![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Face Everything and Rise...Frak that, it depends on the situation
I didn't do much today, outside of playing ReDecor on my phone, and watching Sullivan's Crossing (via DVR on CW), and The Lincoln Lawyer, S1, on Netflix. Also watched another episode of Great British Baking Show S12 (in which I have to agree with the bakers, Allison is preferable to Noel, who is just annoying and in their way. Sorry, Noel, it was funny five seasons ago, now it's just old.)
I needed a day off - just lounging in my apartment, eating things I shouldn't tucked in a blanket watching television. It was cold in the apartment this afternoon. Sixty-six to Sixty-Seven degrees. Then around 7pm, they turned on the heat, so it's 71 degrees in the living area, and probably 74 in my bedroom. Ugh. I may have to bring a fan or open a window in the bedroom to bring it down to 69-67 for optimal sleeping conditions.
I wish they'd turn the heat on during the day and in the morning, and leave it low at night - but it's on a temperature gauge, if the temperature goes below 55 degrees the heat pops on.
Oh what else? I read something online and got upset about the election again. I'm experiencing a lot of unnecessary stress due to this election, which makes it hard for me to focus at times, or think straight. Each Presidential Election in the US is more terrifying/anxiety inducing than the last. I don't know if this is true elsewhere or not?
At any rate, I watched First Unitarian Universalist Church of Brooklyn's live stream of their service this morning - and it pulled me out of it.
The Minister did this lovely homily/sermon about their time in North Carolina's Outer Banks, in a small little town with a population of 70,000 (that's less than the number of people who work in the organization that employs me), where 70% voted for He who shall not be named in 2020. They are a Queer, Chinese-American, and the population of this area is 90% white, and maybe 8% black, with some Hispanic and other. But they found overall people were kind to them, and did not say anything negative to them. They taught people how to make dumplings, and they taught them various skills. Also in this town, everyone built their own homes and hung their own decorations. The Minister was born and raised in California, and left California after the 2016 election, because they realized there was a whole country out there with people they didn't know or understand, and it was time they got to know them. And the best way to learn to love someone is to get to know them. So off they went to explore.
They reminded me of something, that is all too easy to forget, that people are more than one thing. We are all human. The folks in the Red States are human, and not any different than those in the Blue States are, and fear some of the same things, and make mistakes just as people do in the Blue States (or vice versa depending on your pov). Hate gets us nowhere. Learn to see past the negative bits and look for the positive, and hope for a better world and work to make it exist. It can. There's always hope.
To know another person, helps us to see that they are more than one thing. And just as human and just as flawed as we are.
I cried as the hate and fear and rage fled my body and mind, and I felt free of it once again. Lighter. Because hate, fear, anxiety, and rage all weigh me down and make me ill.
I can't control how others perceive the world or myself, or each other. Or how they vote, or whether they vote. All I can do is control what I do and how I choose to react to it. And that must be with love not hate, and kindness not violence. But the anxiety and anger make it hard at times to accomplish.
The other thing I'd like talk about is a little platitude that's been going around social media via a lot of amateur motivational speakers (who are basically performing artists and motivational speakers as a second career).
"F.E.A.R - Face Everything and Rise" as opposed to Face Everything and Run.
(I don't know, it's more likely to be Face Everything and Fall Down Really Hard...and think better of trying it a second or third time. Assuming of course you don't die and are able to get up and do it a second time. Fear is not necessarily a bad thing. People born without the ability to feel fear, don't tend to live long lives.)
Janis Ian: "Face Everything and Rise"
ME: Did you learn nothing from sticking around for Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene? I mean how did that work out for you?
Janis Ian posted it on Facebook and got kicked by various folks suffering from PTSD. She got pissed off and told them to scroll on by if they didn't like what she said. I decided not to enter the fray and scroll on by. I think she's posting this to deal with her own anxiety and issues regarding the devastation of Hurricane's Helene and Milton - which her homes were in the path of. And she sustained substantial property damage as a result.
This is a generalization that doesn't take different situational issues into account. (That's the problem with all encompassing platitudes and generalizations like this.) Sometimes "FEAR" saves your life. Yes, you should evacuate a Hurricane, for example. Facing a hurricane is probably not a good idea. Some things you shouldn't face - like a killer, or a deadly spider, or a rabid dog. They will kill you. Although I'm not sure you can run from some of them either - maybe hide?
Also anxiety is often a physical issue. People have anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder. They could have a heart attack and die, if you force them to face it. So, instead of Face Everything and Rise, it may well be Face Everything and Die?
I mean if you are afraid of heights, because you have vertigo, and could fall to your death because you lose your balance and get dizzy - then yes, that is a legitimate fear. Or if you are afraid of fire ants or bees because of an allergy - then yes, that makes sense.
Apply a little common sense to this? Honestly I wonder about folks in the performing arts sometimes. Face Everything and Rise does work in regards to say..stage fright or getting on a plane, or maybe leaving your house. But if you get behind a car and could end up killing someone, maybe not? Or if you decide to climb a cliff and end up falling to your death? Or decide to parachute and pull the chord too late? I mean, let's look at this in perspective, shall we?
I needed a day off - just lounging in my apartment, eating things I shouldn't tucked in a blanket watching television. It was cold in the apartment this afternoon. Sixty-six to Sixty-Seven degrees. Then around 7pm, they turned on the heat, so it's 71 degrees in the living area, and probably 74 in my bedroom. Ugh. I may have to bring a fan or open a window in the bedroom to bring it down to 69-67 for optimal sleeping conditions.
I wish they'd turn the heat on during the day and in the morning, and leave it low at night - but it's on a temperature gauge, if the temperature goes below 55 degrees the heat pops on.
Oh what else? I read something online and got upset about the election again. I'm experiencing a lot of unnecessary stress due to this election, which makes it hard for me to focus at times, or think straight. Each Presidential Election in the US is more terrifying/anxiety inducing than the last. I don't know if this is true elsewhere or not?
At any rate, I watched First Unitarian Universalist Church of Brooklyn's live stream of their service this morning - and it pulled me out of it.
The Minister did this lovely homily/sermon about their time in North Carolina's Outer Banks, in a small little town with a population of 70,000 (that's less than the number of people who work in the organization that employs me), where 70% voted for He who shall not be named in 2020. They are a Queer, Chinese-American, and the population of this area is 90% white, and maybe 8% black, with some Hispanic and other. But they found overall people were kind to them, and did not say anything negative to them. They taught people how to make dumplings, and they taught them various skills. Also in this town, everyone built their own homes and hung their own decorations. The Minister was born and raised in California, and left California after the 2016 election, because they realized there was a whole country out there with people they didn't know or understand, and it was time they got to know them. And the best way to learn to love someone is to get to know them. So off they went to explore.
They reminded me of something, that is all too easy to forget, that people are more than one thing. We are all human. The folks in the Red States are human, and not any different than those in the Blue States are, and fear some of the same things, and make mistakes just as people do in the Blue States (or vice versa depending on your pov). Hate gets us nowhere. Learn to see past the negative bits and look for the positive, and hope for a better world and work to make it exist. It can. There's always hope.
To know another person, helps us to see that they are more than one thing. And just as human and just as flawed as we are.
I cried as the hate and fear and rage fled my body and mind, and I felt free of it once again. Lighter. Because hate, fear, anxiety, and rage all weigh me down and make me ill.
I can't control how others perceive the world or myself, or each other. Or how they vote, or whether they vote. All I can do is control what I do and how I choose to react to it. And that must be with love not hate, and kindness not violence. But the anxiety and anger make it hard at times to accomplish.
The other thing I'd like talk about is a little platitude that's been going around social media via a lot of amateur motivational speakers (who are basically performing artists and motivational speakers as a second career).
"F.E.A.R - Face Everything and Rise" as opposed to Face Everything and Run.
(I don't know, it's more likely to be Face Everything and Fall Down Really Hard...and think better of trying it a second or third time. Assuming of course you don't die and are able to get up and do it a second time. Fear is not necessarily a bad thing. People born without the ability to feel fear, don't tend to live long lives.)
Janis Ian: "Face Everything and Rise"
ME: Did you learn nothing from sticking around for Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene? I mean how did that work out for you?
Janis Ian posted it on Facebook and got kicked by various folks suffering from PTSD. She got pissed off and told them to scroll on by if they didn't like what she said. I decided not to enter the fray and scroll on by. I think she's posting this to deal with her own anxiety and issues regarding the devastation of Hurricane's Helene and Milton - which her homes were in the path of. And she sustained substantial property damage as a result.
This is a generalization that doesn't take different situational issues into account. (That's the problem with all encompassing platitudes and generalizations like this.) Sometimes "FEAR" saves your life. Yes, you should evacuate a Hurricane, for example. Facing a hurricane is probably not a good idea. Some things you shouldn't face - like a killer, or a deadly spider, or a rabid dog. They will kill you. Although I'm not sure you can run from some of them either - maybe hide?
Also anxiety is often a physical issue. People have anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder. They could have a heart attack and die, if you force them to face it. So, instead of Face Everything and Rise, it may well be Face Everything and Die?
I mean if you are afraid of heights, because you have vertigo, and could fall to your death because you lose your balance and get dizzy - then yes, that is a legitimate fear. Or if you are afraid of fire ants or bees because of an allergy - then yes, that makes sense.
Apply a little common sense to this? Honestly I wonder about folks in the performing arts sometimes. Face Everything and Rise does work in regards to say..stage fright or getting on a plane, or maybe leaving your house. But if you get behind a car and could end up killing someone, maybe not? Or if you decide to climb a cliff and end up falling to your death? Or decide to parachute and pull the chord too late? I mean, let's look at this in perspective, shall we?