#lessons we learn

[findingher]

It's Autumn, but she doesn't care much, and decided to bloom anyway

[vices-n-virtues]

I could be wrong but I get the sense that you're a traveler, wondering if the joys of traveling have taught you have taught you any life lessons you want to share? Your blog is ethereal btw

Very few things are more exciting to me than traveling, it´s food for the soul. I´ve been to some amazing places, learned a lot, but one thing that really got inside my head is not to judge. Our nature asks for labels and patterns to classify everything, so we have this illusion of control. But life is so much more complicated than right or wrong, and most of the times we know nothing to analyze a situation properly. The only person we can judge is ourselves, our actions. And very carefully. Thank you for your ask  :)

[thatonebirdwrites]

did i send you one already? i might be hallucinating

ANYWAY let's talk have you talk about the james and lena relationship por favor for that reverse unpopular ask meme

Oh, you're really making this incredibly hard! Whew.

Something positive about James and Lena's relationship?

Hmmm. I'll dig into how they impact each other. This will only look at the James and Lena strands of the larger Superfriends and Kara ecosystem. (To example the larger ecosystem would require an essay I think.)

First off, their connection shows the growth James has, where he goes from being incredibly distrustful of Lena due to her last name, to dating her a season and a half after her first appearance. He recognizes he was wrong in how he originally treated her, owns up to his bias, and strives to do better. Since he isn't really one to admit when he's wrong, this was surprisingly mature of him. Even after their break-up, he treats Lena respectfully and kindly, which also shows his growth and maturity.

This owning up to his bias influences how he deals with Children of Liberty. He approaches them not only to infiltrate their ranks and figure out what they are really up to, but also to de-radicalize members who may be more on the fence then they appear. His work to deradicalize some of them has mixed results, but the fact he tries is still important.

However, his approach is not something Lena approves of as she finds working with the group incredibly dangerous. They have a fight over it, and that fight is rooted in not - at first - understanding the reasons and ethical considerations the other has.

And yet, Lena still learns from this interaction herself, because she does try to talk to Lockwood and better understand why he is the way he is. She even gives him the truth of how Lex is using him, not only because it might lead her to Lex, but also because she doesn't think he'd be acting the way he was if he knew the full truth. Lena leans very heavily into a strong desire for truth, even if her life itself is shrouded in half-truths and lies by omission. For her, the more information she has, the better the informed decision. (A lesson James also learns from her.)

So in a way, their friendship with the other impacts how they interact with Children of Liberty.

Also, there are several scenes of James and Lena discussing race, which really opens Lena's eyes to something she intellectually seemed to know (since she's well-read), but never actually *considered* in regards to daily-life impact. This, in turn, pushes her away from a more conservative leaning (that the Luthors drilled into her due to being billionaires and unethical) toward a more progressive outlook. She'd already been leaning that way due to her work with the Kara and the Superfriends (considering over half of that group is aliens), but James's impact also pushes her further to the left.

When Lena decides to take the government contract, James takes a stand against it based on his ethics. Lena, on the other hand, stands firm with her idea that she can somehow use this to improve the world. Both seek equality, but how they approach it majorly differs. They clash here in a way that feels irreconcilable, and the romantic part of the relationship ends.

However, later in season 4, we see James and Lena working together to find Lex. Their romance may be gone and dead, but they still show support to the other as platonic friends. Lena reveals her regret at taking the government contract since it wasn't used for good at all in the end. She has a few lines with James in those episodes that shows how she finally comes to understand his concerns about the ethics of harun-el and the contract itself.

Although her hunt for the antidote to harun-el is to help James and stop her brother, she also shows a better understanding of the ethics of the contract and harun-el itself. Of how her work did not improve life for people, but instead gave tremendous power to those causing harm.

James, in turn, does come to understand why Lena took the contract, even if he ultimately disagrees. He sees how she wants an even playing field for everyone, even if her approach was rather grey in a moralistic sense. This impacts his decisions in season 5 actually, when he goes back to his hometown with Kelly. Instead of going into judge-mode (like he might have done in Season 2 and early 3), he seeks to understand the dynamics of his hometown and what is happening there. He decides to assist his hometown in evening the playing field (to build up toward equality and equity), but his approach to it differs from Lena's.

Lena has a tendency toward using science to even the playing field and push for equality. James, on the other hand, uses written word and conversations to build up a movement for that same goal. He learns how to engage the community, but his growth here wouldn't have been possible without Lena (and his other friends) acting as his foil. To point out his own biases.

For Lena, her redemption is impacted by things she learned from James. She even partially quotes something he said in her dialogue with Kara during her redemption period. So although it takes her much longer to process the lessons learned from James, she still comes to an understanding, and it influences her approach to situations in later seasons.

So although their romantic relationship had no chemistry and made no sense, they end up assisting the other in better understanding the world, their unconscious biases, and ethical considerations of situations faced.

What they teach each other is part of an ecosystem, because both James and Lena learn from Kara and the others, and this interwoven web propels their understanding of themselves and their world forward.

They could have still been these foils for the other without the romance, and I posit the show would have been better if they had never been romantically together. But I do think their platonic friendship has helped them be better people in the end.

Of course, all of the above is just a piece of the larger puzzle of the ways Kara, Lena, and the other Superfriends impact and influence one another. Each lesson they learn, each time they better understand one another -- it's all part of the growth ecosystem that slowly unfurls over time due to the nature of conversations, conflict resolution (or lack thereof), and overlapping goals.

What we do, say, and believe has an impact on those around us, and although the CW wasn't always particularly good at writing this impact (and keeping the growth consistent), that growth is still visible in the show itself. It takes a little digging to find it sometimes.

Anyway, thank you for asking! It got me thinking about the interwoven tapestry that is Lena, James, Kara, and the others and how they impact one another.

[tippenfunkaport]

You know, it would be amazing if Hollywood learned the right lesson from the success of Nimona. Something like "Hey, maybe don't throw out a nearly done movie as a tax write off" or "people want queer stories" or even "don't be afraid to take some storytelling risks and be original" but you just know they're going to come away with some absolutely batshit takeaway like, "next time delete all the evidence and burn it to the ground so the gays can't make us look bad!"

[naomistares]

mini comic about a kinda freaky terrible queen and the nonsensical takes she has about the times people have tried to kill her

(more thoughts in notes)

UP NEXT! ANOTHER short comic, (and then one more) this time taking place one month before the kings death, in which we will have: one annoying prince! one lousy fight scene! rejoice's dismissive nature! and row reveals a secret.... tune in next time for all that

[om-chats]

i really love the thought of these two always ripping out eachothers asses just because even though MC is the one doing all the leg work but yknow

[chirrups]

they got that dawg in them!

[brighteuphony]

Sakura gets her first lesson in Genjutsu with Saeko. Based on the idea that humans have more than 5 basic senses (though there's no real science behind how many, with some saying 21, while others say up to 33).

Saeko is not actually a Hoshigaki- though they are very very distantly related. She is actually a Ningyo (mermaid) exiled from her coven, and living as a pariah, cursed to wander the earth, barred from the seas and rivers until she can get her pearl back.

As a mermaid-siren, she is intimately aware of the power of genjutsu (especially audial) and is a vicious teacher, forcing Sakura through rigorous training to teach her young charge how to understand and control her own senses/emotions before she attempts to do so on others.

Once again, thank you so much to everyone whose shown interest in this AU, you guys are giving me LIFE <3 <3. I'm so happy other people really feel that Sakura deserved a fighting chance. Together, we'll fix her!!!

[proselles]

Getting older is realizing bill cipher was sexier as a triangle anyway.

[lewiscarrolatemybrain]

Friendly reminder that the suffering and torment Xie Lian experienced actually made him LESS kind, and the lessons he learned as a result of that pain were that human life is meaningless and compassion is worthless and people don't deserve your help or care or love for them. Xie Lian had to backtrack and reject these new lessons in favor of the old ones he had already known in order to return to being kind.

Xie Lian losing everything he loved and knew, being stripped of his power, autonomy, safety, and community, and being ridiculed and humiliated, did not teach him anything worth knowing. He did not learn any valuable or important lessons from it. In fact, he needed to consciously decide that he wasn't going to let it change him and work to go back to the person he was before all that shit happened in order to avoid turning evil.

[intermundia]

[findingher]

Olà! What are your favorite plants/flowers ?

Olá! You know, only recently I´ve learned to enjoy plants. I couldn´t understand why they would wilt and die since I gave them plenty of water (obviously I was drowning the poor things). I was too anxious and failed to understand that I was giving them what I wanted, not what they needed. Now, transfer that to life, replace water for love and that´s an important lesson I´ve learned 😑 I love plants with darker colors, but Im fascinated by their textures. Here it´s two of my fav, the anthurium is mine (pretty old, in her 60´s, the leaves are thick like velvet) and the camélia is from a trip to the hills last year (the contrast between the dark green leaves and the white is just amazing). Sorry I got carried away, just loved your ask 😊

[mindofserenity]

يجب على المرء أن يكون دائمًا على دراية بكل خطوة يتخذونها في رحلة الحياة هذه

One must always be soulfully aware for every step they take in this journey we call, life.

— mindofserenity

[firelise]

[greater-than-the-sword]

It can be true at the same time that pregnancy is natural and that pregnancy has risks, good grief people. The human condition is fallen and we live under that state. Everything has risks. Pregancy is not a disease but some pregnancies can become diseased. People have the unequivocal right to take certain risks, also. Like choosing home births. Obviously being away from a doctor during birth carries certain risks yet some people choose it and they are well within their rights to do so and to be accompanied by a person of their choosing. Because the alternative is living in an authoritarian state where healthy people can be kidnapped and subjected to unnecessary medical procedures against their will. And ultimately even if you think the people running the institution today are good and smart, equally so tomorrow the people with that power could be evil and corrupt. Better not to put that power in anyone's hands?? Why the heck is everybody so judgmental and also takes everybody else's decision as a personal attack on them good grief?

[bardicblast]