rise above the madness

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Mon, 20 May 2013 15:24:33 -0400

"I want you to tell me about every person you’ve ever been in love with. Tell me why you loved them,..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:18:00 -0400

“I want you to tell me about every person you’ve ever been in love with. Tell me why you loved them, then tell me why they loved you. Tell me about a day in your life you didn’t think you’d live through. Tell me what the word “home” means to you and tell me in a way that I’ll know your mothers name just by the way you describe your bed room when you were 8. See, I wanna know the first time you felt the weight of hate and if that day still trembles beneath your bones. Do you prefer to play in puddles of rain or bounce in the bellies of snow? And if you were to build a snowman, would you rip two branches from a tree to build your snowman arms? Or would you leave the snowman armless for the sake of being harmless to the tree? And if you would, would you notice how that tree weeps for you because your snowman has no arms to hug you every time you kiss him on the cheek? Do you kiss your friends on the cheek? Do you sleep beside them when they’re sad, even if it makes your lover mad? Do you think that anger is a sincere emotion or just the timid motion of a fragile heart trying to beat away its pain? See, I wanna know what you think of your first name. And if you often lie awake at night and imagine your mothers joy when she spoke it for the very first time. I want you to tell me all the ways you’ve been unkind. Tell me all the ways you’ve been cruel. Tell me, knowing I often picture Gandhi at ten years old beating up little boys at school. If you were walking by a chemical plant, where smoke stacks were filling the sky with dark, black clouds, would you holler, “Poison! Poison! Poison!” really loud or would you whisper, “That cloud looks like a fish, and that cloud looks like a fairy”? Do you believe that Mary was really a virgin? Do you believe that Moses really parted the sea? And if you don’t believe in miracles, tell me, how would you explain the miracle of my life to me? See, I wanna know if you believe in any god, or if you believe in many gods. Or better yet, what gods believe in you. And for all the times you’ve knelt before the temple of yourself, have the prayers you’ve asked come true? And if they didn’t did you feel denied? And if you felt denied, denied by whom? I wanna know what you see when you look in the mirror on a day you’re feeling good. I wanna know what you see in the mirror on a day you’re feeling bad. I wanna know the first person who ever taught you your beauty could ever be reflected on a lousy piece of glass. If you ever reach enlightenment, will you remember how to laugh? Have you ever been a song? Would you think less of me if I told you I have lived my entire life a little off key and I’m not nearly as smart as my poetry. I just plagiarized the thoughts of the people around me who have learned the wisdom of silence. Do you believe that concrete perpetuates violence? And if you do I want you to tell me of a meadow where my skateboard will soar. See, I wanna know more than what you do for a living. I wanna know how much of your life you spend just giving. And if you love yourself enough to also receive sometimes. I wanna know if you bleed sometimes through other people’s wounds. And if you dream sometimes that this life is just a balloon that if you wanted to you could pop, but you never would because you’d never want it to stop. If a tree fell in the forest, and you were the only one there to hear it, if its fall to the ground didn’t make a sound, would you panic in fear that you didn’t exist or would you bask in the bliss of your nothingness? And lastly, let me ask you this: if you and I went for a walk, and the entire walk we didn’t talk, do you think eventually we’d kiss? No way. That’s askin’ too much—after all, this is only our first date.”

- Andrea Gibson

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Mon, 20 May 2013 03:07:20 -0400

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Mon, 20 May 2013 03:07:11 -0400

"Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive."

Mon, 20 May 2013 02:10:45 -0400

“Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive.”

- Hafiz

Over the Love - Florence + the Machine

Sun, 19 May 2013 09:09:00 -0400

Over the Love - Florence + the Machine

"Let’s stop talking about veganism as a matter of compassion, benevolence and other nice-sounding,..."

Sun, 19 May 2013 09:01:34 -0400

“Let’s stop talking about veganism as a matter of compassion, benevolence and other nice-sounding, but ultimately anthropocentric missives. The idea that we are ‘being kind’, ‘acting compassionately’, or ‘saving lives’ just by being vegan is misguided. It’s also paternalistic. Veganism is a matter of justice, and it reflects the absolute minimum of justice that I owe other persons (human and non). That doesn’t mean we’re not compassionate people. It doesn’t mean we can’t act compassionately toward other animals (human or non). It just means that veganism is what we owe them. It’s not an act of charity.”

- Vincent Guihan

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Sat, 18 May 2013 17:06:18 -0400

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Sat, 18 May 2013 17:05:55 -0400

"We don’t need a melting pot in this country, folks. We need a salad bowl. In a salad bowl, you put..."

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:02:14 -0400

“We don’t need a melting pot in this country, folks. We need a salad bowl. In a salad bowl, you put in the different things. You want the vegetables—the lettuce, the cucumbers, the onions, the green peppers—to maintain their identity. You appreciate differences.”

- Jane Elliot

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Sat, 18 May 2013 16:02:06 -0400

Goodbye Until Tomorrow / I Could Never Rescue You - The Last...

Sat, 18 May 2013 04:56:00 -0400

Goodbye Until Tomorrow / I Could Never Rescue You - The Last Five Years

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Sat, 18 May 2013 01:42:11 -0400

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Sat, 18 May 2013 01:25:47 -0400

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Sat, 18 May 2013 01:14:57 -0400

You Wouldn’t Like Me - Tegan and Sara

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:57:00 -0400

You Wouldn’t Like Me - Tegan and Sara

antidelusions: Artwork by Nina Montenegro

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:26:11 -0400

antidelusions:

Artwork by Nina Montenegro

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Fri, 17 May 2013 14:26:02 -0400

"The shift in nomenclature toward an “LGBT” community, rather than a “queer” one, marked the..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 01:14:34 -0400

“The shift in nomenclature toward an “LGBT” community, rather than a “queer” one, marked the beginning of a new phase in the social history of sexual and gender identity politics in the United States. It represented a retreat from the more radical concept of alliance, resistance, and rebellion by the different groups against the same oppressive structures in the dominant culture and the adoption instead of a liberal model of minority tolerance and inclusion—sometimes amounting to little more than a “politically correct” gesture of token inclusion.”

- Susan Stryker, Transgender History

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Thu, 16 May 2013 22:58:44 -0400