bookworm alert
i'm just a random person who came out of the blue to tell everyone that she exists. why, how, really? are debatable questions. in fact, i spend a lot of my time debating these same questions with myself, so i won't even bother to try to think of an answer. ps - this blog is not about finding an answer, so if you try to find curiously funny ways of answering life's deep questions here, yeah ok. lol.
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Thursday, March 6, 2025
Gaslighting on an international level
How gaslighting works on an international level:
This war between Israel and Palestine is a good way for us to understand gaslighting and how intensive its effect can really be. Here are some signs of gaslighting that have risen up in the recent conflict: it helps to think of Israel and Palestine as husband and wife:
1. The Hamas act of terror was, let's be clear, absolutely terrible. Nothing justifies the murder of civilians. Let's say it's equal to the wife slapping the husband.
2. So now, the husband says, "well, don't i have the right to retaliate?" And proceeds to attack her brutally.
2. You, watching this, are expected to forget the years of abuse that he put her through.
3. You, as a commentator, are expected to unequivocally condemn the slap even as he locks her up without food or water, and continues to hit her in a way that you didn't think was humanly possible.
4. Every time you say anything about maybe letting her breathe, letting her eat, getting her wounds treated, he says, "how can you even say that? You saw how she slapped me. Why are you not even talking about it?" It puts you on the defensive, so you find yourself having to reiterate that her slapping him was not okay, and this happens every time you speak; even as you watch him maul her, you have to accept that the slap was still a terrible thing to do.
5. You can't look into the reason why she slapped him in the first place. You can't say, "all right, let's try to resolve the issue" you can't say, "maybe don't use a baseball bat", "maybe don't use a knife," "maybe don't use a corkscrew" because every time you do, the husband accuses you of hating him. He says, "see? You've always been unfair to me. See how easily you forgot that she slapped me. What about my feelings? Don't they matter? Why do you hate men so much?" So now you find yourself having to defend yourself. You don't hate men.
6. You want to resolve the issue. The carnage is disturbing you. You want it to end. So you talk to the wife instead, whatever's left of her. You say, "maybe you shouldn't have slapped him in the first place". You say, "look, this has been going on for years. It can't all be his fault, right?" "If you can't take responsibility for even a little bit of this, what's even the point of us trying to have an equal conversation?" You're trying to be reasonable. Aren't there always two sides to an argument?
7. It's in the news. The moderate media is now talking about the husband and wife that always fight. They're saying, "when will they both realise that peace is a better option?" The neighbours support him, "He has a right to defend himself after what happened, there's no doubt about that". "That slap was a dark moment in their history, that much is clear." "We hope whatever he does is lawful, but we do unequivocally support his right to defend himself".
8. Slowly you forget. The husband won't let you see the wife. You can't see her, all you really know about what's happening is the media going, "it looks like another day that she didn't serve him food". The neighbours say, "we'll give her a plate of food if he can open the door just for a little while, but to be fair we will also give him a chainsaw."
9. The reality of this is slowly slipping away. You lose touch with her, even as you continuously get updated on how much his heart is hurting, and how scared he is that she might do it again, and how anybody who can't absolutely unequivocally agree that she was wrong to slap him is hateful, probably hates all men, and shouldn't be allowed to talk. You don't want to be hateful. You're very keen to convince anybody who's watching that you're not some man-hater, that you do realise the slap was a terrible thing for her to do.
Slowly as tensions escalate between husband and wife, you forget that they're not married: he simply moved in one day, decided he liked the house and started ordering her around as if he owned her as well.
She's still breathing, but now she's alone. Anybody who speaks up on her behalf is branded as someone who supports domestic abuse.
She's still breathing, but hopefully not for long. Somehow in your peace-loving soul, you start to think that one way to bring peace is if she just dies and he gets the house and this conflict will finally end.
Thursday, February 27, 2025
How long will they survive?
How long will they survive
With us gone?
A long time I'm sure,
But humanity won't
Because humanity isn't selective
It doesn't have sub-clauses,
Or fine print or any of the horrors
Of capitalism that you can think of
Humanity is either all or nothing
It can't be all except...
Because then it's nothing
You don't kill us
You kill a part of yourself
And then, when humanity for the sake of humanity is dead
Then who is important?
Because then nobody is, and you'll realise it yourself
Then you find someone else to unload your growing burden on
And then another
And another
And another
Until no one's left but your brother
And then no one's left but you
And if the others aren't important
Then maybe so aren't you
If you let your own humanity die
Will you believe in anyone else's?
If you let other people die,
Would you believe anybody should let you live?
I don't know if God exists
But the devil does
And the minute you give up your humanity for your greed
You've let him in,
And what's the price of a soul
That sold itself?
Monday, June 20, 2022
Ode To The Fight She Fought
My body is a warrior.
She fights everyday.
You see it, and see its flaws.
I see it, and I see its majesty.
I see the battles it fought.
I see its fight to stay alive.
You dare to ask me how old I am? My body is exactly the right age. She's as old as the sun, and the moon and the tigress prowling through the jungle. She's as old as anything that fights to stay alive. She's as old as the ant that braves foes much bigger than itself, that goes through poisoned rooms and possible snakes and monsters trying to stamp out its existence to bring a bit of sugar back home to its queen. I am the ant, I am the queen.
My age is the fine lines in my brain, that are full of my history, my experiences, all the things I've seen and all the things I've done conveniently shrunk to fit inside my head. Numbers are a scratch on paper; they don't define my age.
Who are you to call me fat? What do you understand about my fatness? What do you understand about the trauma it hides, about the sadness and the betrayal, and the things I've lost and gained and won? They say people have layers. What's your problem with mine?
You say my eyebrows are too thick or too thin, my hair is too straight or too curly or too frizzy or too limp, or my skin is too bright or too dark or too pock-marked for you. What do you understand about my skin?
Every dot on my face is a testament to the places I've been, every wrinkle has a story to tell. Who are you to tell me about the shape of my chin, or the colour of my skin?
What problem do you have with my ass? Why should it wonder if it's the correct size for your eyes when instead it can sway with joy, with the unending pride of being, with the spirit of life itself?
If I have a limp, it's because my legs fought a war. Don't call it a hunch if you don't know why its hunching. It hunches like the lioness, shoulders down, eyes sharp, ready to pounce.
Every last fight I've fought shows on my body, who are you to tell me which parts of my war are acceptable? What does it matter which parts of my fight are pleasing to your eye?
What do you know about my rough hands, or the cracks on my feet? Why are my lips either too big or too small? I'm not Goldilocks, I don't have to be just right. If my fullness of being is a problem for you, then you're the problem, not me.
You think my ears are too big? Open yours and listen: that's your problem, not mine.
There's nothing wrong with the dots on my skin, the curl of my hair, the colour of my eyes, the colour around my eyes, the hair on my chin, the knuckles on my fist. I don't care if you think my breasts are too small, or too big; they're the proof of my bounce back.
I don't care if you think my legs are too long or too short. They're exactly what I need to walk away from you.
You say you speak with concern, but where were you when the war was fought? Where were you when I needed a hand, or a sword or a shoulder, or a shaman tie-up?
You don't speak out of concern, you speak out of hate, you speak to control. You think if you can get me to start polishing my chin, I won't see the ugliness you're trying to hide within yourself.
Well, my chin is fine, and I see you for what you are. I see your jealousy, I see your smallness. I am not you, you are not me.
I'm not hiding the unacceptable parts of myself to please you. I am here. I am full. And you? You with the small eyes and the fat opinions - you don't matter.
Friday, May 8, 2020
Sent them all away
Waiting for the one that makes it all right.
Is there such a thing?
All my life, I've waited to belong.
All my life, I've danced to someone else's song.
Waiting for the one who can make all right
Is there such a thing?
Or am i mistaken?
Am i the one who's going to make it work?
God, I hope not. My life in my own hands? God, i hope not.
But im trying. For the first time in my life. Im trying.
And maybe there's no such thing.
And maybe there is.
And maybe i can save myself.
At least I'll know i tried.
I don't know what's in store
I don't know what I'm hoping for.
But now at least im hoping
Now at least im waiting.
Im better than before, when i didn't even know i was broken.
I'm better than before when i thought my life was sealed.
Im making an effort, I'm scaring myself every day, I'm opening my broken heart.
Im closer now than i ever was to be healed.