#inherently lonely and inherently special. that's the individual human experience

[sinkableruby]

the thing about being the one expert on something is that... you're at the top. you've made it. my experiences in my life predispose me to understanding this thing the best. you could say i've understood their heart if you will

but the thing about being at the top is that you have to go lower to talk to other people about that thing. because no one matches up to me completely. intellectually one might get it, emotionally one might get it, but no one gets the full of it. and you do learn things from going lower, and you incorporate them when you go back up to reach even further heights than you were at before. you just keep on climbing and climbing

on the one hand, it's lonely. there's no one fully on par with me, it's something on which i cant ever fully connect with someone else. because to others it's a thing, and to me it's the most important thing in the world. when i talk about it i talk about everything, when i write about it it's everything to me. no one could match up to that. and why would they, its just not as big of a thing to them

on the other hand, it's nice to have your clique. it's nice to be the sole expert on something because that's where identity starts to form. it's nice to have that security. but it is still lonely.

this is all just what it's like to be a human being. no one can ever fully understand someone else.

[linksubm-blog]

Do dogs do well in boarding?

Dogs, our faithful companions, often become an integral part of the family. When life demands separation, whether for travel, work commitments, or other reasons, the question arises: do dogs do well in boarding? Let's embark on an exploration of the canine boarding experience.

The Canine Social Experience: Dogs are inherently social animals. Boarding facilities provide a unique opportunity for them to interact with other dogs, fostering socialization skills that contribute positively to their behavior.

Professional Care and Supervision: Reputable boarding facilities offer professional care and constant supervision. This ensures that your furry friend receives the attention, exercise, and care they need, minimizing the stress associated with being away from home.

Structured Routine: Dogs thrive on routine. Boarding facilities typically provide a structured daily schedule that includes meals, playtime, and rest. This routine contributes to a sense of security for dogs, helping them adjust to the temporary environment.

Exercise and Play Opportunities: Boarding facilities often have designated play areas where dogs can engage in physical activities. Regular exercise is not only crucial for their physical well-being but also helps in expelling excess energy, promoting a more relaxed state.

Separation Anxiety Mitigation: Dogs, like humans, can experience separation anxiety. Boarding facilities, accustomed to handling various breeds and temperaments, implement strategies to mitigate separation anxiety and provide comfort to dogs during their stay.

Health and Safety Measures: Professional boarding facilities prioritize the health and safety of their canine guests. This includes regular health checks, vaccination requirements, and protocols to prevent the spread of illnesses. Such measures contribute to a secure and healthy environment.

Exposure to New Environments: Dogs that are accustomed to different environments tend to be more adaptable. Boarding exposes them to new sights, sounds, and smells, enhancing their adaptability and reducing anxiety in unfamiliar situations.

Trained Staff for Special Needs: Dogs with special needs or specific care requirements benefit from the expertise of trained staff at boarding facilities. Whether it's administering medication or catering to unique dietary needs, professional caregivers ensure individualized attention.

Preventing Loneliness: Loneliness can adversely affect a dog's well-being. Boarding facilities, with their staff and other canine companions, provide an environment that reduces the chances of dogs feeling lonely during the owner's absence.

Owner Peace of Mind: Knowing that their furry friend is in a secure and caring environment allows dog owners to enjoy their time away with peace of mind. Regular updates and communication from the boarding facility contribute to this assurance.

While every dog is unique, many thrive in well-managed boarding environments. Choosing a reputable facility, understanding your dog's needs, and providing essential information to the caregivers contribute to a positive boarding experience. Dogs, with their remarkable adaptability, often surprise their owners with how well they navigate the boarding adventure, turning it into a tail-wagging sojourn rather than a stressful separation.

[matrixreimagined]

Matrix Gift Exchange

I had @thelivemouse​! Happy Holidays, friend! 

A Glitch in the Matrix; A Flaw in His System

Agent Smith existed in a world of certainty and fundamental truth. The Matrix, he knew, was his purpose. He was its chosen guardian. He existed to stop the chaotic Zionists and their mission of liberated anarchy.

Humans, it seemed, were unable to behave in a manner that catered to their best interests.

And that was why the Matrix existed. The system to govern the humans, teasing them with the illusion of choice, while driving them all to complete their purpose. To power the machines.

There was order in his world.

A reason for everything.

Until there wasn’t.

Smith could find no reason for the abrupt change that he sensed on March 11, 1962. His counterparts didn’t seem to find anything different but Smith knew that there was something wrong in the Matrix. Something didn’t belong.

It was nothing he could recognize; nothing surface level.

But something was wrong and it was distracting.

He checked to see if there was an update he was missing; perhaps there was a glitch in his own software. An easy fix.

But no.

For some inexplicable reason, he was drawn to the Matrix Stats. A program that kept track of everything from the blades of grass within the simulation to the number of programs within the Matrix.

He checked it all but found himself staring at the population. 380,111 new babies had been born on March 11 while some 156, 916 had been taken away, their bodies recycled in the real world to nourish the little ones.

Yes, Smith acknowledged, things were different. But like an update, he learned to adjust. After a while, those little twinges that something was wrong became normal, easier for him to ignore. And that was just what he did.

It would be years before Smith thought about that day.

Year more before he would understand the significance of that day.

Six years pass and Smith no longer gives thought to the odd sensation. Or was it a feeling? 

No, he decided, not a feeling.

He wasn’t capable of that. It was not something assigned to anti-virus programs.

It’s a winter day when Hamann and his crew break into an apartment building to free some moron who thought life would be better in the harsh underground city. But Hamann and his crew weren’t as careful as they should have been.

They managed a trace, missed the warning signs of deja vu.

When the Agents arrived, it melted into chaos.

Their potential red pill was killed in the crossfire, along with another from Hamann’s crew.

The rest escaped, running in different directions.

And the Agents gave chase, each in pursuit.

Smith had chased Hamann, following him through the halls. The man burst into an apartment building and jumped through a window to the fire escape. He took the steps two at a time and Smith was gaining on him when a small child climbed between them, looking down at the older man who was running down the stairs. 

Smith barely stopped himself from crashing into the child.

Casualties, particularly young ones, were to be avoided by the Agent’s mandate. And while accidents happened, he tried to avoid casualties. 

In hindsight, he should have walked around the child and finished his pursuit. He probably would have caught up to the terrorist and managed to put him down before he reached an exit. 

Yet Smith couldn’t seem to look away from the dark-haired child, staring up at him with large brown eyes.

“What are you doing on my fire escape?” The boy asked.

Smith scanned the child.

Thomas Anderson.

Date of Insertion: March 11, 1962.

Age: six years.

The date struck him, freezing him in place as he regarded the young child.

A coincidence, he was nearly certain.

The boy was only six. He could hardly be the cause of the discomfort, the strange sensation that had once caused him pause.

Thomas, he thought. From the Aramaic To’oma. Meaning twin.

But humans, it seemed, rarely chose names based on their meanings. Thomas was an only child. There was no twin, no partner of sorts.

Just a lonely little one, as lost in the world as anyone else.

Anderson, Smith noted. Meaning son of Andrew. Andrew, of course, meaning man. Son of man.

Again, highly irrelevant.

Little Thomas might not know it but he was the child of machines, composed mostly of organic tissue but with enough mechanisms that he was no longer entirely human either.

“Sir? What are you doing on my fire escape?” The boy asked again. 

A flash of annoyance spread through the Agent and it startled him. Annoyance was intrinsically human and Smith was far from it. As distant as one could possibly be from a fickle thing like emotions.

Before the boy could ask again, he said, “You’re dreaming. Go to sleep.”

“I’m not dreaming!” Thomas insisted, looking angry at the assumption.

“Trust me: you’re dreaming.” Smith quickly walked off, unwilling to stand and address the flash of annoyance, the anger that seemed ingrained in his avatar’s bones. All the while, the thoughts racing through his head.

Emotions are human.

Jones and Brown were down the street when he caught up with them.

“The girl made it out.”

“As did Hamann.” Smith confirmed.

“Their gunner is dead.” Jones stated.

Something sickly starts to grow inside Smith that the confirmation. It was dark and made him uneasy, almost nauseous. Programs didn’t get nauseous, Smith thought, but then, they also didn’t feel.

It should have been me to stop him.

Me.

A personal pronoun, indicating identity of the individual.

Smith was not an individual. He belonged to a tripariate program. A collective with a single purpose: to stop Zionists from freeing people.

They had done their job. Had managed to kill a few Zionists while at it.

The matter of who killed who was unimportant, irrelevant.

So why did Smith feel as though the world was shrinking around him? As if it were becoming infinitely smaller, taking his focus away from the Matrix and projecting it onto himself. And yet, selfishness was inherently human.

The earlier programs could experience things such as emotions. The Merovingian was a prime example of abstract hedonism. The Oracle was known for her compassion towards the humans. Even the Architect was mired with complex feelings towards the slaves, giving him the insight necessary to design the Matrix to suit their needs. 

But Agents had no need for feelings.

He ran the possibilities in his mind.

Perhaps there had been a malfunction, in which case, he should report himself immediately and be taken to exile. A new Agent would be created, reprogrammed to fix the inherently human traits that seemed to be prevalent in Smith.

But no, he thinks. Exile does not seem… pleasant.

Self-preservation, however, was a human instinct.

He wondered if it was worse than he initially thought but Smith ignored it all.

He would discover, over the coming months and years, that it was not all that hard to cover up the occasional flash of feelings that rise to the surface when dealing with the Zionites. He did his best to eliminate any sign of the virus within the Matrix.

Years pass.

All the while, Smith feels his distaste for humanity growing. He hides it under a practiced mask if only to protect himself from deletion. 

A few hundred people are freed, a few hundred more die.

New captains and crews replace the ones that grow old or are eliminated. Most act in quiet desperation, trying their hands at stealth and trickery, hoping to avoid the attention of the Agents.

And then there was the Nebuchadnezzar.

Led by Morpheus, the entire crew seemed to be operating on a single brain cell. 

But then the message came through. A human willing to act as a spy in order to be placed back in the safety of the Matrix. While it wasn’t impossible, it would be a waste of resources to do such. But the human didn’t need to know that.

Instead, they agreed to the deal and were given a name.

The new bastard that Morpheus determined was capable of destroying the Matrix.

“We have the name of their next target.” Said Jones.

And Brown finished, “The name is Neo.”

Neo.

A scan of the information at hand brought him to the owner of the alias. A picture of a tall, clean-shaven man with dark hair and eyes appears, along with a name and a profile.

Thomas Anderson.

For a moment, Smith was aware of his every synapsis. The speed of every thought that went through his program. He could feel his very avatar like a cage surrounding him, trapping him.

Thomas Anderson.

March 11, 1962.

The day the Matrix turned. 

Smith had never given any thought to Morpheus’ mission to find someone capable of destroying the Matrix. Smith had deemed it impossible long ago. 

But now…

New feelings are creeping in.

While before, Smith found himself riddled with disgust over humanity, frustration at his own limitations, and annoyance in others, he finds something new growing inside him.

A new feeling plotting and working its way through him, consuming him.

Anticipation.

Finding Thomas Anderson, confronting him, capturing him before Morpheus is able…

He doesn't buy into the concept of the One but he couldn't deny that the man was special. 

Now was the time for planning. Tomorrow would be the time for action.

And soon, Smith would find out for himself exactly how special Thomas Anderson was.

[gofancyninjaworld]

watching ONE write women

One of the joys of following a writer for a while is that you get to follow how their ideas develop.   One of the things that ONE brought up in an interview (annoyingly I’ve lost the link) was that he didn’t think that he wrote women particularly well. 

I was thinking about that.  When ONE says that, what comes across to me is that he has no problem writing a female character as an individual rather than a role.  All the girls and women he’s written so far have their own voices, own their problems, and have something to do within the story that would be noticeable if they weren’t there.  Quite frankly, that alone is over and above what various tests of representation (such as the Bechdel test) ask for.  

What he’s not so good at is appreciating what being female brings to a character’s experiences and outlook.  But he’s not just left it at that.  More on what he’s been doing in a bit (and under the cut).

“...the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges...” -- Anatole France

With his sharp eye and talent for exploring the implications of whatever he posits, ONE has brought up some issues are not inherently gendered, but usually are. 

A: Childcare

Metal Bat appears to be the main, if not sole, carer for Zenko.  How it affects him is fascinating.  He’s one of the longest-serving heroes in the Hero Association, being there before Class S was formed, literally within the first six months of its establishment.  He’s been extremely loyal and is highly trusted by the HA -- they put Narinki’s life into his hands without fear.  His battle strength is literally praised to the heavens.

Metal Bat makes Zenko a priority, structuring his availability around her school schedule and being present in her life. He gets very angry if these times are threatened without overwhelmingly good cause.  His reward is to be perceived by the Hero Association as less committed and so they under-recognise him in terms of ranking, and since rank and pay are linked, under-pay him as well.  It’s a story all too many women can relate to.  But that’s not all.

Because ONE writes so simply yet conscientiously, something else comes up and has a peek: intersectionality. It’s the concept that we often have multiple social disadvantages that interact and compound our problems.  The first is sexism.  Regardless of whatever childcare policy the HA has, the sexist assumption that only women care (for the record: this is bullshit) makes it unlikely for them to ask Metal Bat.  Second, social capital. The fact that he’s Zenko’s sole carer means that he has low social capital, that informal network of people around you who can help out -- or tell you where to find help and what things to say in order to get that help. [Aside: this is why programmes to help people, unless they reach out aggressively, tend to disproportionately attract those who need it least.]  Metal Bat doesn’t have the knowledge.  The third is the challenge brought by his being a 17-year old boy.  He’s quick to perceive challenge as threat, and threat as something to be met by anger.  Witness him threatening to smash the HA headquarters if it turns out that he’s missed Zenko’s piano recital for nothing -- completely not useful to anything. [Another aside: the importance of learning to disambiguate emotions and do useful things with them even if it means being vulnerable as a part of growing up as a man is the whole point of Mob Psycho 100.]

What do the Neo Heroes do?  They ask Metal Bat if he wants help with childcare AND HE JUMPS SHIP PRONTO.  If that’s not an indictment of the Hero Association, I don’t know what is.

B: Emotional Labour

Saitama has been delegating more and more of the day-to-day work to Genos.  What started as an act of service to express his gratitude, respect and love for Saitama is increasingly turning into a second job for Genos.  It’s not just the cooking and cleaning and the shopping and the bailing Saitama out if he’s forgotten his wallet again, it’s also the worrying about Saitama, sometimes at inappropriate times.  Has he drunk enough water?  Has he clean clothes in good repair? What sales is he looking forward to? Have they been marked on the calendar?  It’s honestly not doing Genos any good, and it’s one of those things all too many frustrated wives and girlfriends can relate to.  This doing the practical and emotional work for another is not intrinsically gendered, but funny how often it breaks that way.

It’s not doing Saitama any good either.  He’s using this freed up time to fritter his life ever more aggressively away, playing games with King and finding pointless competitions to enter, all while complaining about feeling less and less connected to anything (if you don’t address the problem, it doesn’t get better, duh!).  Worse, he’s started to take that gift of service for granted, witness him airily telling King how he’ll just have Genos go clear up the mess of monsters he’s left outside the flat.  I was heartened to see what happened when Saitama went a little too far and asked Genos to go cook and instead of jumping up, Genos gave him the the evil eye and let the awkwardness hang there.  That was good -- there’s hope for this guy yet.

Speaking of Genos, he also over-functions for something else Saitama struggles with: advocating for himself.  He tends to have Genos be the ugly one so he doesn’t have to be.   You can see just how bad he is at self-advocacy when Forte and friends could invite themselves into Saitama’s house at will despite his protests -- and it stopped the instant Genos showed up.

In a sense, it’s not surprising that Genos can do that. When you’re differently-abled (and for once, this is not a euphemism) as he is, being able to clearly ask for what you want and need is life-and-death necessary. If Genos was shy about it, he’s long since had to discard that.  But!  Let me point to a nuance the story touches on.  How pushy you can be without being punished for it depends a lot on who you are, intersecting strongly with race, gender, social status, etc (remember my mentioning intersectionality before). What’s called assertive in a man is called bitchy or sharp-elbowed in a woman.  Even taking gender and race out of the equation, there’s still a noticeable difference in the way the world treats Saitama and Genos.  You don’t need to be Sigmund Freud to understand the way the short, ugly Dr. Kuseno sweats making sure that Genos positively radiates youth, beauty, wealth and power. That’s part of his right to ask and be taken seriously.  You can see how drastically different it is for Saitama, even from his middle school days.  Genos notices, and makes sure to leverage his social power for Saitama. 

What I love about these examples are that by not automatically heaving a woman into these characters’ roles, ONE’s brought a less frequently seen angle that illustrates the problems they deal with are not ‘womens’ issues per se but are rather inequities that disproportionately affect women -- which is at the heart of what feminists keep saying.  When you read Makai no Ossan, you can appreciate that ONE could have gone with female characters and done a great job, but his choosing not to has brought a very welcome dimension to the story.

Women proper

“I’m not like other girls”

Still, bit by bit, ONE has been working more women into his stories.  After his interview, the next thing he worked on was the single-volume sequel to Mob Psycho 100,  Reigen.  He took his challenge head-on by making the POV character Tome and putting her in an all-girls’ high school.

Throughout the story, we see Tome thinking of herself as special, better than her fellow classmates, whom she sees as vapid and shallow.  The denouement comes with Tome being humbled as she gets to know her classmates better and realises that  they pursue interests just as varied and weird as hers -- only they’re also practicing being socially adept on top of that.

It’s a gentle story, but it’s still a great side-swipe at self-internalised misogyny, the idea that it’s shameful to be like a ‘girl’ and it’s something to distance oneself from.   Fortunately, Tome can laugh at herself and grow up.

“Ha ha ha”

For a long time, the only (named) women we had in OPM were Tatsumaki and her younger sister Fubuki.   We’ve gotten more women both good and bad: in particular, it’s been very gratifying to find that one of the most dangerous, story-shaping villains in the story is Psykos.

In the webcomic, ONE’s pushed even further.  A recent Tweet featured him talking about how hard he finds it to draw women. And he’s added several.   No same-face for him!    I’ll talk about the new heroines he’s added, but first, let me draw your attentions to something most artists don’t realize they do: massively skew the gender distribution of crowds, even when it is incredibly illogical to do so.   With ONE, even drawing the crowds at the fair who gaggle at Amai Mask, he’s got a far more even balance of women and they’re not all young and pretty -- which is much more true-to-life.  He’s in the business of drawing people.

ONE has featured microaggressions before, particularly in the way Fubuki can have perfectly sound things to say and be totally ignored,  but he brings it properly to the fore with Suiko.  No one calls her incompetent, but the little put downs she gets when she puts herself forward for the hero test in lieu of her brother, oh they’re well-observed The look on her face just makes it.  I love the way she shut the recruiters up subsequently. 

  Let’s conclude this tour with a look at Webigaza’s lonely figure.  We have another mono-manically focused cyborg in the story.  Genos has been called a lot of things -- determined, obsessive even, but crazy? Never. Notice who it’s been reserved for instead.  It’s no slip of the tongue.

Wrapping Up

I’m of the impression that ONE really wants to try to capture as much of the human experience as he can in his stories, however whimsical or fantastical the stories themselves are.  I’m disarmed by his humility in accepting that he’ll never have the lived experience of half the world’s population but he sure as hell can put some effort into learning how to to writing well-realised, believable, female characters.  

I watch ONE’s continued development as a writer with interest.    

[armsdealing]

FENRIR + GODHOOD / WOLFHOOD.

although it is not explicitly expressed in any particular attestation (that i know of), i do chose to view fenrir as a god of wolves -- on top of being the norse god of destruction. this due to his status as the most significant, infamous wolf in the mythology, as well as the oldest, fiercest and largest of angrboda’s offspring. keeping this in mind, i choose to view him as the ultimate symbolic representative of what wolves are in norse mythology.

DESTRUCTIVENESS AND WOLF SYMBOLISM

wolves, in northern europe, were subject to an complex treatment: 

on one hand: they were a true threat for the average peasant, whose experience with them was that of a beastly predator that threatened their flocks and even the peasants themselves and their children. there’s even the case of the wolfssegner, typically destitute elderly men who made a living in certain germanic tribes selling charms against wolf attacks, or casting malevolent spells that would prompt them. their customers were, naturally, farmers and peasants. throughout the working class and the poor there’s this commonality of viewing wolves as destructive forces, as malevolent. yet, on the other hand, the warrior classes saw the wolf for his might -- his power, his wildness, and fierceness -- as well as social traits, his capability for pack bonds. wolves were also associated with odin, having two wolves as his pets (geri and freki) and of all berserkers it’s the wolf warriors (the úlfhéðnar) who are sometimes seen as odin’s special warriors. when they’re viewed on this angle they’re seen as noble, brave, loyal, and wise. 

as a rule, the pack was seen as a symbol of camaraderie, and it was lone wolves who were the problem. the word for outlaw in northern europe was "wolf's head", referring to the bounty on the severed heads of lone wolves who became a problem to settled villages and needed to be exterminated.

well, fenrir didn’t get to be seen as noble, loyal, or wise. in many ways he is the prototypical lone wolf figure -- kidnapped by the aesir, torn from his clan and family to keep him from becoming the predicted destructive force he was to become. he was denied a pack, and so ironically it only pushed him further toward rebellion and mayhem; he grows progressively but quickly and as he grows he turns even more of a ravenous threat in the gods’ eyes, forcing the gods to bind him. it’s easy to see the similarities, how commonfolk’s fear of wolves -- especially the lone wolf -- would be reflected in their deities. as a jotunn, and more specifically a rokkr, fenrir represents nature’s more destructive qualities, a chaotic primordial force that can be interpreted as downright hostile to mankind. yet, seeing him only in a negative light is limiting, in my opinion, everything that fenrir is, and it’s just plain inaccurate, as it is framing fenrir in the absolutist moral framework of christianity. the jotnar are not evil, they’re not demons, they’re merely oppositional to the aesir because of the inherent way their essences and wants (to be amongst nature and accept it as is, good and bad) clash with the aesir’s wants (to tame nature’s useful side for their benefit and fight against its more harmful aspects to protect themselves and mankind). the struggle against fenrir is one of the most elementary examples of this jotnar/aesir conflict.

fenris is, in many ways, jotun essence taken to its furthest point, its ultimate uncompromised end. this means understanding that when we say that the jotnar are, by nature, part of nature... that means also that they partake of the entirety of nature and not just the euphemized happy bits that we like to pretend are what nature "really is". every part of nature is dangerous and not terribly disposed to privilege humans over any other part. the sea eats people, the fire lays waste to countrysides, the ice storm freezes you, the earth will receive your corpse and fill it with maggots. our planet whirls around a sun that will burn out, in a galaxy that will wind down and disintegrate before it can explode again into life.

to understand these things as not only "not negative" but as awesome, mind‑bending, even beautiful ‑ that's how we understand jotun nature. it's terrifying, yes ‑ and there is also a good and benevolent side, but you don't get only that aimed at you, ever. it's about accepting the whole package without this secret fingers‑crossed idea that if they just like you enough, the forces of nature will make a special exception for you. and that doesn't work.

to see Fenris is to see a magnificent creature who must be chained, or he’ll eat the world. it’s seeing the grandeur of a hurricane, an earthquake, a solar flare, and knowing that this too is the hand of the divine… and at the same time knowing that they will do terrible harm. Fenris is what he is, entirely and fully, and he will not compromise himself to be anything else for anyone else… even if he must be bound. are there things about your nature that you would rather be imprisoned than compromise? If not, then perhaps you might not understand Fenris. he embodies our ambivalence toward the universe, which sees us as expendable flecks of dust. … and the only way to get around that is to see from a higher perspective, one that can appreciate the divinity of ambivalences.- X

fenrir is not just an agent of change. he is change itself, the ultimate threat on the status quo of the gods. and because of that, as he brings about ragnarok, he’s an agent of renewal and transformation. 

fenrir, like the wolf's hook cross, is a representation of unchangeable fate. there is an aura of fatality surrounding him that the gods sense, and none more so than odin, because it is primarily his existence which is subject to fenrir's whim. odin, having heard the prophecies of the volva (fenrir's own mother, angrboda) knew that his son balder would be slain, that his brother hodur would do this act. that the rökkr forces would break free of their bonds, and destroy the gods. and that finally he, odin, would die within the massive jaws of fenrir.

thus, the binding of fenrir with gleipner is nothing but a postponement of the inevitable. it is merely an instance of the gods, and odin in particular, performing, and realizing, their role. for, although the fate incurred by fenrir may be unavoidable and unchangeable, it does not necessarily mean defeat or resignation. one of the great lessons of the rökkr is that this life is nothing, that there is no integral meaning to it, and that it can all so easily be consumed by fenrir. the purpose of living, then, is to realize this truth, and then to build ones own worth and meaning from existence. - X

PATRON OF WOLVES, WARGS, AND WEREWOLVES

fenrir is not a friendly god, and he’s not an easy god to worship. he’s not even a welcoming god. he’s demanding, intense and he can see through the souls of the most hard-hearted individuals, and frighten them. for him, vacuous violence and bloodlust isn’t enough -- he demands your sincerity, your raw emotion, your anger; you need to be true to him or he will not bother with you, and in fact might even offend him and make him hostile. humans, in particular, need a specially strong connection to nature (physical nature, and their inner nature) in order to connect with him. and if you do manage that, he can make an unstoppable force out of you. he is, on top of everything else, a god of last resorts and if you’re ever in dire need of protection you can count on him to intervene.

this all being said, humans are not his only believers. they’re not even his main believers, since people tend to turn to more approachable (and relatable) deities like the aesir first. fenrir focuses mainly on wolves, and in midgard it’s not entirely rare for him to be near them, helping them, or using them as emissaries. he focuses on wargs, the norse wolf-like beings that inhabit ironwood alongside the volvas, considering he’s the oldest of them, and his mother reigns over them as chieftess. and he focuses lastly on werewolves. 

regardless of a werewolf’s origin, fenrir’s nature is such that most wolves will feel a connection to him. they will feel drawn to fenrir, and perceive his paradoxical otherness/familiarity and his power. however, it’s up to them how they will respond to it. a lot of them do worship him (there might be one or two doomsday cults/packs out there waiting for his reckoning), and there might be sacrifices done his name. but a lot of them, when encountered with his presence, chose to ignore his influence, or even respond defensively. regardless, fenrir does not take this personally. werewolves are just as human as they’re wolves and so they carry an egocentrism that is, in his opinion, wholly theirs. still, it’s not rare for him to occasionally encounter mortally wound werewolves (particularly lone werewolves!) and offer them a chance at survival, or keep them company while they feel alone and heal.

[overcoming-my-humanity]

This is the beginning of something that I hope will be good.

I'm not going to get into my entire life story, certainly not in one post anyway. So I'll start with what I believe to be the most relevant fact about myself. I am an individual that has many artistic goals, and yet I have not pursued or achieved any of those goals to any significant degree because of the various circumstances of my existence. My parents do not share the same worldview that I have, and therefore did not know how to properly encourage me to engage with the world as I was growing up. Seeing the absolute shitshow that is the society humans have built on this planet sent me into a pretty strong depression that I still haven't fully recovered from (and maybe never will). I, naively, turned to various coping mechanisms that ended up being less than stellar for my long-term health. And because habit is built into our very DNA, I encoded these unhealthy practices into a day-to-day lifestyle before I even realized it had happened. So here I am, years later, having destroyed my health whilst achieving nothing that I truly desire.

I am not special in this, so I do not wish to present myself in a way that says I am unique in my struggle. That said, my personal experience is unique to me, and given that it is mine and mine alone, it is naturally the most important thing to me. Some may call that selfish. I call it inherent to nature.

So what the fuck am I doing here? Glad you asked. I'm finally at a point in my life where I am beginning to take constructive steps towards the life I desire for myself. Those steps are admittedly small, and many are followed by some stumbles backward, but they are steps forward nonetheless. I am tired of living this stagnant life. I'm tired of my inherent humanity holding me back, and causing me to make the same damn mistakes over and over again. It is my hope that maintaining this blog will help me to move on with my life in a positive manner.

From now until a point in time where I deem it no longer necessary or useful, I will be using this here blog on good ol' Tumblr.com© to document my journey. I'll be listing my goals, my desires, my successes, my failures, my opportunities, and my obstacles, and I will do so without censorship. You may ask, could I not just keep a personal journal? Why share all of this with strangers online? Because as much as I hate the fact, I know that I am not alone on this earth. Maybe my struggle can somehow help someone else overcome theirs. Maybe one of you will give me the advice I need to help me overcome mine. Either way, if I cannot be truly alone in this existence as I would ultimately prefer, I can at least allow myself to not be lonely.

I suppose that will do for an introductory post. Let's see how this thing turns out.

[workersolidarity]

Throwaway Culture: A Marxist Perspective

I never imagined I'd be interested in anything a Pope might have to say, but this caught my eye after Googling: Throwaway culture. It was something I had been thinking about all day.

I'm not religious in any way, and there are points of disagreement I have with how Pope Francis has framed Throwaway Culture, but he also gave voice to an aspect of Throwaway Culture I've personally been focusing on, our trained willingness to toss other human beings away like garbage.

So first my disagreement with the quotes above. Throwaway Culture isn't something that rose up out of nowhere from the bottom up. The set of ideas behind the development of the Throwaway Culture was something encouraged and developed from above. It began with the evolution of our Capitalist economy from one based on industrial production, into one driven largely by domestic consumer spending.

Beginning after the Second World War, consumerism began when US mega-corporations, hoping to take advantage of a better educated, wealthier population by encouraging families aspiring to be part of the expansion of the Petty-Bourgeoisie (Lower Middle Class), to buy disposable products that could simoly be thrown away after one use and replaced by subsequent purchases. This made life easier for busy Petty Bourgeois households to focus on their family, rather than the tedious cleaning tasks they were previously accustomed to.

At the same time, this fueled a massive economic expansion as the Resources and other spoils of America's development into an Imperialist Power poured back into the domestic economy. This created millions of stable, well paying jobs, funded further economic development and infrastructure, and further reinforced America's new status on the global stage as the major dominating Super Power.

Following the crises of the mid-70's and into the Reagan years, the Bourgeois politicians, grown fat after years of economic boom, were all too happy to oblige the further Corporate push towards Consumerism and the single use economy. Policy was used, not to discourage single use products and consequently heavy trash producing economy, but instead the State actively encouraged this evolution.

Movies and media began reflecting the turn towards Consumerism, encouraging a new culture, one of post-modern aloofness, cynicism and sarcasm. A brave new society was being built by cultural elites. They were creating a world where people were expected to be disgusted by the sentimentality and emotion of human interaction. It slowly became culturally taboo to feel deeply for anyone else but oneself. Sentimentality was treated as a sign of weakness, and by extension, someone who could never succeed under the Neoliberal Capitalist order. They'd managed to repackage an old idea (Classical Liberalism or laissez faire Capitalism) into a new ideological framework dominated by free markets, deregulation, global free trade and specialization, consumerism and financialization.

Everywhere you look, society tells you the only things worth investing yourself in are economic success and fame. In other words, public acknowledgement of your economic success, thereby enshrining a kind of reality television mindset into the id of the public. Everything else is just an expression of weakness.

Which brings us to today. A time when society seems to be breaking down. Many people are deeply disatisfied with their lives. Instead of being showered with fame and fortune, most people have had to experience extreme economic uncertainty, disappointment with their career, and an inability to accrue enough money to satisfy their habit of trying to buy their way to happiness. Just as we'd been trained since childhood to do.

Unfortunately, even the mountains of cheap plastic crap overflowing from landfills hasn't exactly left very many people feeling fulfilled.

For most people, this brave new world filled with opportunity and free wheeling human interaction, has turned out to be even more alienating than the 19th Century factories Marx once observed. Except today that alienation extends well beyond the workplace.

Despite spending endless hours a day perusing social media and bragging about ones latest good time, people are more likely than ever before to feel lonely and listless. The cool cynicism encapsulated in so many movies and television characters, has swiftly turned into bitter resentment, loneliness, depression, poverty and addiction.

Where once detachment seemed a hallmark of the successful Capitalist, the ironic optimism people once felt from leaving behind human emotions, particularly emotions such as love, simpathy and empathy, has devolved into a society willing to throw families living in poverty onto the streets, only to arrest them the next day for the crime of being homeless and visible.

Instead of Liberating society from life's ills, Throwaway Culture has led to a society willing to tolerate even the most offensive of injustices, stripping away the humanity for those who's fortunes never rose alongside Neoliberal Capitalism.

Consumerism, as encouraged by the newly reformed ideology of Neoliberalism, manifested itself most obviously in the 90's culture of Post-Modernism. Post-Modernism soon devolved into today's Throwaway Culture. Today, workers tolerate some of the most horrific conditions under Capitalism since the end of the Guilded Age.

A society with a high tolerance for extreme exploitation, oppression and abuse at the hands of both employers and the Bourgeois State was always a critical goal of the ruling elite. The Neoliberal ideology was built on, and driven into the minds of the masses as the tool with which to train the workforce into developing this tolerance, and it has largely succeeded. Workers today are more willing to blame themselves for their economic failures, as opposed to recognizing a system specifically designed to create the illusion of opportunity, while nearly always leading to economic mediocrity at best, and brutal destitution at worst.

That same Neoliberal alienating logic even extends to those around us. When someone loses a job,or can't pay their bills, or goes to jail for minor unpaid fines, we tell ourselves that they must not have worked hard enough. Why should we help these people when they won't help themselves? Yet, when we experience these same conditions for ourselves, instead of waking up to the reality of the inherent inequalities of Capitalism, we are trained to blame ourselves. Every economic failure we live through, no matter how absurd, how unavoidable, we see it as a failure on our part. We must have done something wrong right?

Neoliberal ideology has so infected the public mindset, that we fault ourselves for even the cruelest of outcomes, despite knowing we did everything we could, worked as hard as possible, and still we often suffer severe economic distress despite doing everything right.

It's been drilled into us from the time we are toddlers, that Capitalism offers success to anyone willing to work hard and make good decisions. (Good decisions as determined by Capitalist interests). Yet, even when this idea proves to be false, we blame ourselves rather than question Capitalism.

All of these markers of today's society are a direct result of unfettered Capitalism run amok. The Bourgeoisie and their Bourgeois State have so thoroughly manipulated the public consiousness, that we find ourselves steadfastly clinging to the assumptions of Neoliberal ideology. Capitalism has become indistinguishable in the public consiousness from ideas like "freedom", "democracy" and "the pursuit of happiness".

These buzzwords have served to make the Capitalist System omnipotent in the mind of the public. It has effectively taken the Capitalism out of the arena of politics. No longer is Capitalism something to be debated. It has officially become sacrosanct, scientific fact, and essential to personal freedom.

Taking all these assumptions of Neoliberalism to their logical conclusion brings us to today's cutting edge of Capital expansion and reproduction.

Anything can be a product to be sold on the market, even you and your most personal information, and the market is infallible. So if cruelty is a side effect of Markets, well than cruelty must be acceptable too.

As Marx once said, it's either Socialism or Barbarism. Well, the results are in and Barbarism is now a dominant feature within the frame of this Throwaway Culture and Neoliberal Capitalism.

So when Pope Francis talks about people individually taking responsibility to change their behavior, it's not that he's wrong. But he's purposely avoiding looking at the cause of today's culture. He is, like it or not, part of the elite. And the elite cannot effectively criticise, or criticise at all, other sections of the elite. That's why it has always been up to the Working Class to lead the Proletarian Revolution to Socialism. The Petty-Bourgeois reformers in Organizations such as the DSA cannot be depended on to challenge the basic tenets of Capitalism.

As much as I admire our DSA Comrades for their hard work, they seem incapable of acknowledging the Nature of Capitalism and the Bourgeois State. To understand Capitalism would mean to understand why Reformism and Electoralism within the context of the Bourgeois State can never succeed.

In much the same way, Pope Francis is incapable of confronting the threat Capitalism poses to his own Church. He neglects to see (or just ignores) the way the Church as been deeply intertwined with the fortunes of the Bourgeoisie, depending on wealthy benefactors to pay for the day to day operations of the Church.

Taking individual responsibility is something that must happen after we've cast aside the Bourgeoisie. It's something that must be confronted eventually, but only after we've begun to build a new Revolutionary Socialist society. A Socialist society must be built on empathy, collective success, collective liberation, collective wellbeing and collective responsibility. Only then is it warranted to even mention personal responsibility, which has always been another buzzword for the Capitalist Class.

Throwaway Culture has been so incredibly successful at raising the individual above all else (think the "rugged individualism" of the American ideal pushed upon us all our lives).

This is, of course, a necessary feature of Capitalist domination and exploitation. To control the masses, the Bourgeoisie must divide the masses, and the easiest way of sustaining and normalizing a divided society is by creating a culture centered around the individual while minimizing into insignificance the importance of the collective, the importance of community, and even minimizing the importance of family and friends.

This has been so successful that most human relationships have become so shallow as to be practically meaningless. This of course making it easier to allow Throwaway Culture to move from an attitude towards society generally, into an attitude towards even the most important relationships a person can experience in life.

After all, in order for someone to find it acceptable to throwaway even those closest to her, then her relationships with them must be reduced to simple, meaningless economic transactions between herself and those around her. (think of our holiday "traditions" that always seem to require consuming large amounts of disposable products, overcooking massive meals and giving of gifts. All of which require prolific spending that is treated as a competition)

This is essentially where we've arrived today. All relationships are being reduced to simple and meaningless economic transactions. And after all, as we've been trained to do all our lives, our economic interactions are always disposable.

Pope Francis is right to bring these issues into the fore for the world. The Church, just as Communities and families do, requires a certain degree of importance placed on human relationships. The Church brings people together under one roof on a weekly basis, and must convince them all that this religious Community is at least equal in importance to their economic concerns.

This where the analysis by, and strategies of, Historical Materialists and those employed by the Church for its own survival meet. Generally, throughout the history of Capitalism, the needs of the Bourgeoisie have run parallel with the needs of the Religious elites. But Throwaway Culture, Consumerism, and Neoliberal Capitalism are becoming antithetical to the very survival of the Church.

And I'm not necessarily calling the Pope an Opportunist. For all I know he may truly believe that Throwaway Culture and Neoliberal Capitalism go against the teachings of the Church. Still, we have yet to see either Pope Francis or the Church more generally turn against Capitalist ideology.

If Pope Francis and the Church really wants to challenge the Culture of Consumerism, just like Socialists he must name the enemy of the Collective: Capitalism, Imperialism and the International Bourgeoisie.

Additionally, no amount of idealism, religious or otherwise, will help us to defeat the Reactionary forces of Imperialism. Only a deep Materialist analysis and understanding of how we got here can open the eyes of the masses, and help us to develop the strategies and tactics we will need to defeat Capitalism on an international scale.

We didn't arrive at this point when Throw Away Culture dominates the ideological underpinnings of society overnight. Nor can we expect to sweep generations worth of manipulation, historical lies, and Bourgeois propaganda under the rug.

Opening the eyes of the masses will take time, and unfortunately time isn't on our side. A multitude of crises are converging more quickly than anyone could have predicted. Yet, for those of us living in the heart of the Imperialist world, we are vexed by the least developed Proletariat in nearly two centuries.

How we can develop and educate the Proletariat of the Western world fast enough to avoid complete disaster on a planetery scale? This is something we must organize around and work through.

The time for Academic Marxist papers and years of drawn out debates are over. Climate Change and sea level rise are occuring many times faster than anyone predicted just a couple decades ago. Capital, instead of working to solve this Global problem, is actively making things worse. Meanwhile our Throwaway Culture is corrupting the very souls of the masses. If change must occur quickly to save the planet, then the human race is headed in completely the opposite direction.

We must unite as Workers and begin the hard work of educating and organizing the Proletariat. We have to find a way of uniting and organizing behind a single Vanguard Party, and developing our Praxis without delay.

Capitalism is sucking the very humanity out of us all. Unless we act quickly with an urgency that matches the scale of the problems we face, and unless we put aside our differences and our final visions for the Socialist society to come, instead working together to develop the fledgeling Socialist Movement, than it may soon be too late to change course.

I want to live in a Society that values empathy. A Society that embraces the human condition and our human emotions. Not a culture that ignores the trashing of our planet, embraces greed and detachment, and assumes the consequences of our actions can be solved by idealistic notions of just moving to another planet once we've trashed and exhausted the resources of this one.

A want a world where those living in the Global South aren't starving while Americans throw away tens of thousands of tons of food a day, just to keep the homeless and hungry from getting a free meal out of our trash cans. How disgusting a society are we willing to live with?

And so even though I am motivated by objectively Idealistic notions of Community. I turn to Historical Materialism to understand how we got here, and how we may fix it.

Socialism offers the only way out.

I'm not so naive as to think simply appealing to our humanity is going to change anything. Even if suddenly the great masses of workers agreed with those appeals tomorrow, we would still be at the mercy of Capitalist exploitation, oppression and a Bourgeoisie ready and willing to use any destructive and violent means to enforce it's will. A simple look at the Middle East shows Imperialism is alive and well, and what it looks like when Western Bourgeois interests are threatened.

A strategy and set of tactics must be developed. Theory is only as good as the praxis it's used for. We must also provide for the development, education, and organization of the Working Class.

Lastly, we must be ready for massive resistance by the Bourgeoisie. They will almost certainly react with violence to any major challenges to their power and the system they've spent more than three centuries building. Potentially a violent Revolution and even civil war on a massive scale must be prepared for. Socialists cannot expect to passively win this war. One look back on Proletarian Revolutionary History should tell us all we need to know about what we must be ready for.

But NEVER forget Comrades, there's many many times more of us than their are of them! We will win the Revolution to come!

Solidarity Comrades

Workers of the world unite!

[butterflymatrimonial-blog]

Find your desired soulmate

Butterfly aims to create simple and independent platform for everyone, especially who is really facing challenge to find perfect life partner. In our surrounding, we already have lots of young eligible girls and bachelors who are waiting to enter in the married life. Now-a-days huge number of bride and groom are facing challenges to get right partner due to different kind of personality and nature, social and economic status, lifestyle, religious and cultural issues or family tradition and they feel unhappy and depressed. Lots of our guardian cannot ask others to search the right match for their children, siblings, and relative, as it’s a critical and complex job to match two people. Butterfly believes every human has this right to choose a better and happy life by any means. Butterfly focus to learn by compassion and complete life with mature discussion and decision. There are humans who lives a lonely life but sometimes our life can become meaningless without sharing moments with very special one. From the beginning of human race male and female crave for their special one to become one and raise family to leave legacy. And marriage came. When people married, couples’ vow to protect, love and stand by each other’s every moments together. Life can be much better or meaningful, enjoyable with supportive partner than anything else. Marriage is an institution where people come together and experience a union where they love, laugh, and live together. A journey of prosper and happiness if two right person share their journey. Somewhere in between this process, individuals become mature and explore themselves. Marriage keeps both the parties together even in the hardest situation. When life gets tough, boring and things aren’t going well, people generally look for partners who can support them. Marriage offers that kind of blessing to stick with one another and share the life. Although it is advised to make a careful decision when choosing a partner as the partners tend to influence each other. Butterfly will inspire you to understand and find different dimension of life by sharing & caring others information & secrets respectfully. Butterfly explores life! Why life is for life, it’s exciting to delegate and accept others mind and state.To acknowledge and support others inability is kindness and generosity but hiding own incompetency is something that showing completely disrespectful to others, lack of self-dignity and cheating. Mature and healthy discussion and sharing any inherent opinion, will must give you a positive result. Butterfly attracts true relationship and admires everyone- life, has right to make love. Inability and incapacity also should to apportion by humanity and compassion. Our wide arena will aid you and your family members to live a lovable life.

[fairycosmos]

is this life even worth it why are we all trying so hard

honestly i don't know. i want to say yes even if i don't always believe it because i feel like everyone sort of inherently knows that there is so much potential in life and that's exactly why we're all trying so hard. not necessarily for personal gain or to get ahead, but because small moments of true happiness and clarity are so addicting and special and vital to the human experience. even in the modern world, as unnatural and as hellish as it is, there's still enough to cling onto. generally speaking, it's easy to want to die or to crave oblivion, but there's something that keeps us marching forwards and i think part of it is due to the opportunity we get each morning to try again, to constantly rebuild and morph ourselves over the course of the months and years. i suppose a part of you knows that being alive is rare, not something you can just easily pass up even if sometimes you genuinely want to. regardless of everything, you're here. you might as well stick around to see it. it sounds cheesy, and there's no all encompassing answer, at least not one that i've found. i don't know about your individual existence, what it's like and what's making you question whether or not life is worth it, but i know that just being in that position is a very painful and lonely place to be. and i'm really sorry. you deserve more, and you will find it. it's totally natural and within your right to want to give up sometimes. being a person is completely exhausting. i can't put into words how terrible it can be. small pockets of contentment often don't feel worth the crushing weight of being scared and self aware and existentially fraught. and i get that. then the question becomes 'how do i handle this?' rather than 'is it worth it, what am i recieving from this?', because sometimes there's nothing to gain. i reckon it might help you to talk to someone about it, even if your brain automatically rejects the idea. suicidal thoughts aren't normal but they're somewhat common and it's alright to say it out loud, to let others know what's happening. whether it's a friend, your doctor, your parents, a hotline, a teacher.....i say it all the time, but only cause i can't stress it enough. please give it some honest thought. there's no shame in sharing the weight of things. no shame in learning how to reach out. you can't control the turmoil in the world but you can control the present moment, what you choose to do with it and whether or not you're going to help yourself. it's easier said than done. growth only comes with time and perspective, and that's alright. you are going to get to a point where you can accept the power you have, and the power you don't have. you're not always going to be where you are the moment, not if you don't want to be. take it one day at a time, man. not every second is worth it, but the greater picture probably will be, at least that's what i'm hoping. let's be cautiously optimistic together for a while.

[postimpression]

I’ve been quiet the past few days due to overwhelm and very big feelings, and am still struggling to gather thoughts. I know there are things that white people need to be doing and talking about right now, and I am trying to do those things. And what is also true in my body is that when I see Nazis marching, it doesn’t make me feel my whiteness so much as it makes me feel my Jewishness. I’m overwhelmed with Jewish feelings right now. I find it very hard to talk about the intersection of white privilege and Jewishness that I inhabit and that lives inside of me as a white-skinned Jew. I actually understand this complexity pretty well inside of myself but to try to discuss it with anyone who is not a white-skinned Jew like me makes me feel frightened and hopeless and, in the end, sleepy. I end up talking about white privilege a lot more than I do about the complex and layered thing that it is to be a white-skinned Jew. I’m not ashamed of the things that I say when I am talking about whiteness and what I am saying is true in my heart, but it is only part of what is true about my life and my history. By telling only part of the truth I end up feeling so invisible and so lonely, even though I am helping to invisibilize myself. I was exposed to the idea and the experience of white privilege very early in my life, but even so, it continues to take years and years and years to unfold for me, all the ways that I’m treated with forgiveness and second chances and softness and the benefit of the doubt, and a general default of respect for my body and my sovereignty. One time I lost my wallet inside of my own car and I was able to withdraw funds from my bank account, with just a library card and a utility bill and facts about my own life as my only forms of identification. That is whiteness! It is hard to see those things that have always been present in your life, which you may not know are absent in the lives of others, so as I said, the awareness slowly unfurls over the course of years. I am not denying any of this when I talk about what it is like to be both a white person and a Jew. Everything I am saying about white privilege is true, and everything I’m about to say about being a Jew is also true. Every oppression is special and unique and one of anti-Semitism’s key qualities is its rhythm. It is not relentless; it is cyclical. During the good times everyone but us starts to forget anti-Semitism and starts to think it is a thing of the past. During those times, the Jews who can — the ones who look white in the US, or the ones who could pass for German, or Spanish, or whoever were the people in power in the place where we were — would assimilate and accrue some degree of wealth and power and privilege. But then something goes wrong in that place — the economy crashes, unemployment rises, the wheels begin to fall off — and the active phase of anti-Semitism begins. We’re to blame for everything. We’re the secret conspiracy behind everything that has gone wrong. We’re not German anymore; we’re not Spanish anymore; we’re Jews. We’re the poison that everyone can agree on, the thing that everyone can hate. What I’m trying to say here is that the privilege that accrues during the good times is very much real, and I am not denying or hiding that. It is also true that the privilege is provisional, and can be revoked, and becomes the very thing that is used against us when the shoe finally drops. It overwhelms me trying to explain this history and how both of these things live inside my body: the very real privilege but also the very real and repeated experiences of expulsion, scapegoating, genocide, and terror. I talk about the part that is easier, but then I end up feeling very alone. When I was younger and people would ask if I was Jewish I would say, “My grandparents are Jewish,” as if it is something we had grown out of after a few generations in this country. My last name — my Jewish, Jewish name — was something that I always hated, and in high school I wanted so badly to change it. I once saw the name “Pruitt” on a gravestone and thought that it was the most beautiful thing. Now I am so thankful to my name, and to my hair and even to my face, which have always marked me as a Jew and kept me tethered to myself. Sometimes I’m so astonished and grateful to my ancestors who stayed Jewish, generation after generation, when it was not strategic or safe to do so. Now I’ve grown into my name and I will be a Jew until there is nothing else left. When I read that the synagogue in Charlottesville was surrounded by armed Nazis and that the people smuggled the Torah scrolls out of the building to hide them, I wept. I want you to know what a Torah scroll is because I want you to understand. We are a people of the book and that is Our Book; we are a people of memory and that is our memory. It is written on sheep skin and it is handwritten, every letter. A Torah scroll is difficult to make and because of that there are not very many of them. It is not a book that you buy in a store. In some ways it has the status of a human being. It wears a breastplate like the priests did in the ancient Temple. When it passes by we touch it with our prayer shawl and then we put the shawl to our lips, a way to kiss it without touching, and a scroll may stand in for a human person in reaching a minyan (the quorum required to recite certain prayers). It is written without vowels, without punctuation, without the markings that tell you how to sing it, yet there is a way to sing every single word of it; one thing you may not know about me is that I know how to do this. When you read from it you don’t touch it with your own finger, but you use a pointer which is itself shaped like a finger. It is our past and our future and so it is treated like the most respected elder and also the most precious child. It has a home: inside the ark, with the ner tamid (“the light, always”), in the sanctuary. I want you to understand this because I want you to know how important it is to protect a Torah scroll and what it means to be separate from it. I want you to understand how much pain and how much fear a Jewish community is in when they take the scrolls from their proper home and hide them in someone’s basement. I want you to understand why, when I read that, I felt so heartbroken and so afraid. This intersection of privilege and terror that is being a white-skinned Jew is very complicated. I am struggling with it from the inside. I want people who care for me and for other Jews to struggle with it from the outside. I want you to try to understand us. I want you to know that we’re not just like regular white people, only louder and with more movement of hands. We’re a complicated and layered thing. To understand us you have to go both backward and forward in time. You have to understand that Jewish time is like geologic time, that 150 or 500 years between expulsions is not that long; it’s not long enough to forget, or to rest. Please fight to understand us, in all of our complexity. I also want you to try to love us. It has always felt true to me that we are not liked. Many people like me as an individual person, but I have always felt that my truest Jewish self is not a loved and welcomed thing, and that as a collective whole, we are not wanted. I have felt over the past few years that my constant work of being smart and funny and helpful, my efforts to feed everyone and be of use are not just something I came up with personally but are Jewish in origin. It’s not that I’m trying to set myself apart from other Jews by being good good good, but I am trying to offset the inherent deficit of being at my core an unlikable Jew. I would love so much to not feel this way. I would love to feel like my whole Jewish self is a beloved and valued thing. We are all working hard to survive and thrive, to love and resist in these times. Thank you for reading this and for everything that you are doing to fight for yourself and others.

Danica Bornstein, August 18

[astrolocherry]

Aquarius - Devoting from a Distance 

Aquarius can be the most elusive sign in love. Collective romance sweeps through intellectual Aquarius. Their humanitarian qualities are impossible to ignore. And they flood with love, but they are a diamond in the rough, and their love is not reserved for you. It is reserved for mother earth, for sea life and tree life, for experience, learning, culture, and progression. Aquarians typically resist drama or soaking emotion in love. The born explorer retains heavy guard over independence and the freedom of thought and expression. They will rarely let another human influence their decisions, morale, or values. The crystal, airy glass wall can be erected before Aquarius. Detachment gives them a cool and casual approach to love and social processes in general. Aquarius is certainly romantic. Unusual gestures, sharp minds, freedom fighters, these personalities shock jolt the electric Aquarius heart. And this heart is so often repressed by constant, chaotic thoughts, embarrassment, and the fear of vulnerability. They have subtle ways of expressing their feelings, and its of the Aquarian nature to be paradoxical in everything they do. Love with Aquarius is stimulating, playful, enlightening and above all, confusing. One of the zodiac’s biggest hearts is constantly combating dissociation, indifference and a fear of sentimentality. The heavier the emotion, the more increasingly uncomfortable or agitated Aquarius becomes.

Saturn is the ruler of Aquarius and the cold, dry planet is renowned for stifling innocence, vulnerability, creativity, and sensitivity. Aquarians are highly responsive to pain and cruelty, but they rarely let emotionality take over. Often they consciously decide to keep a safe distance from their own feelings, banishing them so they can be directed into something more meaningful, so they are not so messy or invasive. Love can be displayed through wisdom and guidance, through sharing their most outstanding ideas, through giving you freedom to be yourself, and wander, and love in your own lyric. It’s true Aquarius can be overcome with emotion. So many Aquarians have Pisces influence in the chart. Aquarius is the sign of rain so crying provides an excellent cleanse. But its rare to see an Aquarius indulge in emotional displays, they can feel shame or insufficiency. The humanitarian directs love on behalf of the greater collective, ensuring survival of the most innocent and assaulted. And yet, the Aquarius rarely self-soothes, often comparing and diminishing their trauma to others and forcing themselves to survive in isolation. When Aquarius fails to reveal their feelings of sadness or hopelessness to lovers, their distance and silence can cut like a knife.

The Aquarius has an unconscious fear that desire for one person will extinguish their flame. The sign of tribes, groups, and community are programmed to scatter their love amongst humanity rather than direct it one on one. This is why so many Aquarians become teachers, medical researchers, volunteers, and public health advocates - they feel inherent responsibility and love for people, especially children and animals. The Aquarius can deeply desire love, but their nature makes it more elusive than it need be. Aquarians are not suspicious, but any form of betrayal will rip them into pieces, because opening their heart was such an ordeal. They had to detangle bubblewrap and squeeze so many feelings into one person. Absence makes the Uranus heart grow fonder, and they are rarely lonely when they are alone. What they really seek is somebody they can ‘be alone with’, that is, retain their normal routine with somebody to bounce energy off. The Aquarius will probe and provoke your deepest and darkest realms, but don’t expect access to theirs. Like an internal roller coaster, the complexities of Aquarius are confusing and exhilarating, each gesture of love navigated by intellect and thought. Something traditionally romantic could make them giggle and disengage. Something stimulating, exciting, a place, a person, somebody just vibrating to their own frequency, is what melts the Aquarian heart. Light, breezy, and sanguine individuals, Aquarians rarely notice when someone is flirting or taking an interest, and they must be free to roam uninhibited in love. Someone as unique as Aquarius needs to wait for someone equally as special. And finding another diamond in the rough can take a lot of digging.

-C.

[travelonlinetips-blog]

New Post has been published on https://travelonlinetips.com/professor-g-scott-hubbard-on-space-tourism-lonely-planets-travel-blog/

Professor G. Scott Hubbard on space tourism – Lonely Planet's travel blog

In this guest post, Stanford University’s Professor G. Scott Hubbard – former Director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, founding editor-in-chief of the New Space journal, and author of Exploring Mars: Chronicles from a Decade of Discovery – looks at whether the travel industry is heading for the final frontier.

Having been active in the US space program for 45 years, both with NASA and now Stanford, I’ve seen many proposals suggesting that personal space travel is right around the corner. While this topic has been discussed in science fiction for more than 60 years, making such an experience a reality has been hampered by significant obstacles, both technical and financial. However, during the last decade or two, the world has seen the emergence of wealthy space entrepreneurs who have hired top-notch engineers. Those teams may well now be on the verge of creating space travel for the (well-heeled) extreme adventurer.

Will you ever see this view from a spaceship’s window? © Michael Hopkins / NASA

Where is outer space?

The usual definition is that space begins at 100 kilometres/60 miles above the surface of the Earth where air is almost non-existent, and the clutch of gravity can be escaped. As a practical matter, NASA awards astronaut wings for any pilot that exceeds 50 miles even if he/she does not orbit Earth. (This is called a sub-orbital flight). For comparison, the US Space Shuttle flew at about 300 kilometres/188 miles); the International Space Station (ISS) orbits Earth at 250 miles; from the Earth to the Moon averages about 238,000 miles, and Mars is nearly 140 million miles away! All of these distances and destinations represent some form of space travel, but as you might imagine, the degree of difficulty increases radically the further one goes. As of this writing, over 500 people have been to space as defined above; the vast majority (355) on the Shuttle. But only 18 people have flown to the Moon. And of those, only 12 have walked on the lunar surface. No human has ever travelled to Mars.

What is a space tourist?

All of the people cited above had extensive training and were a member of some nation’s space program. Currently, only the US, Russia and China have the independent ability to launch someone into space. The notion of a private citizen with little or no special training going to space went from science fiction to fact with the trip by billionaire Dennis Tito to the ISS in 2001, aboard a Russian vehicle. A total of seven people have made this journey for a reported cost of USD$20m to $40m per trip. Clearly, this expense is out of the reach of all but the ultra-wealthy. So what about some less ambitious (and less expensive) trip to space – the travel to 50 to 60 miles in a so-called sub-orbital trajectory?

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo takes off for a suborbital test flight © GENE BLEVINS / Getty Images

Who’s in the game?

Space tourism as a trip to the edge of space (50 to 60 miles) with immediate return received a major boost with the Ansari X-Prize, which awarded $10m to any non-government group that could ‘build and launch a spacecraft capable of carrying three people to 100 kilometres above the Earth’s surface, twice within two weeks’. The prize was won in 2004 by a team funded by billionaire Paul Allen (the co-founder of Microsoft) using a design by the iconoclastic engineer Burt Rutan. The team was joined by another billionaire – Richard Branson of Virgin Group fame. Shortly after winning, Branson announced that a new company, Virgin Galactic, using the Rutan design, would soon begin offering sub-orbital flights for six people (and two pilots), providing four minutes of weightlessness. Another company, XCOR Aerospace, formed during the same period, began to develop a smaller vehicle that would carry one pilot and passenger. Finally, the world’s richest person, Jeff Bezos founder of Amazon, quietly created the company Blue Origin with similar goals in 2000. In the sparse public reports from Blue Origin, their first market is sub-orbital tourism, followed by orbital flight and trips to the Moon. Bezos has said he is spending about $1bn a year on Blue Origin.

What’s the price point?

Virgin Galactic has given a price of about $200,000 per person. XCOR Aerospace (which has since suspended operations) planned to provide a similar flight for reportedly $50,000. (Independent surveys have indicated that extreme adventure with a price tag of $50,000 would begin to attract a great deal of interest.) Blue Origin’s price tag is said to be $250,000. It is worth noting that the other high-profile space entrepreneur, Elon Musk and his company SpaceX, has not entered the sub-orbital business. However, in a public speech in 2016 (which you can read in New Space for free), Musk predicted he would be able to send individuals to Mars for about $140,000.

People watch as a SpaceX rocket takes off from Canaveral National Seashore © Paul Hennessy / Getty Images

What are the risks?

Travel to space is inherently risky, but then so is climbing Mt Everest. During the 135 flights of the Shuttle program, there were two major accidents with loss of crew and vehicle: Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003. By that measure, the chance of dying in a trip to orbit is around 1 ½%. One would assume that a sub-orbital flight would be safer, but the initial flights of Branson’s Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo have already produced one test pilot fatality. High-speed rocketry with propulsion of controlled chemical explosions is still a challenge. In addition, there are the biomedical risks of subjecting a ‘normal’ population to some of the rigours of space travel: high accelerations up to eight times Earth’s gravity, weightlessness where some experience debilitating space sickness and greater than average radiation exposure. Fortunately, experiments by Dr James Vanderploeg from the University of Texas indicate that individuals of ages 18 to 85 with a variety of common issues (artificial joints, controlled hypertension, pacemaker implants, etc) can easily withstand simulated trips using ground centrifuges and parabolic aeroplane flights. This can also be read in New Space.

When will this happen?

The sub-orbital space tourism community has collectively been surprised that it is now almost 15 years since the X-Prize was won, yet there are no regular flights of SpaceShipTwo or the New Shephard of Blue Origin. The answer mostly lies in the realm of technical issues; in a way, it is ‘rocket science’. Virgin Galactic has struggled to find a propulsion system that will operate smoothly to propel the six passengers to at least 50 miles. However, a very recent successful test in February of 2019 gives an indication that Virgin Galactic may be almost ready. Blue Origin has been very secretive about their progress, but it appears from test flights that the New Shephard is also nearing operational status.

Barring another accident, I think 2019 will see the first tourist flights to the edge of space and back. All it will take is $200,000 and the willingness to sign an ‘informed consent’ document!

To find out more about space entrepreneurship and innovation, check out the New Space journal. Professor Hubbard’s book, Exploring Mars: Chronicles from a Decade of Discovery, is available from the University of Arizona Press, as well as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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[tripstations]

Professor G. Scott Hubbard on space tourism – Lonely Planet’s travel blog

In this guest post, Stanford University’s Professor G. Scott Hubbard – former Director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, founding editor-in-chief of the New Space journal, and author of Exploring Mars: Chronicles from a Decade of Discovery – looks at whether the travel industry is heading for the final frontier.

Having been active in the US space program for 45 years, both with NASA and now Stanford, I’ve seen many proposals suggesting that personal space travel is right around the corner. While this topic has been discussed in science fiction for more than 60 years, making such an experience a reality has been hampered by significant obstacles, both technical and financial. However, during the last decade or two, the world has seen the emergence of wealthy space entrepreneurs who have hired top-notch engineers. Those teams may well now be on the verge of creating space travel for the (well-heeled) extreme adventurer.

Will you ever see this view from a spaceship’s window? © Michael Hopkins / NASA

Where is outer space?

The usual definition is that space begins at 100 kilometres/60 miles above the surface of the Earth where air is almost non-existent, and the clutch of gravity can be escaped. As a practical matter, NASA awards astronaut wings for any pilot that exceeds 50 miles even if he/she does not orbit Earth. (This is called a sub-orbital flight). For comparison, the US Space Shuttle flew at about 300 kilometres/188 miles); the International Space Station (ISS) orbits Earth at 250 miles; from the Earth to the Moon averages about 238,000 miles, and Mars is nearly 140 million miles away! All of these distances and destinations represent some form of space travel, but as you might imagine, the degree of difficulty increases radically the further one goes. As of this writing, over 500 people have been to space as defined above; the vast majority (355) on the Shuttle. But only 18 people have flown to the Moon. And of those, only 12 have walked on the lunar surface. No human has ever travelled to Mars.

What is a space tourist?

All of the people cited above had extensive training and were a member of some nation’s space program. Currently, only the US, Russia and China have the independent ability to launch someone into space. The notion of a private citizen with little or no special training going to space went from science fiction to fact with the trip by billionaire Dennis Tito to the ISS in 2001, aboard a Russian vehicle. A total of seven people have made this journey for a reported cost of USD$20m to $40m per trip. Clearly, this expense is out of the reach of all but the ultra-wealthy. So what about some less ambitious (and less expensive) trip to space – the travel to 50 to 60 miles in a so-called sub-orbital trajectory?

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo takes off for a suborbital test flight © GENE BLEVINS / Getty Images

Who’s in the game?

Space tourism as a trip to the edge of space (50 to 60 miles) with immediate return received a major boost with the Ansari X-Prize, which awarded $10m to any non-government group that could ‘build and launch a spacecraft capable of carrying three people to 100 kilometres above the Earth’s surface, twice within two weeks’. The prize was won in 2004 by a team funded by billionaire Paul Allen (the co-founder of Microsoft) using a design by the iconoclastic engineer Burt Rutan. The team was joined by another billionaire – Richard Branson of Virgin Group fame. Shortly after winning, Branson announced that a new company, Virgin Galactic, using the Rutan design, would soon begin offering sub-orbital flights for six people (and two pilots), providing four minutes of weightlessness. Another company, XCOR Aerospace, formed during the same period, began to develop a smaller vehicle that would carry one pilot and passenger. Finally, the world’s richest person, Jeff Bezos founder of Amazon, quietly created the company Blue Origin with similar goals in 2000. In the sparse public reports from Blue Origin, their first market is sub-orbital tourism, followed by orbital flight and trips to the Moon. Bezos has said he is spending about $1bn a year on Blue Origin.

What’s the price point?

Virgin Galactic has given a price of about $200,000 per person. XCOR Aerospace (which has since suspended operations) planned to provide a similar flight for reportedly $50,000. (Independent surveys have indicated that extreme adventure with a price tag of $50,000 would begin to attract a great deal of interest.) Blue Origin’s price tag is said to be $250,000. It is worth noting that the other high-profile space entrepreneur, Elon Musk and his company SpaceX, has not entered the sub-orbital business. However, in a public speech in 2016 (which you can read in New Space for free), Musk predicted he would be able to send individuals to Mars for about $140,000.

People watch as a SpaceX rocket takes off from Canaveral National Seashore © Paul Hennessy / Getty Images

What are the risks?

Travel to space is inherently risky, but then so is climbing Mt Everest. During the 135 flights of the Shuttle program, there were two major accidents with loss of crew and vehicle: Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003. By that measure, the chance of dying in a trip to orbit is around 1 ½%. One would assume that a sub-orbital flight would be safer, but the initial flights of Branson’s Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo have already produced one test pilot fatality. High-speed rocketry with propulsion of controlled chemical explosions is still a challenge. In addition, there are the biomedical risks of subjecting a ‘normal’ population to some of the rigours of space travel: high accelerations up to eight times Earth’s gravity, weightlessness where some experience debilitating space sickness and greater than average radiation exposure. Fortunately, experiments by Dr James Vanderploeg from the University of Texas indicate that individuals of ages 18 to 85 with a variety of common issues (artificial joints, controlled hypertension, pacemaker implants, etc) can easily withstand simulated trips using ground centrifuges and parabolic aeroplane flights. This can also be read in New Space.

When will this happen?

The sub-orbital space tourism community has collectively been surprised that it is now almost 15 years since the X-Prize was won, yet there are no regular flights of SpaceShipTwo or the New Shephard of Blue Origin. The answer mostly lies in the realm of technical issues; in a way, it is ‘rocket science’. Virgin Galactic has struggled to find a propulsion system that will operate smoothly to propel the six passengers to at least 50 miles. However, a very recent successful test in February of 2019 gives an indication that Virgin Galactic may be almost ready. Blue Origin has been very secretive about their progress, but it appears from test flights that the New Shephard is also nearing operational status.

Barring another accident, I think 2019 will see the first tourist flights to the edge of space and back. All it will take is $200,000 and the willingness to sign an ‘informed consent’ document!

To find out more about space entrepreneurship and innovation, check out the New Space journal. Professor Hubbard’s book, Exploring Mars: Chronicles from a Decade of Discovery, is available from the University of Arizona Press, as well as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

The post Professor G. Scott Hubbard on space tourism – Lonely Planet’s travel blog appeared first on Tripstations.

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[igorrmayer-blog]

There seems to be a lot of confusion about who we are, and I feel obliged as an Indigo child myself, to answer this question for you. 

The short answer is; Indigo Children are the next stage of human evolution, they are here to make a positive contribution to the world, and bring about a positive change in the global consciousness. 

The human being was is more than a physical being, he is a complex multidimensional entity, with a whole array of senses and a limitless potential. The five physical senses we are all accustomed with; sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch are only a tip of an iceberg of the capabilities of a human being. 

The human being receives data from his physical and subspace senses, as well as his intellects, that interconnects to his physical conscious and subconscious mind, as well as his subspace mind. His subspace or subtle abilities originate from the soul, which is the higher self existing beyond space and time, and is entangled with the universal consciousness. The subspace mind is constantly receiving information from the non-physical channels, and filtering it to the physical mind, of which most is lost as it passes from the universal consciousness to the subspace mind - to the subconscious and then to the conscious 

mind. This information is of three types; divine, spiritual and psychic 

Divine information is information that originates from creation, or the universal consciousness. 

Spiritual information is information that originates from the spiritual realms, from discarnate entities. 

Psychic information is information that is obtained from the etheric realm and the etheric records. 

All humans beings receive this information, in the form of thoughts, revelations, imaginations and intuition but their link to their higher self and the universal consciousness is weak. Indigo is just a label for a particular breed of humans beings that are born with a stronger connection and link to their higher self, with innate knowledge, direction and abilities. In the same way a child is born with an innate knowledge of science or music. The more there are of us, the more positive our global consciousness becomes, and eventually when there is a critical mass of Indigos, humanity as a whole will transision to the next stage of evolution, as an effect of morphogentic field, where all our children will be born as Indigos. 

However, you do not have to be born an Indigo Child to be an Indigo Child, it is only a state of mind and being, that we all can attain. That is the role of an Indigo Child, to teach others how to attain this state of mind. 

Indigo children are very inventive, intelligent, imaginative and intuitive. They are usually very sensitive, emotionally and psychically and lead socially reclusive lives, because they find it inherently difficult to 

relate and indulge in normal human rituals, and are often confused about their own individual identity and purpose, but have a knowing at a deeper level of being, that they have a very special purpose - it's just finding it. They are naturally attracted to esoteric and creative fields from as early as their heydays. Many are also very sexual and experiment with their sexuality. Indigo Children are especially very rebellious, and do not bode well with rules and regulations, especially if it infringes and impedes on their free will and creative sensitivities. Most are naturally concerned for the ecosystems, the world and animal life. Many are vegetarians(not always true) and love the company of animals. 

When an Indigo Child finds himself/herself, they shine like a star and their radiance becomes infectious. You will feel the brilliance of their aura in their vicinity. They are like angelic humans that can brighten up and bring a smile to anyone�s face, much like a child. When they speak, they will speak poetry and play with words with complete ease and abandon, with a soothing and harmonious tone. This is why they are naturally 

teachers and love to teach and enlighten others. 

However, an Indigo Child�s life is usually very hard, lonely and traumatic. They require a lot of love, nurturing, caring and intellectual and spiritual stimulation. They flare up like a volcano at the slightest provocation. They are extremely irritable and anger prone, and absolutely despise stupidity and generally have misanthropic(hate people) attitudes. If they are not handled and stimulated properly in their early days, they will begin to develop a whole range of psychological problems, and thus their performance in life and in academics becomes severely impaired. This leads to suicidal tendencies, and if there is no resolve to their life in sight, they will likely commit suicide. 

This is why a group has formed called the "Indigo Children" it partially answers the identity and purpose we are seeking and gives us direction in life, and it also allows for us to intermingle with like-minded people

[healthmasterlove-blog]

Using shea butter on face

What is Shea Butter?   Shea-butter is a epidermis super-food that arrives from the seeds of this fruit of the Shea (Karite) shrub and that's naturally full of vitamins A, F and E.  It gives UV protection (it really is SPF ~6) and  your skin with fatty acids and also the nourishment necessary for collagen production.  Shea butter is found in Africa as well as other states for a long time to increase hair and skin thinning. Shea Butter Benefits Moisturizing: The concentration of pure vitamins and essential fatty acids in shea-butter makes it exceptionally nutritious and nourishing for skin.  It's frequently utilized to cure dry skin and also to help protect your skin's sebum. Reduces Illness: A 2010 analysis found that thanks to the cinnamic acid along with other all-natural properties, shea butter has been anti inflammatory.  (origin) One chemical in particular, lupeol cinnamate, can be utilized to decrease skin inflammation as well as possibly help prevent skin mutations.  Additionally, this makes it good to several individuals who have acne. Skin Care Smoothing: shea-butter assists in your skin's natural collagen production and also comprises oleic, stearic, palmitic and amino acids which protect and nourish your skin to stop drying.  With long term use, a lot of men and women report skin tightening and strengthening in addition to wrinkle loss. Create Your Very Own Homemade Lotion with One of All These 4 Basic Steps Shea Butter Programs Shea butter is among the very versatile all-natural splendor ingredients and that I use it daily at some sort.  I have used it for decades in all out of my homemade cream bars and authentic magnesium human body butter to both real lip balms and healing salves. A number of the Best applications for Shea-butter: On It's Own for body and face as a normal moisturizer At a shea butter cream bar stick for Simple usage Alone or in a maternity stretch markers salve to ward off stretch marks off Since the Very Best under-eye wrinkle remover along with bag-reducer For massage   In velvety soft whipped body butter Or fundamental homemade cream For a foundation for homemade deodorant For an SPF 6 epidermis cream In calcium Body-butter Being a normal Baby Care merchandise (lonely) or component in infant care recipes Alone onto the lips or at homemade Lipbalms Or Home-made shimmer Lipbalm To Increase skin elasticity (some actually say it assists with cellulite) About the scalp or hair (in conjunction along with additional All-natural components) In Home-made liquid creme base and cosmetics After sunlight or shore Experience of rejuvenate skin About the eyebrow before applying cosmetics to make it survive more Being a normal cuticle lotion On scars obviously help collagen generation About sore/raw noses throughout a cold or influenza What Type of Shea Butter is best? I just utilize raw, unrefined, Grade A Shea butter.  There are lots of elegant Shea butters which are odor white and free to be wholly white, however the refining procedure eliminates some of these properties that are beneficial. I purchase my shea-butter however it can on occasion be bought in local health food stores.  Only look for one that's: raw/unrefined unbleached All-natural Grade A TIP: Should you purchase unrefined shea butter so it hasn't yet been filtered and might contain trace contaminants of this shea nut.  I regularly lightly heat my shea butter before it only melts and pour through a cheese cloth or strainer to remove any particles.  After simmer, I pour that the shea-butter to acoustic molds at pre-measured amounts (tbsp, 1/4 cup( and so forth) such that it's about to utilize for pure splendor recipes. Shea-butter is for outside use only.  Request a doc or dermatologist before using, specially using inherent skin care conditions.  People that have nut allergies should avoid or assess using an allergist. Ever utilized Shea-butter?  How can it work with youpersonally? Read the full article

[marytewmey-blog]

Exactly how Can Spirituality Affect Your Household's Health and wellness?

In this round, we see the power and Spiritual connection between God/Divinity/Source, humanity and also all of life and that we are all individuations of the Whole; that everything is interrelated, interconnected and also synergistic. We are Souls having a human experience. We begin to look for to connect with and offer this Body/Whole that we are component of when we see ourselves and also whatever as a component of God/The ONE. Our lives become our spirituality demonstrated. Currently, I did, myself, grow up in received Lutheran churchly surroundings. My own grandpa married right into a family members that elevated up as numerous as six priests a generation. He was himself blessed and rode horseback as a missionary to exactly what was then the Canadian frontier. His child, my dad, has actually been a church artist and also choral conductor throughout his life. From my earliest memories, I retain a feeling of the inherent power of verse and songs to lift the roof of a church as well as inspire delighted states - nevertheless concealed behind the reserve of field-weathered, Scandinavian and also teutonic faces. It is clear: Lutherans like to sing. Area & Educator Relationship. The partnership with the teacher, and also spending quality time in a community of professionals, is an useful method to not only discover the practice, however absorb the gist of it. An area uses: support in getting rid of problems en route; motivation; understanding on the finer facets of technique; solutions; and also similar individuals with whom to relate. Belief. A person's most deeply held beliefs highly influence his/her health and wellness. Some researchers think that faith raises the body's resistance to stress and anxiety. In a 1988 professional research study of females undertaking bust biopsies, the ladies with the most affordable stress and anxiety hormone levels were those that used their faith and also prayer to cope with stress and anxiety. As well as, of course, there is the vital ingredient called Love. Love can tackle lots of forms: Divine love, domestic love, romantic love, love for self, as well as acting in a loving way. Here is an intriguing fact: Falling in love" with a person from the opposite or exact same sex is really based on a bodily response, and also you will hit rock bottom unless this initial sensation does not develop into actual love within 18 months. There are books covered how this happens, so please forgive us for not reviewing it right here! Freedom is not a response; liberty is not a choice. It is man's pretence that due to the fact that he has choice he is cost-free. Liberty is pure observation without direction, without anxiety of penalty and also benefit. Flexibility is without motive; liberty is not at the end of the advancement of man but lies in the primary step of his existence. In monitoring one starts to uncover the lack of flexibility. Freedom is found in the choiceless awareness of our day-to-day presence. At its finest, songs works as a tool of self-mastery and also concern. It is an experience of deep level communication - both between band members as well as between a target market and also a musician alike. It combines them. It inspires human as well as awe self-esteem. It creates self-forgetting as well as joy. It maintains the lonely firm, gaming consoles the broken-hearted. It bespeaks possibilities of hope as well as elegance as well as presents us with the secrets to the secret doors within us all. And all of this is feasible without the utterance of a solitary verse or overt declaration of a language apart from that of songs itself. As a professional social employee, I have actually constantly thought that a customer's spirituality is necessary to think about in the assisting procedure. I have become extra persuaded lately that tapping into a client's spirituality could be an important way of empowering them in the aiding procedure. Many customers have spiritual and spiritual problems with which they need assistance. A publication on a mentally delicate approach to practice, I pertained to recognize, would certainly be a special payment in assisting community service and various other helping experts take this topic on in a much more severe method than they might have performed in the past. Naturalism becomes an effective source in stimulating the spiritual feedback and also supplying a merged cognitive context within which it could be translated once we let go of conventional definitions of spirituality. By abjuring ghosts as well as spirits we find our real place in the cosmos, where Presence changes Function, function replaces essence, and also shock replaces safety and security. It turns out we are of one nature, not two, a nature shared by all we see as well as know. http://www.fscenter.org/