ALMOST CAUGHT UP.

:) #WhatAFeeling ☕

I have to laugh sometimes at news media web design.

The current front page of The Guardian, for instance, is filled with a whole whack of stories about human greed, indifference to suffering, and outright cruelty... and then there's one hanger-on in the bottom right corner, which 100% doesn't belong but was put there to try to "offset" the bleakness of the rest. 🙃

#NiceTry #MediaLiteracy

fog eats the mountain--
who would we be without our
illusions of loss?

#NationalHaikuDay #poem

(To reiterate: fiction never has ANYTHING on reality. However low a short story can go, it'll never even scrape the surface of how low humanity can and does go in conflict all the time!)

Well, I just wrote 1,200 of the grimmest words I think I've jotted down in years.

Not sure how this SF story's going to end, but it's started about as bleak as it can get, so... I don't *think* it can go anywhere but up from here?

I'm going to hope that this is my brain's way of expelling bad dreams before sleep, but don't read war histories before bed, I guess. (Or with meals? Or in polite company? Or if you still want to believe in the beauty of life and potential for good in humankind? 🤷‍♀️)

Always wrap your 🐓s, especially if they show up unannounced on your feed! #FloodTheFirehose

🧐 Shhhhhaving cream, if this ends up being a double feature I am blaming all of you for the many tears that will be spilled.

I've seen them all before; each has a performance that's been calling to me lately. Which one should I rewatch this week?

#CoSoFilms

I feel as though a lot of folks here might resonate with this one, especially but not limited to our* Buddhists.

#Poetry

*Not that anyone *owns* a Buddhist. Kind of antithetical to the theory and practice.

Today's "Tough Times Tuesday" was inspired by a very specific news item...

But I didn't want to focus on the news item itself, because I think it can distract us from addressing the deeper problem of medical illiteracy.

Simply put: most people don't have a very good grasp on how different "tiers" of research play out in their therapeutic experiences.

To empower ourselves, we need to recognize how much fear still shapes our everyday relationship to medical knowledge.

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/how-should-we-address-our-medical

You guys. 💛

Oh, but for now:

NOT A FUNGIBLE SUPPORT CANADIAN.

This currency is finite, and right now would really like to be left alone a lot more. 🙃

(So, going to be withdrawn from the world for a bit, while recharging my battery of tolerance for being around others. The world is so full of loneliness and need, but when I can't even go *a block* without tripping into demands of me, it wears on this very amicable introvert very much.)

Amid his sobbing I made out that he saw me on the street being so nice, and couldn't I please just sit with him for a while because he had no one and his mum had just died, and he didn't know what he was going to do about all the costs.

Now, I got myself out of that mess with great courtesy for a clearly struggling human being...

But then I went home and just ate and ate.

And I've done this before. Not a useful coping mechanism!

So, I have some work to do on myself.

I use the CW for fasting commentary so as not to stress out folks with eating disorders (though my Ramadan experiment was different), but I'm starting to realize that I do have *one* disordered behaviour of my own:

Binging like a squirrel in the fall, after a stressful run-in with someone on the street.

Yesterday a neighbour I don't know burst into tears at me, while I was coming home with groceries. His mother had just died, and he tried to latch onto me in grief.

1/2

Well that was a weird night of tossing and turning and haunted dreams for hours.

If the world's awfulness is visiting you in your sleep, too, good morning and be good to yourselves today.

#MediaLiteracy #SocialMedia #Canada

"Since Meta blocked links to news in Canada last August ... right-wing meme producer Jeff Ballingall says he has seen a surge in clicks for his Canada Proud Facebook page.

'Our numbers are growing and we're reaching more and more people every day,' said Ballingall, who publishes up to 10 posts a day and has some 540,000 followers.

'Media is just going to get more tribal and more niche,' he added. 'This is just igniting it further.'"

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/meta-block-news-1.7174031

All right. Back into the fray we go.

Be well, and do good crimes. 👌

I can't do anything with my novel series right now, while waiting on a meeting with my agent at month's end, but boy howdy.

As someone who wrote a book inspired by how Athens and Sparta talked themselves into a war through passive-aggressive brinksmanship 2,400 years ago...

It brings up a lot of feelings to be reminded how little humans have really changed in all this time. The world is built on ego and an over-reliance on deterrence effects. Always has been, always will be, I suppose.