I Don’t Want to Live a Small Life

by Mary Oliver

I don’t want to live a small life. Open your eyes, open your hands. I have just come from the berry fields, the sun kissing me with its golden mouth all the way (open your hands) and the wind-winged clouds following along thinking perhaps I might feed them, but no I carry these heart-shapes only to you. Look how many small but so sweet and maybe the last gift I will bring to anyone in this world of hope and risk, so do Look at me. Open your life, open your hands.

I am super against light pollution, and have been for decades

but I am also super annoyed by the way it's framed as "without light pollution you can see how beautiful the night sky is" way more prominently than it's framed as "hey, did you ever stop to think of how much energy/resources/money are literally wasted by having so much light shine up into the sky?"

so people get the idea that light pollution can only be remedied by eliminating all night-time light, which would make being outside at night very inconvenient, instead of by making night-time light shine only on the ground where, y'know, the people who need it are

The mildest example of what OP's talking about in Dunedin, Aotearoa:

This is just with the streetlamp equivalent of using lampshades. Imagine what truly directional city lights could achieve?

Reblogging this again cause light pollution actually have negative health affects on humans and wildlife. We weren't meant to live in a world constantly bathed in light.

Writing Your Own Obituary Can Teach You How to Live

Hopefully, I’ll continue to update my own obituary for years to come—and learn something about myself along the way.

by Meg Dalton

Recently, I sat down to write my own obituary. I’m not dying anytime soon, or at least I hope not. But a few months back, I attended a workshop run by a local library in Connecticut appropriately called “How to Write Your Own Obit.” I wasn’t ready to pen my own obit then, but one misty Tuesday afternoon, I suddenly felt called to do it.

Typically, an obituary has three parts: the beginning, which tells you the name, age, cause of death; the middle, which celebrates the person’s life; and the end, which covers who the person has left behind—those grieving the subject’s death. An easy-enough structure. But I stared at my screen for a solid ten minutes before I wrote a single word. When I finally started typing, the only words that appeared before me were “Meg” and “Dalton”—my first and last name. Next came “died on DATE from THING at AGE.” Because I’m not a psychic and can’t predict when I’m going to die, I had to insert some placeholder text to keep my momentum going. The next words that flowed from my fingers were some of the hard facts you might find in an obituary, specifically where I was born and raised.

I had the most difficulty writing what followed: the part that describes what the person was like and how they spent their life. The reason I struggled at first was, in part, because I’m still figuring out how I want to live my life. Throughout the obituary-writing process, I repeatedly had to ask myself: “How do I want to be remembered?” “What mark do I want to leave on people’s lives?” “What brings me joy?”

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The Breakfast Club - John Bender

READ ONLY IF YOU WATCHED THE MOVIE.

If you’re a fan of the movie, grab a snack, this is gonna take a while…

Can some people please take a minute to remember this movie was released in 1985, so that was 37 years ago. The attitude was different back then, literally everything was different, even people’s mindset. So when you want to judge a film, think about the time of release, and how life used to be at that time. I’m so glad this movie was released before social media. Also, some people in the comments section are talking like these characters were meant to be perfect, which is the exact opposite of the idea behind the film, remember they are just kids! It’s all about the struggles of teenagers, not adults.

The Breakfast Club’s confession scene is one of the movie’s most pivotal and revealing, and it was also surprisingly UNSCRIPTED by the film’s cast. How powerful and amazing is that. The Director John Hughes left the confession scene largely unscripted, aiming for authenticity that was less likely to occur naturally if the actors simply delivered lines. While other small parts of the film (such as Bender’s unfinished “blonde woman” joke, and the “I forgot my pencil’’ line) were also improvised, it is incredible that the actors were able to successfully ad-lib such an important scene. Even the ICONIC one where Bender puts his fist up into the air as he walks across a football field with the quintessential Simple Minds’ track “Don’t You Forget About Me” blaring offscreen, originally, Hughes wanted Judd Nelson to walk across the field while the sunset showed brilliant behind him. Without Hughes’ direction, Nelson thrusted his fist into the air, and everybody, including Hughes, marveled at this stunningly natural improvised and fitting character choice. The ending has since become a beloved and unforgettable piece of moviemaking that is often referenced in pop culture, films, and television shows. It truly gives me chills every single time. 

I wanna get real deep into my favorite of the bunch; John Bender (Played by Judd Nelson), who despite having conflicts with his own abusive father and even the school’s strict principal, is a fearless leader who’s willing to stop at nothing until things are settled just the way he imagined them. In a way they looked to him as the leader sometimes later in the film. He carries a knife because he’s scared that at any point anyone could be a threat and he has to keep up his guard. Also, The scene in the closet with Vernon shows his vulnerability.  Vernon locks bender in and threatens to hurt him physically is such a raw and emotional scene for me, because it showcases that bender clearly isn’t the person he’s trying to be, but that it’s rather a front to avoid getting hurt. in that scene, Vernon has severely misjudged bender’s character and confronts him with violence, just like bender’s father. bender doesn’t fight back, because he’s in a position of weakness. Vernon is a grown adult, towering over him and using his power to push bender down. again, just like bender’s father. His whole life he’s been at the mercy of an abusive father so he feels the need to protect himself. Judd Nelson in describing Bender’s character he said “He’s always angry and bitter for the way he was treated in school and at home his entire life, that’s why he spends most of his time trying to pull the other people down to his level, this level where he feels they’ve put him.”

Bender was in detention for pulling a false fire alarm, it feels like he wanted to get the detention. I feel like the reason Bender kept getting Saturdays was because it meant less time at home with his father. It was an escape. I don’t agree with his attitude of course, and I’m not justifying any of his actions, but I can understand his trauma and what all of his manners are coming from. After all, he’s a powerful character. 

Even if he leans towards the dark side, he’s so vulnerable, but super intelligent, witty, articulate, verbally adept, quick on his feet, extremely capable, and if you noticed when he talks, he has expensive vocabulary, with the best comebacks ever. 

I really loved the scene where he gets himself caught by Vernon in order to get the rest detainees from getting in more trouble kinda proves he’s more that an arrogant kid with a devil may care attitude. He was a selfless guy who was willing to take the proverbial bullet for others. Remember the part when Claire told Allison and Brian if they came up to her in school she would ignore them, Bender was so angry and told her “You know how shitty this is to do to someone.” Also. when he told her that “you can’t stand up to your friends and tell them that you’re gonna like who you wanna like.” That was great point, that popular kids only cares about people’s opinion. He hated that. Behind his hoody, bad boy persona, he cares about friendship, and i think there’s more to him than his exterior.

About the way he was a jerk to Claire (especially the confession scene), I hated it but it’s pretty obvious that he liked her from the start. He was mean to her, but in the film they’re showing how Bender is a vulnerable 16 years old kid who’s afraid of rejection, that’s why he’s taking this method with a girl he’s assuming he would never get. He is used to being treated as worthless, that he rejects everyone before they can reject him, that’s why through bitterness and rudeness according to him, he’s protecting himself. He’s rude especially to Claire because he cares about being rejected by her, it’s possible that to him even having then hate him is better than having then not think of him at all. He’s not justified, but maybe understood. He describes himself as “A freak” when he was talking to Claire, it’s in the deleted scenes of the movie, and that’s probably why deep down all he wanted to be accepted. Don’t forget he’s a victim of abuse, he just needed someone to believe in him, and that was obvious in the closet scene when Vernon he wanted him to become violent, even threatened him, John looked paralyzed and scared, he was reminded of his father, beating him, burning him with his cigar… the realization in his eyes that there’s no escaping from the abuse was sad. The movie wanted to show the damaged, abused, scared kid, a typical teen who just wanted to be accepted, and how he would deal with everything and everyone around him.  All I know is this movie is really deep.

I always like to analysis any characters that I like before giving my judgment. I remember as a teenager I liked Bender as the rebellious, bad boy, and sarcastic guy! But growing up, and when you get old enough, after watching the movie over and over again, my idea of this character changed to see him on a deeper level. You realize that Bender is the most important character. He’s the one that broke the conformity and he made them all see each other for who they really are.

Judd Nelson made an iconic character, despite his flaws. People still dress up as John Bender for Halloween, to this day. He might’ve invented the ‘bad boy/young criminal’ character in Hollywood. I read a comment once, and i couldn’t get it out of my head, it says “If Judd Nelson had died after making this film, he would have been regarded as a modern day James Dean.” I couldn’t agree more.

People are forgetting that this movie teaches that every generation are raised by the one before, it means they are responsible for teaching their kids what’s right and what’s wrong. They don’t realize it’s people like them that make them the way they are currently.

The Breakfast Club is a timeless masterpiece. It’s the one movie they could never remake. Great decade. Best music. Best movies. 

I think I wrote an essay, mainly about Bender, because he was the most complicated, important, and damaged character. Sorry, that was really long, but I was re-watching this iconic movie, and i wanted to share my opinion. All of this, just my personal opinion, and my own point of view.

Check this interview with Judd, you’ll be surprised of how intelligent, charismatic, witty and well-spoken he is:

—> Behind the scenes with Judd Nelson https://youtu.be/gsrGzXrmyU8

Music in Film: The Breakfast Club (1985) dir. John Hughes

20 things I am doing in my 20s.

Black Pearl.

Doctor Who is bringing back 10th Doctor and Donna, Supernatural has a spin off. All we need is something Sherlock related to break the chains of apocalypse and bring back superwholock

it is not an act of charity to "allow" us to be in the room with you

turns out my life purpose isn’t supposed to be as small and silent and accommodating and convenient as possible

i like music where the guitar sounds like it's having a mental health episode

so we all agree "mike wheeler is the heart of the group" is bullshit, right?

we all agree that it is will byers instead right?

in season 1, everyone banded together (and found el) to find will.

in season 2, will was more than happy about max joining the party. but guess who wasn't? mike wheeler.

in season 2, everyone worked together to help will.

in season 3, mike was literally going away from his friend group to make out with el at all given times.

in season 3, we saw will being the only one who stayed till the very end when dustin returned because he missed his friend.

in season 3, will just wanted all of his friends to spend time TOGETHER (because let's be real, will would've been so happy just doing whatever, not only d&d, as long as all six of them were together. just look at how excited he was when they all were about to leave for the hill)

in season 3, will let go of his very rightful anger towards his friends who kept ignoring what he had to say, because he thinks it's for the betterment of the group.

in season 3, will is even willing to let go of his own interests (playing D&D) if it meant his friends would still spend time with him whenever he returned to hawkins next.

in season 4, max, lucas, dustin and mike are literally falling apart because they're all too into their heads (and i don't really blame them here - especially not lucas and max). mike and dustin weren't even that supportive of lucas joining basketball when his reasons of doing so were extremely valid.

in season 4, mike is quite literally having relationship problems with el by not being able to say "i love you" (and the confession scene doesn't seem to have done much either because why is el still not talking to him at the end?)

in season 4, will brushes aside his own feelings for mike and instead focuses on helping mike and el get back together because he loves them both dearly and he just wants to see them happy together.

in season 4, mike only really confesses after will byers pushes him to. shouldn't it have been mike's instinct which "really kicked in" when he sees his loved one is in danger?

will byers is the heart of the group and fuck whoever wrote those scenes because you don't even know your characters at this point.

*putting my clown make up on* no, but it still doesn’t sit right with me how they not only left eddie’s body in the upside down but the whole squad minus dustin acts like he didn’t even exist, never mentioning and mourning him the way his uncle and dustin did. it doesn’t feel realistic at all, not after they bonded and fought together. not even mike or lucas who looked up to eddie even before the whole vecna thing. this is what makes me believe he’s not actually dead and that ‘two days later’ time skip was used to sort of do the background work of dragging eddie back into the real world, patching him up and hiding him from the police and talking to his uncle was necessary to make the whole story of eddie ‘missing and presumed dead’ believable? idk, it’s just the lack of reaction from the gang feels so bizarre that i’m leaning towards this theory. OR none of it has any chance and it was just an extremely bad writing 🤡

How many time does Noah Schnapp have to give the performance of his life until they nominate him for an Emmy

my dad likes to call the stretches of time where you’re not creating “dreaming periods” and says that they’re meant to allow you to absorb all of the beauty, life, and inspiration from the things around you so that when you’re able to create again, you will have fanned your spark back into a flame. sometimes its hard to see those moments as anything but stagnation, but he always says that they’re natural and healthy and needed—things that should be embraced rather than feared.

Natalie Diaz, from The Hand Has Twenty-Seven Bones — : These Hands If Not Gods 

the feeling of reading and getting lost in a different world >>

e.e. cummings, from “the first of all my dreams was of” (in 73 Poems), Complete Poems: 1904-1962