#not at all inspired by my own gender journey now in my mid 20s

[fieldsofview]

I desperately want to write a fic about how a beat down (and very good at compartmentalizing) Peter Parker only realizes that he is in fact a trans dude after the spider bite and going out in the suit

like, people coin him as Spider-Man (bc muscles and a sports-bra compressed chest make a certain silhouette) and it makes him stop and think

and then it's just like oooooooooh yep ok this was what I was ignoring for the last 2 decades

[bi-dazai]

Hey! You! Yes, you!

Do you like fantasy stories? Of course you do. 

Do you enjoy stories of teenagers trying to deal with the typical emotional hardships of being a teenager while also handling a revolution that involves swords, magic, occasional gods chiming in to help, and the power of friendship and learning to be confident in yourself? 

And do you like the promise of not one but several endgame gay pairings? Fantasy gay pairings?! Of course you do!

Then my new online serial is for you!

Priyana is the story of three teenagers - Nik, Rada, and Kane - who find their “fate on fast forward” when the most annoying yet strangely likable character I’ve ever written cruel Prince Leander arrives in their small town. After the prince captures Amarandos (the man who raised the trio), burns their home down, and vows to destroy the escaped three kids, our trio find themselves thrust abruptly into the destiny which they thought they would be following much later on. Vowing to rescue Amarandos and reclaim the throne from Prince Leander and the evil King Olbert, they venture across the land of Priyana, learning about the true, hidden history of their country and their family, and making friends, enemies, and mending a scarred populace on the way. 

The first book, Soul, follows the trio as they attempt to recapture Amarandos and struggle with the strange new existence they have been thrown headfirst into. With nothing but each other, they must learn to work as a team and not just as three moody teenagers raised by the same man. They journey to the mountain-enshrouded city of Nahvsenn, where they encounter a passionate, well-established underground rebellion simply awaiting the moment to finally take their city back from the evil King Olbert’s reign. Could our trio be the herald of that moment?

Priyana takes strong inspiration from Avatar: The Last Airbender in terms of the exploration of themes, worldbuilding style, our main characters’ relationships with the history of the land, and character development. It is written by a bisexual non-binary with an adoration for fantasy, the written word, and using fiction to criticise the ills of the society we live in.

A recommended minimum reader age would be approximately 10-12 years old, as the work contains some death, minor violence, and minor strong language.

Priyana will be published as an online serial, with the first 4 chapters published on the 12th January, 2019, the 5th chapter published on the 19th January, and the rest of the 19 total chapters of Book One: Soul being published fortnightly (every two weeks) from the 2nd February. It will be available as a PDF with occasional sketches for the series on a Google Drive (I will post the link to the folder on my Twitter and on this blog each time it is updated) and as a text-only version in the Original Work tag on Archive Of Our Own.

Chapters range between 2000-10,000 words, so it will only take 10-20 minutes out of your day to read a chapter. Sweet! And even better - it’s totally free. That’s right. A cool fantasy story, easy to read, not to long and overbearing, for free! *Keanu Reeves voice* Whoa.

And good news! If you are just so hyped for this series that you find yourself at the edge of your seat in anticipation for mid-January, well guess what! The first chapter is currently available as a sneak-peek preview! Nice! 

Check out the first chapter here! It will only take you about 10-15 minutes to read, and even less time to reblog and share the news! Because this is the only form of advertising this thing has! 

Even more information available under the cut:

I’ve been working on this almost exclusively over the last two years. Everything is so insanely thought-out and I’m sure I must have gone over everything over a million times now. So to say this means a lot to me is an understatement.

Certain tropes in this story are criticisms and deconstructions of common fantasy tropes, particularly tropes rooted in misogyny, racism, and xenophobia. Certain character beats are familiar to character beats in other stories that I wasn’t entirely happy with - for example, in Book 2A, there’s a character beat in Rada’s arc which is remarkably similar to a character beat in Sakura’s (from Naruto) early episodes. However, I never liked how Sakura’s character change from that beat (hint: when her hair gets chopped off) was so minimal, and often she would be acting like she would when she was first introduced. Rada is probably the best example of me using different character beats and subtly implementing them in hers to, at least in my opinion, show would could be instead done with said character beats.

So yeah, this story is in essence, a lot to me. If you’ve read and shared the news, it means the world to me. Each person that reads it I am eternally thankful for. Each person that shares it and recommends it even more so. 

This isn’t my first major writing project - I’ve been writing long-form chapter books all throughout my teens, with my first chapter book having been written when I was 10 years old (sidenote - that one is a preteen mess in which I introduce vampires out of absolutely nowhere and include a wizard called Carrot-Eye). However, this is the first project I’ve written with the intent of being seen by eyes other than those in my close community of friends and family, and instead being published for those all over the world.

I struggled for a while with whether or not I would charge for this work. I’ve spent so much time and effort on it, and every day has been spent buried in Priyana, that it almost feels unfair to myself to release it for free. But as my first work, and as a poor person with few industry contacts and no industry contacts that could help me in this format, I realised it would be unwise for me to charge for it, and would make it accessible to other poor people like me. Free stories, yall!

That being said, if this project reaches a certain level of success, I’ll happily open up a Patreon, Ko-Fi and maybe a few other routes of donation. It’s my dream to be a full-time writer, and I’ve poured so much of my heart into this project already that I’m fully sure this is what I want to spend the rest of my life doing. I want to make people think with my stories, but I also want them to enjoy them and escape from real life. I want people to fall in love with my characters, to experience their emotions and to connect with my work. I hope I can do that for as many people as possible.

I’m going to now set some promises, as this series is going to be published for many years to come and my promised gay pairings are, as I mentioned, endgame, so they will be happening later on. So the following things, I promise here and now, to uphold in this series:

- there will be both a WLW and a MLM pairing with major characters

- there will be time spent exploring the dynamic and romance of said pairings

- there will be a trans girl  (hint, hint: sister girl) major character with a major character as her love interest

- there is a nonbinary character from the first chapter, who although starts as a villain, undergoes a long arc in which they eventually decide to redeem themselves on their own terms

- i promise not to demonise the gender, ethnicity, race, or customs of any minority or minority-coded characters

- at least two major characters are mixed race, with issues of race, immigration, generalisation, and xenophobia explored from the perspective of racial minorities

- issues such as the above are explored with a mindset of long, long hours and days of research into real life scholars of race, gender, sociology, etc, and especially their perspectives on fantasy and allegory

Thank you for reading this, and if you did, thank you for reading that chapter and sharing!

-Natalya

[metaverseproductions]

Apocalypse Mind Share

Hello everyone out there! I am back! I know, it has been years and much has happened since. You’re probably curious as to what happened, in a way, me too. Sometimes writing things out helps us remember where we have been in order to know where we are going.

First of all, I came out of my cave for the first time because we are living in extraordinary times. A global pandemic with the COVID19 virus that is killing thousands of people, potentially millions within a few months if it cannot be controlled (as it seem to be the case). 

My mind drifts back to those days at Singularity University and Ray Kurzweil talking about the Singularity timeline, the 2045 Initiative starting soon after with their infamous “Open Letter to the United Nations”. I can’t believe the Dalai Lama jumped on-board, but more importantly, Ray signed it under his new role of Director of Engineering for Google! I was not surprised to see Google’s historical data of company acquisitions (one per week) starting 2012. It was epic to see Google give birth to Alphabet, acquiring and creating the tools it needed to build the Singularity. Yet it was still missing the magic sauce, the 5G network and DWave to make computational astrophysics a seamless integration of information spaces. 

There was also the underlying concern of the acquisition of Boston Dynamics and their military dog robots, which created an eerie sense of Terminator meets an apocalyptic future of hunting down “chipped” humans. Boston Dynamics has since been sold by Alphabet, and humanoid A.I. robots like Sophia were created, showcased around the world like a weird circus freak show, and then decommissioned because of their lack of empathy. Go figure, their vision of the future does not include humans.

Fast forward to mid 2012, I tore my achilles tendon which ended my days of glory in the tech world. At that point I was told that my blog was quite popular with Google employees, which came as a total shock because I thought no one read my blog. I had been writing and posting for myself, perhaps as a means to track my own personal leyend and remind myself of what I have achieved and accomplished in the times when I felt down, sad, depressed or like I hadn’t achieved anything with life. No I am not damaged goods, have never been on meds, but I have experienced (like most) challenges, gender discrimination, trauma stemming from being raped...but this writing is not about that, there will be other posts to address those topics at a later date. 

What this IS about is that long journey out of the hole I ended up in, 8 months to completely heal from the injury and be able to walk normally again. Being bed-ridden for weeks, then a wheelchair for months until I could handle crutches with excruciating pain. Trust me, anyone would feel like giving up during such a slow recovery. At the time we were living far from the city and my husband had to go to work, which meant I was alone most of the day and in bed unable to move. Amazing to see so many people on social media complaining about their “Self isolation” during the COVID19 pandemic, they have it easy compared to what I went through. Nevertheless, time went by and I came to realize I had to stop spending my day on social media trying to save what was left of my business contacts and network. No one was going to hire me anytime soon in a world that required hitting the ground running every day, travel, presentations, summits, face to face meetings, and physical production to stay relevant with the people that truly matter. The tech world sold the idea of remote work through telepresence, holographic displays, tele-conferencing, etc., but the reality was that it was not massively adopted or utilized for part-time or full-time distance-employment.

What I did manage to do during these hard times was vow to learn something new every day. So I went on an exploration of YouTube videos and open source tools, which taught be how to edit videos, create websites, get started on bitcoin and blockchain foundations, and then learn to use multiple audio and visualization platforms for Transmedia. I then took a deep dive into multiplayer gaming, and not just as an Avatar-user roaming the virtual creations of others, but as a builder of simulations. By the time I was done with my healing journey, my Avatar had gained more notoriety than my real life persona. I was co-producing virtual art experiences, like a concert inside of a Volcano, gallery openings and plays and then live-streaming to the real world. My Avatar was making virtual money as my real self was on unemployment.

Eventually, my family felt sorry for me so they hired me to manage the company finances. My parents and grandmother had been to the hospital within weeks of each other, so I felt the need to contribute and help out with their legacy as well. It was a decent exchange, for about a year, but as the saying goes “it’s not a good idea to do business with family”. I had completely given up my dream and was now living a reality of something that wasn’t my passion, only to realize I had dug myself in a deeper hole. I should have left sooner, but my sense of responsibility and “ I got this” blurred the way back to my life in Tech. Eventually when I did leave, it was hard to find work as most employers were not open to the value of being employed by the family business where I had a posh position that paid well. 

“Why did you leave”, is all I kept being asked.

What was I supposed to answer? Tell the truth about wanting to stand on my own two feet, not have to go into meetings where people kissed my ass because I was the daughter of the owners of the company. The employees did not value the work that I did or felt I deserved the title or position, and they were right. I could have been a hypocrite and ride that nepotism until the fat lady sings, but it is not right or optimal for the better good of the company.

I would opt to answer the “why did you leave” question with the general answer of  “I wanted to move toward a better opportunity”. Unfortunately most of the hiring managers I encountered didn’t consider their company or work as “a better opportunity”. It reminded me of the time at Burning Man in 2007 when I worked as a lead coordinator of Entheon Village, worked all week during the worst dust storms and winds, only to leave at night on break to “see the city” and “find the cool things to do” and have everyone I met tell me they were going to Entheon. Surely there must be other options.

Flash forward, I obviously had to recreate myself, start from zero and build from the ground up. It was no easy task! I had to swallow my pride and understand that if I had achieved great things before, I could do it again. 

Eventually I ended up going back to my roots of what inspired me about the Future in the first place. Guess where I landed? I closed my eyes and found myself in front of Ray Kurzweil again, talking about the Singularity and challenging us to positively impact 1 billion people in the next 10 years. I opened my eyes, looked at the calendar, how much time did I have to make that happen? Approximately 1 year and 8 months. Was I in a position to go for it? Yes, I had managed to get my foot in the door at a Fortune 300 that provides global food supply to over 100 countries. So what did I do? I applied to Harvard (HBS) and pitched the most batshit crazy personal statement imaginable, mentioned the goal of positively impacting 1 billion people by May 2021, and added the cherry on top of the cake by mentioning a disruption in 2020 that could potentially disrupt humanity, permanently. 

The result was an acceptance letter into the Harvard Business Analytics with Artificial Intelligence program AND a partial scholarship, the VP of Analytics for the Fortune 300 I work for agreeing to supply me with company data to build my case scenarios, Ethics and Compliance agreeing to back me legally with NDA’s to Harvard (after making me sign on the dotted line about “Safeguarding Company Information”). One month after this happened, the Coronavirus hit Wuhan, then spread to China, then became a global pandemic. Prophetic timing? 

I have some ideas about the Future, post-pandemic, which keep me up at night. They have to do with biological warfare for population control, nano-RFID’s implanted into critical mass via a vaccine, and Morpheus coming to a brain near you via 5G. Are you ready to go down the rabbit hole? Stay tuned for my next mind dump.

Disclosure: I am mind dumping right now, so yes, there will be spelling and grammatical mistakes. Remember, I am writing for me, not because I think anyone out there is following or reading this. However, if any Hollywood types want to use my Mind Dumps to pitch movie or Netflix ideas, include me in as a writer. Don’t just hijack my life and expect me not to find out. We live in a time of technology where you can’t get away with that anymore.

- PRH 3/28/20

[sincerely-womanonthemountain]

A Woman on the Mountain

A narrative of fact.

Abstract

The following paper is about the history of women mountaineers and the female relationship with mountain culture. There has been an increase of women attempting and conquering what males have in the past. Throughout my essay, there will be empirically verifiable data with scientific resources and academic journals readily available to make sure what your reading is fact based. I have also included labeled fact types, granular detail, auto-biographical detail, aggregated data, passive voice fact, and active voice fact, by using footnotes in order to keep the writing clean and organized. This research has lead me to continue digging further into this topic, and in 2020 I will be submitting paperwork to create San Jose State University's very own Alpine club in which will have a full female administration. In doing so, I hope to create a space in which one another can keep the heart of mountaineering strong and those in the club can support one another for the sake of adventure and enjoyment of the mountains. Leading by example as a strong female team is merely a step in the modern alpine direction.

A Woman on the Mountain

The alarm chimes at 1:00 A.M. at the base camp of Mount Shasta. My eyes were crusted as I slowly woke up to the unforgiving crisp air. The temperature measured at twenty degrees fahrenheit. Due to nerves of the forscene crux and fear of an unpredicted avalanche or rock fall, I reached about three hours of total sleep. A warm breath leaves from my dry cracked lips. It is so cold that you can see the air leave your lips underneath the light of my Black Diamond headlamp. I look to my left and I see my climbing partner Scott Carbough completely bundled in his zero degree sleeping bag still fast asleep. I lean over and shake him awake as I whisper, “Scott. It is time to summit.” I rolled over to my backpack and discovered my frozen socks from the day prior. Luckily I had packed two pairs. Sliding them on one by one I unzipped the tent and stared at my gleaming ice axe and crampons. The moonlight glossened against the snowpack that early A.M.. I looked up the mountain and had noticed several parties charging up the Red Bluff. Gaining courage, I rolled back into the tent and immediately began the process of getting my things ready for the summit day. On June 9, 2019 I, Nina Derksen, had conquered the prodigious Mount Shasta at 14,180 feet.

For centuries, seeing women climbing up a cliff side and summiting mountains has been a rare sight to see. Alan Arrette, a male alpine editor brings this to the public’s attention as he explains, “for decades climbing was a male-dominated sport—it still is. But the gender gap is slowly shrinking, and many women have made significant contributions to the sport. This year on Everest there are more women climbers than usual. Before 2018, of the 4,738 people to have summited Everest, 605 were women—that’s 12 percent. In 2018, there were 61 women climbers on the Nepal side and 49 made it to the top, or 18 percent of the total summitters. The 2019 records released by the Nepal Department of Tourism showed that women climbers account for 76 out of 375 permits (20 percent) issued to foreigners. China had the most women climbers with 20, followed by India (18), Nepal (six), the U.S. (four), and Lebanon, Norway, the U.K., and Greece all with three. Last year, the female summit success percentage was 80 percent, so using the same number, we can predict that we’ll see 61 summits this year, perhaps a record!” Female alpinists of the 2000s are beginning to see more equality as they continue to push the limits on the mountain.

The first female ascent on a mountain in winter conditions dates back to the late 1700s. Megan Walsh educates her readers that, “...the first recorded female ascent wasn’t until 1799, when the mysterious Miss Parminter climbed “on” Le Buet (10,157 feet) in the Alps of Savoy. Shortly thereafter, in 1808, Marie Paradis became the first woman to climb Mont Blanc. However, her ascent went widely unknown. Thus 30 years later, French aristocrat Henriette D’Angeville, outfitted with six porters, six guides, and a 14-pound outfit including multiple layers, a petticoat, and a feather boa, summited Mont Blanc and proclaimed herself the first woman to do so. She did this with flare, releasing a carrier pigeon and popping open champagne on the summit.” The outfits then to now are quite different. The technology has advanced with the goal of efficiency in fabric use, weight, and practicality. Mountaineers continue to use multiple layers while summiting mountains, but instead of a heavy petticoat, they wear light insulated Gore-Tex suits. Women who partook in mountaineering prior to the mid 1900s were put at a disadvantage as it was looked down upon to wear pants. Walsh continues to bring to our attention that in the 1800s, Meta, “...Brevoort was known for her “scandalous” fashion choices, often choosing pants over skirts on her ascents.” In the 19th century, a scholar by the name of Carol Mattingly researches women and appearance in relation to power. She exposes that, “how women appropriated gendered conceptions of dress and appearance to define the struggle for representation and power that is rhetoric.” Thus, when Meta Brevoort defied the unspoken dress code in the 1800s, she was performing an early act of feminist activism and exploiting her power to those who accompanied her on her journey. This activism was not through language per say, but through visual appearance thus making a statement.

With ambitious adventure comes a price that some must pay- death. This is known by any audacious soul. As easy as nature can give, it can also take. As women began to summit Mount Everest, Hannelore Schmatz was the fourth woman to attempt to summit. According to Scholastic, the mountain stands, “29,028 feet,” above sea level. After reaching the crisp snow capped peak, “Sungdare Sherpa, in 1979, remained with Hannelore Schmatz below the south summit after she collapsed and finally died. As a consequence of this he lost most of his fingers and toes,” (Alpine club). As climbers continued up the mountain over the years, they were given no choice but to look upon the german woman. A male,  “norwegian mountaineer and expedition leader Arne Næss, Jr., who successfully summited Everest in 1985, described his encounter with her corpse: I can’t escape the sinister guard. Approximately 100 meters above Camp IV she sits leaning against her pack, as if taking a short break. A woman with her eyes wide open and her hair waving in each gust of wind. It’s the corpse of Hannelore Schmatz, the wife of the leader of a 1979 German expedition. She summited, but died descending. Yet it feels as if she follows me with her eyes as I pass by. Her presence reminds me that we are here on the conditions of the mountain,”(William Delong).

Lisa Morgan puts into simple terms that, “the bizarre trend in mountaineers is not the risk they take, but the large degree to which they value life. They are not crazy because they don't dare, they're crazy because they do. These people tend to enjoy life to the fullest, laugh the hardest, travel the most, and work the least.”

Works Cited

Arnette, Alan. “More Women Are on Everest Than Ever Before.” Outside Online, 10 July 2019, www.outsideonline.com/2394996/everest-2019-women-climbers.

DeLong, William. “'The German Woman': The Story Of Everest's Most Famous Dead Climber.” All That's Interesting, All That's Interesting, 22 Aug. 2019, allthatsinteresting.com/hannelore-schmatz.

Granowski, Damian. “Famous Inspirational Climbing Quotes about Mountaineering, Rock Climbing, Mountains and Also Funny Quotes :).” WinterClimb.com, winterclimb.com/articles/item/1-climbing-quotes/.

“Facts About Mt. Everest.” Scholastic, 2019 Scholastic Inc., 2019, teacher.scholastic.com/activities/hillary/archive/evefacts.htm.

Mattingly, Carol. “Appropriate[Ing] Dress.” Google Books, Google, 1945, books.google.com/books?id=BaynXVfJrxcC&pg=PA182&lpg=PA182#v=onepage&q&f=false.

Venables, Stephen. “The Alpine Club.” The Alpine Club, web.archive.org/web/20120309002727/http://www.alpine-club.org.uk/alpineclub/AlpineLeafletFull.pdf.

Walsh, Megan. “Can't Keep Her Down: A Consolidated History of Women's Climbing Achievements.” Climbing Magazine, 14 Nov. 2017, www.climbing.com/people/cant-keep-her-down-a-consolidated-history-of-womens-climbing-achievements/.

[recentanimenews]

How Utena Helped Me Understand My Queerness

As a queer person (and the word “queer” means so many different things for me), I can call upon any number of childhood moments where my understanding of the gender binary were constantly challenged. When I played Power Rangers with my friends, I always wanted to be the Pink Ranger. The breadwinner of my family is my hard-working mother. My favorite manga growing up were shojo and magical girl stories. These days, it’s easy for me to say I was always the way I am now, but for the longest time, I never had a reference point to help me define my conflicts over my queer expressions. Utena Tenjou was one such anime character who contributed a lot to that end.

As the titular protagonist of Revolutionary Girl Utena celebrates her birthday on December 29, I write this as a tribute to Utena. Her own experience with toxic masculinity and restrictive gender roles helped inform my own, and I consider her one of my major influences on my ongoing queer journey up there with Steven Universe and Bayonetta.

As a character, though, she didn’t start out that way. In fact, her entire worldview was centered around a very black-and-white concept of gender. Or in this case, blue-and-pink. It was her whole journey—tragic and surreal and cathartic as it was—that I was able to empathize with. Utena’s evolution beyond her preconceived notions of society became something of a cautionary tale for me and my voyage beyond the gender binary.

  Utena’s story began after a seemingly-gallant prince saved her from a life of despair. When tragedy befell her at a young age, Utena had nearly resigned herself to darkness and isolation. It wasn’t until her prince came along and showed light at the end of the tunnel. From that point forward, she sought to become a prince herself.

While attending high school, she became a popular tomboy who proudly wore her princely demeanor, quite literally. She was known for preferring boys’ school uniforms as opposed to the girls’ and often bested many of the male students at sports. When it came time for her to fight the Student Council over Anthy the Rose Bride, she took on the role of a prince defending a helpless and innocent damsel.

As the title suggests, Utena sought a form of social revolution with her masculine expression. She refused to let her gender limit herself in both school life and as she fought for Anthy’s hand in marriage and did her best to shake up gender norms. I was initially inspired by her efforts to present her masculinity, but when I look back on it now, that mindset was almost self-defeating. 

She rejected any notion of traditional femininity while also heavily conforming to displays of traditional masculinity. At a certain point when she loses the will to continue her fight, she resigned herself to wearing a girl’s school uniform and trying to act more feminine and delicate. This is almost as if taking on "feminine traits" was supposed to be a form of punishment. She both subverted and reinforced the gender binary and lived her whole life under this paradox. 

Much like Utena, my own expression was also restricted by these guidelines. Growing up, I had no grasp of what was “for boys” or “for girls.” I wasn’t born with any particular notion on how to gender my behavior. I only learned about the gender binary through the lens of how other people structured their lives by it. 

  Being assigned male at birth, the world provided me with the recipe on how to act like a boy I tried desperately to fit into it. It became easy for me to feign masculinity and adjust my personality among my cisgendered friends. But I could feel my femininity trying to ooze out. I felt it through my favorite anime and choice of role models and the crushes I had and this growing desperation I felt to reject the manlihood I could feel infesting me. It would be a while until I realized how harmful this was to my emotional health, but Utena helped me along the path of revolution.

Utena went through a similar struggle throughout her battles for the Rose Bride. What began as a story of her, the gallant prince charged with protecting the helpless damsel, was deconstructed into something much more sinister as she dug herself further and further into the throes of toxic masculinity. 

She eventually started interacting with Akio Ohtori, Anthy’s brother as well as an incarnation of the prince who had saved her. And from that point on, Utena’s principles on gender were constantly challenged to the point where she had to question everything she thought she knew about the world and even herself. 

Her prince was nothing more than a manipulative abuser who sought power for himself. Anthy, while still a damsel in distress in her own right, was capable of cold-hearted cruelty as she remained in the thrall of her brother. And Utena’s efforts to embody a gallant prince were nothing more than her own roundabout way of allowing patriarchal standards to control her life as she continually fell into Akio’s clutches.

Eventually, Utena made a sacrifice that helped her accept the world for what it was and allowed her to achieve some small form of revolution. She fought until her last breath to save Anthy, disregarding all notions of princely duty or the expectations of a maiden. Though she disappeared in the process, her final efforts had touched Anthy’s heart and allowed her to leave her brother behind as she left to answer Utena’s love and find her once more.

As strange as Utena’s journey was, it contains a rather simple message that has since resonated with me: the gender binary is simply a construct and affixing yourself to it is poisonous. There is no right or wrong way to present your gender identity, but the necessity to draw that distinct line between how to be feminine or masculine is a strict and narrow-minded concept that all but destroyed Utena's life. 

Utena helped me realize how I prefer to present more feminine. Whether it's through my cosplay or the clothes I wear every day or the way I speak, my femininity is vital to who I am as a person. I long for the day when I’m able to appear as girlish as I please and have people question the very nature of gender expression. But even when I feel as far from content with my gender identity as possible, Utena's story taught me that my queerness doesn’t change. My being trans and being femme is a constant, and even at my lowest points, she reminds me that I’m always as queer as I should be. 

When I first watched Utena, I thought I wanted to be her. I viewed her as someone who challenged gender norms and shattered expectations. But as I saw her grow and change, I learned that that wasn’t the whole truth. Defining her whole life between being either a prince or a damsel was her downfall, and it wasn’t until those final moments that she realized that being herself was more important than fulfilling an idyllic yet flawed patriarchal fantasy. 

In Adolescence of Utena, she does achieve a more fulfilling catharsis. After winning the right to marry the Rose Bride, she rejects the marriage entirely. Her only wish was to live freely with the girl she loved, and she fights tooth and nail and race car to achieve it with Anthy. True to the title, Utena more readily overcame her adolescence and rigid gender structures to come out and love both Anthy and herself more openly.     

As for me? I suppose even in my mid-20s, I’m still in that same proverbial adolescence that Utena went through. This is still a world where people still adhere to that rigid binary and leave little wiggle room for people to safely explore themselves. And I still have plenty of days when I don’t feel nearly as queer or as trans as I want to be. 

But Utena Tenjou’s story gave me so much guidance at a time when I really needed it. I learned alongside her that we have no obligation to fit into anyone’s molds but our own. As a queer person, I choose to be feminine and how I achieve that is up to me. Once upon a time, I would’ve called Utena Tenjou a role model. That isn’t the case anymore. More truthfully, we were kindred spirits who were, and still are, desperate for revolution within ourselves. So to celebrate Utena's birthday, I'll keep trying to revolutionize my own world. Happy birthday, Utena!

What's your take on Utena's tumultous coming-of-age? What's your favorite Utena moment? Comment below and let us know!

----

Carlos is a freelance features writer for Crunchyroll. Their favorite genres range from magical girls to over-the-top robot action, yet their favorite characters are always the obscure ones. Check out some of their satirical work on The Hard Times.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[global-news-station]

Of the many people who made history in 2019, some surprised themselves and the world by emerging from obscurity to make their mark, though one remains anonymous for the time being — “The Whistleblower” behind the impeachment probe into US President Donald Trump.

Following are brief profiles of eight history-makers in politics, climate and humanitarian activism, music and astronomy who were unknown quantities in 2018.

Trump impeachment ‘Whistleblower’

Although huge efforts have been made to expose him, the person whose complaint threatens to bring down the president of the United States is still known only as “The Whistleblower”.

Reliably reported to be a mid-level, male CIA analyst in his early 30s who specialises in Eastern European issues and previously worked in the White House, he filed an anonymous complaint in August charging that Donald Trump pressured Ukraine counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to help find dirt on his Democratic rivals — a violation of US laws against seeking foreign help in US elections.

It was a finely written, nine-page memo describing specific Trump actions, and while it was based on secondary sources — his colleagues in the intelligence and diplomatic communities — first-hand witnesses have corroborated what he said, and more, in the months since it surfaced.

By sending his complaint to the inspector general for the US intelligence community, The Whistleblower set in motion a series of reviews and then news articles that quickly snowballed into the House impeachment probe that may see Trump put on trial in the Senate in the new year.

Many whistleblowers stay anonymous, and some collect million-dollar rewards for exposing fraud.

But this one will not gain a reward and likely will not remain unknown. Conservatives have already circulated a name and photograph online.

Republicans in Congress have tried to expose him, alleging he is a Democrat out to get Trump.

But the impeachment process he sparked now fuels itself, meaning that, outed or not, his impact will long be felt in Washington politics.

Greta Thunberg, 16, climate activist

What started as humble protest has turned Greta Thunberg into the world’s green conscience and the voice of a generation’s frustration with inaction on climate change.

It all started in August 2018 when Thunberg decided to skip school and sit outside Sweden’s parliament, holding a sign reading “school strike for the climate”.

Within months her struggle gained worldwide attention and the shy 16-year-old — with her piercing eyes and trademark braids — found herself addressing world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos and at the European Parliament.

Young people from around the world began staging their own school strikes, and the “Fridays for Future” movement was born.

  Following her ethos of avoiding air travel, she crossed the Atlantic on a zero-emission sailboat to attend a UN climate summit in New York in September.

The Stockholm-born teenager’s eyes brimmed with tears and her voice cracked with emotion as she delivered a fiery speech to world leaders.

“How dare you?” she thundered.

“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.”

Thunberg, the daughter of an opera singer mother and an actor-turned-producer father, has also faced severe criticism and been subjected to a swarm of online conspiracy theories.

Some have mocked her youth, called her a puppet of doomsayers or tried to discredit her because of her Asperger’s syndrome, a diagnosis she has never hidden.

But no one can deny that the passionate climate activist’s struggle has helped put climate change back at the top of the agenda.

A survey published by the European Commission in April found that six in 10 Europeans thought “climate change is one of the most serious problems facing the world,” an increase of 17 percentage points compared with 2017.

Venezuela’s Juan Guaido

For a long time he didn’t distinguish himself as an outspoken critic of President Nicolas Maduro, but when he proclaimed himself president in January, Juan Guaido suddenly emerged as the socialist leader’s main opponent.

A key challenge now is to continue to inspire a wilting opposition.

  When he burst on the scene in January, the 36-year-old lawmaker initially energised a weakened opposition whose key leaders were imprisoned, exiled or in hiding.

On January 23, a few days after taking the helm as speaker of parliament, the only state institution controlled by the opposition, Guaido proclaimed himself acting president, declaring Maduro’s re-election illegitimate.

He was swiftly recognised by the United States and about 50 other countries. His popularity rating among Venezuelans soared to 63 percent. By October, however, it had dropped more than 20 points.

A trained industrial engineer, Guaido said he has “tried everything” to push Maduro out of office, as the country endures a deep economic crisis that has driven 3.6 million people to flee since 2016.

With great fanfare on February 23, Guaido tried to break a border blockade to bring stockpiled international food and medical aid into the country, calling on the military to abandon Maduro. The gambit failed.

On April 30, a military uprising won support of only a handful of officers and was quickly subdued by the government.

Guaido, married with a two-year-old daughter, describes himself as a survivor of the “Vargas tragedy” — a December 1999 landslide in the northern coastal state where he lived with his mother and five siblings, which killed thousands.

The Venezuelan prosecutor’s office, considered a branch of government by the opposition, has filed a number of lawsuits against him, for which he could face up to 30 years in prison.

But Washington has repeatedly warned Caracas that jailing Guaido would be Maduro’s “last mistake”.

On January 5, his term as parliament speaker officially ends. Agreements between political groupings could allow him to remain in the post, despite a drop in his ability to inspire mass protests, most Venezuelans having abandoned the street to focus on the daily business of survival.

Revolutionary ‘icon’ Ala Saleh of Sudan

Ala Saleh, dressed in traditional white Sudanese garb and standing atop a car, became the symbol of Sudan’s uprising as she led chants against the now-ousted autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April.

Saleh, 22, was propelled to internet fame after a photograph of her with one hand raised in the air singing and cheering along with crowds of protesters went viral, earning her the moniker of “Kandaka”, or Nubian queen.

An engineering student, Saleh grew up in a middle-class Sudanese family in Khartoum and was relatively unknown until her photograph went viral during the anti-Bashir protests.

But since earlier this year, she has become a voice for women’s rights in the northeast African country, where centuries of patriarchal traditions and decades of strict laws under the former regime have severely restricted the role of women in Sudanese society.

“The existing discrimination and inequality women face, coupled with conflict and violence over decades, has resulted in women being subjected to a wide range of human rights violations, including sexual and gender-based violence on an epic scale,” Saleh said at an open debate at the UN Security Council last month.

She told the UNSC that even wearing trousers or meeting male friends took courage as it was criminalised under the former regime.

During Bashir’s 30-year rule, authorities enforced a strict public order law that activists said primarily targeted women, through harsh interpretations of Islamic sharia law.

On November 26, the country’s new transitional cabinet led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok scrapped the law, although the ruling sovereign council has yet to ratify the move.

Saleh has faced criticism for attracting global attention even as many female activists faced brutal punishments during Bashir’s rule.

But many defend her rise to fame.

“She was a normal person like all others who took to the streets against the former regime,” said activist Khalid Tabidi.

Migrants activist Carola Rackete

German Carola Rackete was the captain of a migrant rescue ship in the Mediterranean who became a left-wing hero in Italy for challenging then far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini’s “closed ports” policy.

The dreadlocked Rackete, 31, was skipper of the Sea-Watch 3, one of several ships used by international charities to aid migrants attempting the perilous sea journey from North Africa to Europe on rickety boats.

On June 12, Rackete’s ship picked up 53 migrants adrift aboard an inflatable raft off the coast of Libya.

The Italian authorities allowed some of the migrants to be taken in for health reasons but refused entry to 43 others, leading to a two-week stand-off at sea.

As conditions on board worsened, Rackete eventually sailed her ship to the island of Lampedusa despite an order from Italian officials not to dock there.

She was arrested on June 29, although a judge overturned that order on July 2, saying she had acted “out of necessity” because of the migrants’ condition.

Italy’s highest court is set to rule in January on whether Rackete’s arrest was warranted.

Salvini described the incident, in which Sea-Watch 3 allegedly hit a police speedboat, as an “act of war” and referred to Rackete as “the German criminal”.

During a visit to Italy in November to present her book “The World We Want”, Rackete was given a police escort after coming under attack from anti-migrant groups.

But she said the harassment “does not really affect me”.

“On the contrary, I am now more sensitive to the racism that some people suffer and to the discrimination and social justice that exist in the world,” Italian media quoted her as telling supporters at the book launch.

The fairytale rise of Lil Nas X

A little over a year ago, Montero Hill had dropped out of university, was living with his sister, had no job, car or even a driver’s licence.

Today — thanks to record-breaking single “Old Town Road” — he is the millionaire country-rap superstar known as Lil Nas X.

The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 19 consecutive weeks between April and August, breaking a record dating to the mid-1990s when Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men spent 16 weeks at number one. Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee with Justin Bieber also topped the charts for 16 weeks with “Despacito” in 2017.

All versions of “Old Town Road” have been played more than 1.3 billion times on streaming site Spotify.

Lil Nas X, 20, composed the song based on a beat he purchased for $30 from a Dutch record producer.

The result merged thumping bass and rap with a twangy banjo sound more associated with country music.

Billboard barred the song from its rankings of country music songs, arguing that it did not have enough elements of that genre to merit inclusion.

A few days later, Lil Nas X released a remix of what was already a hit, starring country star Billy Ray Cyrus, father of pop star Miley Cyrus.

Even with the added legitimacy of Billy Cyrus, a two-time Grammy nominee in country categories, the remix was also left out of the country rankings.

Both versions went on to become number one in the main Billboard charts, catapulting the previously unknown artist into the celebrity stratosphere.

Lil Nas X has also seduced fans with his down-to-earth personality and humour. He has never hesitated to don traditional country clothing, including cowboy hat, jacket and boots.

After successfully achieving a rare marriage of rap and country tunes, the young artist shook the hip-hop world in early July by announcing that he is gay.

Although some female rappers had already come out, such as Young M.A, Lil Nas X became the first prominent male rapper to do so.

It was a significant development for an industry that, while less macho than in the past, tends to present a more traditional side of masculinity.

The woman who photographed a black hole

US computer scientist Katie Bouman became an overnight sensation in April for her role in developing a computer algorithm that allowed researchers to take the world’s first image of a black hole.

The 30-year-old, currently an assistant professor at the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech), was a member of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration when the team captured the image.

Bouman said she first began working on the EHT as a graduate student studying computer vision at MIT and found that black hole imaging shared striking similarities with work she had done on brain imaging based on limited data from an MRI scanner.

The EHT Collaboration had spent more than a decade building an Earth-sized computational telescope that combined signals received by various telescopes working in pairs around the world.

However, since there were a limited number of locations, the telescopes were able to capture only some light frequencies, leaving large gaps in information.

In 2016, Bouman developed an algorithm named CHIRP to sift through the true mountain of data and fill in the gaps, producing an image.

While the images were captured in 2017, the final result had to be independently validated by four EHT teams working around the world to avoid shared human bias.

On April 10, 2019, a final image was released — a moment that Bouman, then a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, described as “truly amazing and one of my life’s happiest memories”.

Testifying before Congress in May about her research, Bouman praised her team that included several early-career scientists — like herself — whose work had been vital to the project.

“Like black holes, many early-career scientists with significant contributions often go unseen,” she said.

But that’s not the case with her anymore.

The post 2019’s unforeseen history-makers appeared first on ARY NEWS.

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[haneuls-naive-utopia]

Game Addiction #2 - Revelation Online

❝ Welcome to Nuanor, My Hero!❞

After being roughly disappointed by many Game Companies and their creations, I refused to spend another Holiday Season drowning hurts in an Ocean of ideas to a new The Sims visual novel. I needed to find a new MMORPG.

After wandering around with no answer and no hope, I remember the recommendation of an old partner from another MMO, after hunting every note in my documents folder, I found a name, “Revelation Online”.

Revelation Online is a free-to-play (open beta) massive multiplayer online role-playing game developed by NetEase, under the title "Revelation" (Chinese: 天谕; pinyin: Tiān Yù) in China.

It is published by My.com in Europe and North America, and is in open beta. The game combines PvP and PvE in a Chinese fantasy game environment, inspired by the books of the Chinese writer Jiang Nan.

On June 6, 2016, My.com launched the official Revelation Online website, and announced it would publish the game in Europe and North America.

My.com is a subsidiary of Mail.Ru, who jointly announced it would publish the game in Russia. The game released in Early Access on the 27th of February 201, My.com, who’s also known by Skyforge and Warface, did an excellent job with the Publisher NetEase, Revelation will blow your mind!

Q&A

Q: Free-To-Play, what do you mean?

L: Revelation it’s not a pay-to-play kind of MMORPG like, for example, Black Desert. The download it’s free, but you do have options of premium content, like any other game Revelation offers paid currency, the Aurum. Fortunately, the Aurum can also be acquired for free, as the game offers a feature of exchanging free currency called Imperial Coins, for Aurum in their In-Game Store.

Q: What can I buy with Aurum?

L: The most useful thing you can buy with Aurum, it’s the Premium Membership, that offers daily doses of Experience Pouches and other consumable items that are very useful to your journey. Aside Premium Membership, you have access to Mounts, Wings, Consumables, Costumes (Apparel) and many other items.

Q: Is there a Flight System? How does it work?

L: Following the game main quests, you’ll receive many previews and guides to the use of wings, and when you reach Level 29, you will receive your first pair of wings. The flight system offers a lot of freedom, barely no height limit, and no time limit at all. But, the Wings and Mounts use a kind of energy that it’s lost from time to time, don’t worry, it takes a lot of time, but it’s good to keep an eye on that and the items you can use to fill that energy again. Once you hit level 49 you will be able to upgrade your wings which will change the look of them along with giving them additional bonuses such as increased levity speed. You also have battle skills that are exclusive to flight, they’ll have the “Aerial” name marked right after the name.

Q: What about the Mount System?

L: Not too long after you start your adventure you will gain access to your first mount, where you can choose 1 out of 3 different colored horses (Black, Brown or White). These will allow you to travel around the world at a much quicker pace.When you reach level 69 you will gain access to your very own class mount. Class mounts are exclusive to their specific class and all of them can travel on land and in the air.Some mounts can carry 2 to 3 players at the same time, some are exclusive from content packs, others from events.

Q: What are the classes of the game?

L: These are the classes of Revelation; (with the possibility to create both male and female characters for each class.)

• Gunslinger: Gunslingers offer high and precise ranged damage. They are good at taking down single targets, but are weak for crowd-control.

• Blade Master: Blademasters can act as secondary tank or twin-blade melee physical DPS. Blademasters focus on burst damage and escape skills to dash in and out of combat.

• Spiritshaper: Spiritshapers are easy to control and allow for high survivability. They act as support classes in groups, while doing ranged damage through summonings.

• Vanguard: Vanguards act as main tanks and specialize in physical close combat, with heavy armor and a focus on survival skills.

• Swordmage: Swordmages focus on ranged magic damage and AOE. They have relatively poor survivability with low health and armor, and rely on cold damage for crowd control.

• Occultist: Occultists can act both as ranged magical DPS - focusing on damage-over-time, life drain and AOE - and as healers.

• Assassin: Assassin's strike from the shadows as a physical melee DPS with some mid-range capabilities. They have stealth capabilities, wearing light armour. They come with damage-over-time effects from poison and huge AOE abilities and multiple Crowd Control Abilities. (Released: 28th November 2017)

Q: Will I be able to class change?

L: Yes. Along with the Shadowblade patch (a.k.a as Assassin Upadate), Revelation released a Class Change System, that allows you to change your class for a certain period. This is how it works:Starting at level 59, you can change your current class once every 45 days. Before changing classes, remove all equipment, mounts, wings, and costumes, and clear your Soul Grid. These will not be converted once you change class, so be ready to find replacements if necessary.However, your character attribute points will be reset, allowing you to reconfigure them once you have changed class.

Further information can be found here: Official Announcements - Class and Equipment Change

Q: How friendly is the game for players who enjoy a “solo” experience?

L: Players will be able to enjoy the story driven adventures alone or with friends. Revelation Online’s elaborate story quests will make sure you can enjoy the world alone and none of the group quests and dungeons are mandatory for your progress. The looking for group feature, will help you find new friends quickly to experience the game’s instanced zones if you wish to see all of the game’s content.

Q: What kind of PvP does Revelation Online have?

L: Revelation Online will feature open world PvP, duels, battlegrounds, arenas, castle sieges and territorial wars. The open world PvP will not be available until level 40 though, to ensure a nice leveling experience for all players. There will be 10 vs. 10, 20 vs. 20, 30 vs. 30 PvP-battles and even up to thousands of players can take part simultaneously, in the currently under development, cross-server battles. The game also has a "seasonal" ladder with rewards. Throughout the season, players will have to fight to maintain their position in the overall ranking.

Q: How does crafting and trading work?

L: The game has crafting and it is supported by various professions. Resources can be obtained in dungeons or in the seamless open world. You can freely trade between players. There is an Auction and Storage System, fully working.

Q: Is there a Housing System?

L: After reaching level 40, players can buy their own private property to decorate, invite friends to and gain daily experience for their characters.These apartments can be fully decorated with over 160 different types of furniture and come in two wildly different themes. Some of this furniture can be crafted through the profession systems in the game and some will even be rewarded for completing quests. Players will get the freedom to arrange the furniture but also can create different spaces for a walk-in closet, a bedroom and even a bath with a spa.There is also a chance of expansion to two-bedroom and three-bedroom houses, and an upcoming update that allow the purchase of an additional house, the Oceanview Estate.

Q: Is there a marriage/relationship system?

L: Yes, there is. Revelation Online offers a marriage system for players that wish to express a deeper connection with another player. The marriage system is an extension of Revelation's Relationships system. The marriage system has no gender limits for the CN/NA/EU localizations; however, the RU localization limits marriage to opposite gendered couples. There is also a Tutor/Student relationship, where new players can find help and guidance.

Q: How does the Tutoring System works?

L: [Guide is a WIP]

Q: Where else can I find Guidance and Help?

L: There is two other places you can find a lot of help;

Official Forums

Official Discord Server

Q: What are the System Requirements for this game?

L: At least;

• Intel Pentium dual-core 2.4GHz processor.

• GeForce 9500GT / GT610 or Intel HD4000 graphics card.

• RAM: 2 GB.

• Operating System: Windows XP SP3.

Q: And for the most important question, what is the Game's Lore?

L: Welp... *sigh* that will be in the next post.

Feel like being a hero with us?

Come join us in the realms of Nuanor!Download Revelation Online now in https://ro.my.com/en and don’t miss our Oceanview Update!

My Forum Profile

[revlyncox]

Aspirations and Inspirations

This sermon was presented to the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg on August 20, 2017, by Rev. Lyn Cox.

Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley and Clyde Grubbs ask, “Who are the prophets who inspire you?”

This congregation has been hearing all summer about personal stories of inspiration. You have heard of mentors, friends, and ministers. You have reflected on prophets of racial justice, and on what you are inspired to do to dismantle white supremacy.

The question of inspiration is not an idle one, nor does it hide neatly inside the folds of private spirituality. Inspiration is a deep breath, a connection to the forces that create and uphold life, an expansion of our consciousness past the limits of what was imagined before. Inspiration can cause trouble.

Yet we need a little bit of that. We need the winds of freedom and justice to blow and trouble the waters. Let us breathe in time with that wind. The prophets and mentors and ancestors who urge us onward show us how we and all of our siblings and the planet we share can have life abundantly. We know we need to change course. Inspiration is one of the ingredients that give us the courage to follow a new path.

Remembering the people who have inspired us is a beginning. The next part in moving us toward the world we dream about is figuring out what parts of those stories we want to weave into the future. Inspiration, breathing in a connection to something that is larger than ourselves, is paired with aspiration, exhaling into an expression of our hopes. Our sources of inspiration may lend us boldness to move forward. Our aspirations give us the power to join together and embrace what we are called to do.

We have to do a little bit of work in the space between inspiration and aspiration. We don’t want to simply imitate the people who have gone before. For one thing, our own times have their own challenges, and we may be able to borrow strategies from the past, but we have to choose them carefully. For another, nobody is perfect. Each person’s favorite historical figure is, most likely, problematic. We can work together to tease out which parts of our heritage and learning will become our inspiration, which parts will become cautionary tales, and how that translates into a list of shared goals.

So there’s a journey between inspiration and aspiration. Next week, I’ll talk about moving from aspiration to perspiration, hope into action. For right now, though, let’s back up to the inspiration part. I would like to tell you about some of my role models.

I grew up in a liberal United Church of Christ congregation in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Until I was around nine years old, the church I went to was served by a co-ministry couple: a man and a woman. I listen now to the stories of my elder colleagues, those who were ordained in the 1970s and 1980s, and I hear them talk about being in their teens or twenties or later before they realized that women could be clergy. For me, gender diversity in religious leadership has been a given ever since I could remember.  

Our ministers were a great team. They had different gifts, and they clearly cared about one another and thought about how they would collaborate. One of our ministers had a wry sense of humor, drew analogies between children’s books and each week’s gospel lesson, and taught us silly songs about faith. The other minister played sincere folk hymns on the guitar and sang in the choir and made references to Hebrew and Greek languages. They spent time with children’s ministry as well as adult ministry, and they were there right alongside the members to raise money for the Crop Walk or the Heifer Project.

I did not consciously set out to show evidence of their influence on me. Once I noticed it, though, I had a chance to think about what I wanted to do with that inspiration. What about my upbringing did I want to carry forward into the future, and what did I want to leave behind?

When I was in my mid-twenties, much to my own surprise, I applied to seminary. I asked one of my childhood ministers for a recommendation. As we were talking about it, she explained to me that professional religious leadership is not just one thing, much like congregations are not just one thing. The collaborative ministry of clergy and lay leaders bears a whole rainbow of fruits.

That’s the kind of minister I wanted to be, the kind who pays attention to the whole circle of what a congregation can be and do together. I knew I wanted to be the kind of minister who worked on developing music, caring, religious education, justice, and service.

On the other hand, there were things I wanted to do differently than the way I perceived them as I was growing up. I had already decided to become a Unitarian Universalist, though with much gratitude and affection for the tradition in which I was raised. In the intervening years, I have discovered and re-discovered many sources of inspiration. The church of my childhood is one that I am glad to have.

Here at the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg, I see evidence of the ways that your heritage has inspired you to grow your aspirations. I hear how a long tradition of welcome and inclusion and enthusiasm has brought you to dearly cherish your music ministries, including the choir. I see how you have cultivated green spaces around each campus, expressing hope in ways that only trees and flowers can do. Throughout the congregation, there are smaller gatherings, affinity groups, Covenant Groups, and COUCH groups that express hopes for depth and relationship. The White Supremacy Teach-In two weeks ago and the Peace Candle are just some of the examples that show your hope in a world that finds peace through the practice of justice, equality, and compassion.

It is this tradition of commitment that has led your Board of Trustees to sign on the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg as a supporting organization for a unity rally this afternoon at Italian Lake. The event, “Speak Up for Unity: No Hate Here,” will be hosted by the Community Responders Network from 3:30 until 5:30. If you are planning to go, you are welcome to bring positive posters and to park at the Hadee Mosque on Division Street. Speakers and performers will “support unity, diversity, and love and condemn white supremacy.”

This is a community where people find comfort, challenge, and renewal together, so that you can be prepared to build relationships and be accomplices for the power of love in the world. I gather from what I know of you great aspirations of participating in the work of justice, disrupting the oppressions that get in the way of the full unfolding of life for all in safety and abundance. I believe you are inspired by famous community builders and civil rights leaders, and I also suspect that there are elders and ancestors from within the congregation whose legacy inspires you. I look forward to hearing more.

The world needs this. The world needs allies for love and justice to renounce White supremacy in its many forms of racism, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia; and to block its advances. The world needs warriors for compassion; those who heal directly, and others who make way for that healing with science, policy, education, and by defending access to health care. The world needs those who do the radical work of introducing people to one another, those who step outside their comfort zones to connect communities, those who build coalitions and make common cause and show up in solidarity with neighbors.

The world needs accomplices for the Spirit of Life, and I believe this congregation is called to be some of them. You have demonstrated your aspirations. The raw materials are there. The work before you includes clarifying those aspirations, committing to them and prioritizing as one people, and clothing your values in practices of community.

Knowing your aspirations and inspirations does not make the path ahead easy. Being clear about our call to be neighbors in solidarity and stewards of the earth doesn’t mean we have certainty about the future or that all the resources are lined up neatly in a row. Yet I believe that the gifts we have among us, including the resources of our heritage and the renewal we can draw from our faith, are enough to take the next step.

Sometimes our aspirations show up, even when we don’t think we’re ready to move forward. Before we close, I’ll give you an example from our Universalist heritage. You may have heard this story before. It bears repeating. I don’t know if the story happened exactly this way, but I believe it’s true.

In the year 1770, John Murray was ready to give up everything. About ten years before that, as a preacher in England, he had converted from being a Calvinist to being a Universalist. He was personally mentored by James Relly, the founder of English Universalism. Universalism holds that all souls will eventually find reunion with the Divine; in other words, salvation is the destiny for everyone.

Over the course of the 1760s, John Murray and his wife Eliza became more and more deeply involved in this heretical religious movement. Then disaster struck. First their infant son, then Eliza became sick and died. John Murray was thrown into debtor’s prison. Murray’s brother-in-law rescued him, but he was so demoralized that he refused Relly’s urging to return to preaching. Murray said he wished “to pass through life, unheard, unseen, unknown to all, as though I ne’er had been.” He boarded a ship bound for New York, the Hand-in-Hand.

The Hand-in-Hand got stuck on a sandbar off the coast of New Jersey, near Good Luck Point. Murray was among those who came to shore in search of provisions, and it was there that he met Thomas Potter. Potter had built a chapel on his land that was open for traveling preachers. Potter invited Murray to preach, but Murray insisted that he had left that life behind him, and that he would be leaving as soon as the wind shifted and the ship was able to move off of the sand bar. Potter assured him that the wind would not shift until Murray preached in his chapel.

According to the legend, Murray tossed and turned that Saturday night, but arose on Sunday to preach a sermon for Potter and his family and friends. Indeed, following the service, the wind did shift, and John Murray went on to reclaim his vocation as a preacher. He was one of the people who ensured that a religious movement of Universalism was established in our young nation, creating a heritage of freedom and a vision of unity that we still draw from today.

That we still tell this story almost 250 years later says something about our inspirations and our aspirations. I believe that we can hold reserves of hope for one another, as James Relly and Thomas Potter did for John Murray. We can challenge one another to use our gifts to bless the world. Unitarian Universalist congregations like this one hearken back to Thomas Potter’s chapel, practicing open minds and open doors, creating a place of sacred hospitality. When we practice abundance and welcome the stranger, we may find a word that lifts us up and renews our spirits.

In the coming week, I hope you will take some time to give thanks for the people who have inspired you. They may be historical figures, ancestors, or friends who are right beside you today. Take stock of what they have taught you. Look around for the evidence of the ways they have already influenced you for the better in your words and actions. Write down the hopes and goals you draw from these role models and mentors and loved ones. The world needs communities of love and justice. We begin to answer that call when we understand how to translate our inspirations into aspirations. 
So be it. Blessed be. Amen.