://smarturl.it/BlueSky

[all-the-reasons-why]

Reason 73: Breathing. In, out. Remembering that you're alive, you're alive, you're alive. Remembering how amazing that simple fact is.

[glitter-bomb-disaster]

i admire you gerard way

[neuroticboyfriend]

you are not the problem. you are facing problems. this society has problems. life should not be this hard, and you are allowed to be angry. you are allowed to be upset. you are not doing something wrong by having emotions.

no matter how buried it is, there is a strength inside you that can get you through this. no matter how alone you feel/are, there are people who will accept you and support you.

there are 8 billion people on this planet. you are one of so, so many. there is so much more to this life that the pain that's eating away at you. i promise.

keep going. and no matter what happens: this is not your fault.

[im-a-loaf]

@ghostertoasted you core. us core, even

I witnessed something wonderful on my walk today.

We went down to the park, where the lake drains under a footbridge into a stone-lined gully that someone generous might call a creek. Usually it’s a trickle at best, but it poured last night, and the water was still moving pretty briskly. 

As we got closer, I heard kids yelling, so we went over to have a look. I was nervous, because earlier this summer we’d seen a mother cat and her kittens hanging out a few times in the (then bone dry) spillway. We hadn’t seen them in over a month, but I didn’t want to think of them being there when the water started coming down.

Instead, when I looked over the side of the bridge, I saw a skinny kid (maybe 8-10 years old) carrying an enormous catfish clasped in both arms.

The catfish had to be the length of this kid’s torso, and it was flopping around trying to escape, but the kid doggedly kept climbing over mud and slippery rocks until he reached the lake and chucked the fish in. And behind him came… another kid, holding a fish.

When the lake flooded, it must’ve washed a bunch of these catfish downstream, where they collected in pools. Now the water levels are starting to go down, and the fish are trapped, doomed to dry up and die. Not on these kids’ watch. As we watched, they rescued four fish, and one of the adults present said there were at least six left. The kids showed no sign of stopping. This is the kind of thing you love as a kid, a life or death mission you can throw your heart and soul into while getting gleefully covered in muck and slime. I was tempted to offer my assistance, but this was their Quest, and I did not want to impose.

When we continued on, the Great Fish Rescue was still going strong. Godspeed, kids. In a time of such great discord and meanspirited behavior, you will live on in my memory as a beacon of goodwill. 

[diamondstripe1]

Friends and strangers alike. This system that operates America has brought on a wake-up call for so many people, and that includes me. It’s because of this system that we need change, and fast, or we will all be six feet under. And I know that all seems hopeless now, now that our fates have been sworn against us, but that's only if we let it. This, is The Declaration of We, The People.

We demand a fair country. We demand liberty and justice for not just the select few, but for all. Let the poor have their fill and eat the rich, let the women live their lives without the unwanted touch of man. Let there be room for every queer under the sun’s reflection, let the disabled live their lives without the condemnation of the abled. Let your right to live and heal be priceless without the interference of the greedy, let the bare necessities not take up the fortunes in your hands. Let humanity be a part of nature, not overpower it, let humanity be free from judgement based on the parts of them that are immutable. It’s nothing less or more than what we deserve.

Your oppressors want you dead, and that is why you need to live, if you can- live and be free. Get that botched haircut, get those piercings, give a listen to that song, give that snack a try- live while you can, because damn it, you only have one life to live, and you are not gonna live it in pain and fear. If you can't live for yourself, find someone or something to live for- a friend, a family member, an acquaintance, a pet, a lover, someone you wish was your lover, hell, an enemy if you need to. Maybe find a song to live for, a plush, a goal, a wish, a feeling. I don't care what your reason to live is, I don't care how big or small it is, I just need it to keep you alive. And if you can’t live, despite everything, the least I can ask is for you to not die for nothing.

I know you’re terrified. Terrified of the wicked people in control, terrified of your lives getting into a twist. Terrified of the torture the following years will determine. I’m scared, too, but I need you to know something- you can’t become a part of a statistic. If you’re gonna go out, don’t go out like a flickering bulb- go out like Icarus, when he collided with the sun. Go out like the Phoenix, and rise from the ashes your oppressors created. Fight with everything you can, be it through words and speeches, through marches and protests, or through the guns conservatives swear by. If you're going down, take America’s cruelty with you. Don’t wait for the world to be ready for you- make it be ready for you.

If you want to keep your peace, keep your peace. If you want to bathe in your false president’s blood, bathe in his blood. This battle for the land of the free is yours to fight, and the way you fight is yours as well. But let me tell you something- we are not gonna live on a prayer and a smile, we are gonna live by putting our bloodied foot forward. Did queer people get their right to marry and to transform by making puppy eyes at their president? Did women get their right to vote by sitting around and looking pretty? Did the colored get their right to live in equality by biting their tongue? No- they fought, every damn day of their lives. And respectfully, I ask you to fight too, however you can. If you don't know how to fight, have someone teach you- and if you can't handle that, teach yourself. But I still ask you to fight.

I know, I know all seems hopeless, that a heartless man as your president seems inescapable- but so did the divine right of kings, once upon a time. We've seen things like this a million times, even if it doesn’t look like it- when there's progress, there's pushback. People will fight with their blood, sweat, and tears, only to get cut short by those who were supposed to represent them. Well, guess what? The cut will scab over, and the battle will rage on, and the fire won’t stop burning until we get the lives we deserve. We declare that we have the right to live, and we will fight for it.

Feel what you need to, but frankly, I refuse dystopia, I refuse hate, I refuse control- and I especially refuse death. I have disobeyed worse than you- my friends do not die on my watch. They want America to be ‘great’ again? Well, we, the people, will make America free again. ----------- obviously, i know what you're probably thinking; "krista what the fuck. krista a tumblr post isn't gonna do shit" and i completely understand where you're coming from- hell, before the election, i'd agree with you!! i would love to get up on a stage and recite this word-for-word. i would also like to live to my 18th birthday first, this year.

and i know what else you're probably thinking; "lol you say that and yet nobody's gonna do shit" and what are you doing?

yeah, i am WELL aware this is very idealistic, especially for the times we're gonna be living in. all seems hopeless, i completely understand that. BUT we need to have some sort of vision for our fight to live, or we're just gonna die- if not die, then live MISERABLY.

love your people. they're all you really have, right now.

[hopepunk-humanity]

a few years back now, i was in france, buying friendship bracelets in awe. the ends were twisted so neatly, and they didn't come undone. i hadn't thought about making friendship bracelets for years. god knows when i last tried they came out half twisted (not the bit you want to be twisted either) with fraying ends. i came home, wore the bracelets that summer, let them fall off. let a few more years pass too. then i picked up the art again. learnt again, having learnt wrong the first time. then did something i always wanted to do. a quick search helped, and a lovely lady with a video on it held my hand all the way. and suddenly, my bracelets had the pretty twisted ends. and i'd grown more than i could ever know, just like that.

Growth can be difficult and painful. And sometimes it can really be "just like that". You never know until you try.