Antonio Tonelli (b.1934) - The Big Comet. 2004. Acrylic on canvas.

I am 25 and I have never been in love. That’s one of those facts that makes me Sit and stew and sigh like a dog on One of his off days.

I am 25 and I have never been in love. But I once drove twenty minutes to a Bakery to get my friend a cake for her 16th birthday with the face of her Favorite band on it. And she told me That was her favorite thing she’s ever Gotten and we watched fireworks all night.

I am 25 and I have never been in love. But I have held someone after a breakup As they cried and cried and cried, And gave them my favorite jam and tea And told them that if love is an anchor That means it is also a boat. You will find Your way to harbor again.

I am 25 and I have never been in love. But I have raised terrified kittens in my Bedroom. You let them sniff you first, You always let them sniff you, you put Out food, you don’t give chase. You wait. And one day they come to you. And sit on your lap and purr like A motor terraforming Mars itself.

I am 25 and I have never been in love. But I have picked myself up after all My worst days and given myself soup When I’m so sick I can’t stand And given myself cakes on the days I feel Like dead ashes and tape that’s lost its stickiness. I have licked my own wounds and healed my own Bruises, I have called myself beautiful Even when I don’t feel it.

I am 25 and I have never been in love. But maybe I have.

Katherine Mansfield, from a diary entry featured in “The Diaries of Katherine Mansfield,”

Barbara Kruger - Untitled (HOW CAN I BE A BETTER PERSON?). 2011

“Why do you beat yourself up so much over little mistakes?”

This is such a good illustration of emotional abuse

Just a reblog to spread the most UN noticed abuse, be aware

and reminder for everyone to be patient with your loved ones who apologize constantly, or have a really emotional reaction to something that seems insignificant to you.

acsnow:

this comic made me feel SO MUCH more comfortable to exist

These are the solutions we need to policing right now. Remember: the problem cannot be solved by technocratic solutions (i.e. body cams, further trainings, etc.) The problem is policing itself.

Stuck.

Yayoi Kusama - Fear of Death, 2008. 

lavender

ur twenties are weird. i have the priorities of a kindergartener again. i don’t know what in the hell is going on EVER. i like colors. i like soup. i want to take a nap

Alice Bloomfield

A lot of them probably wouldn't last at your job

Last year I had an internship at a fancy office during the day, and a food service job at night. One of the ladies at the office told me she needed a part-time job for some extra cash, and I let her know about an opening in my food service job, described what would be expected, all of that. 

Guys. She quit after one (1) shift, called me the next day, and ranted, “You never told me it was going to be that hard, is that what you do every night?! I’m not 20 anymore, I’m 50, I can’t believe they only pay you $9.50/hr to do all that work!” [For the record, I had coworkers who were 65+]

She was shocked when I explained that yeah, most food service jobs require you to stock heavy boxes, work the register, and learn to cook/prep food, then clean up before you go home. It never occurred to her that people who “just flip burgers” actually have demanding jobs. 

“I’m going to have to be extra nice to those people from now on!” Like yeah, no shit?

I’ve told this story before I’m sure, but when I got my first office job and escaped retail hell, I tended to stay at my desk on my breaks. My manager, well-meaning, passed by and reminded me to make sure I took my breaks and got up and got away from my desk regularly.

I kinda laughed and said “Tanya, I worked retail before this. This entire job is a break, to me. I get to sit down all day. Just let me enjoy that.”

And I still think about it sometimes when I’m in the breakroom in the morning. How I have the unspeakable luxury to take my coffee cup, go to the kitchen, wash the cup out, pour myself a new cup of coffee, chat with coworkers if anyone’s in the breakroom while I’m doing that, and then head back to my desk before I really *start* my day. Without worrying that I’m going to get in trouble or be seen as slacking off. As opposed to the rushed “toss your purse in a locker, clock in, and get out on the floor and start cleaning things/helping customers/fixing signage/etc.” start-of-shift routine from my retail days.

There’s this cool thing I’ve noticed with doctors where I can walk in, sit down, and say “I have X thing and I need help” and they go :)) Oh sweetie u know ur not a doctor right? :)))

or I can say “I have a family history of X, I have 95% of X’s symptoms, people with X have advised me that I might also have X, and I would like to be tested to see if X is my problem” and they go :))) o honie babie child :)))) web MD is not reliable :)))) u only THINK u have X but its okay ur not a bad person :)))) its ok u don’t need to fake an illness for attention :::))))

BUT if I go in and say… I do not know what is wrong plz help they’ll be like “ah yes by the stain on the left knee of ur jeans and ur messy eyebrows I can tell u have X,, have u ever heard of it” and I absolutely hate it, I hate knowing exactly what’s happening and having to pretend I don’t just to be taken seriously, I propose it be titled The Sherlock Effect

I 100% agree but why the Sherlock effect?

Thinking you can know everything about someone within 15 seconds of looking at them, cool in theory but irritating and dangerous IRL, plus my doctor literally quoted Sherlock Holmes at me while explaining that I have Hysteria, a thing I don’t have, because I’m getting treatment now for the real thing I do have

the smartest things the prison industrial complex ever did were

1) convincing American society that prisoners are all “rapists and murderers” despite the fact that: a) most prisoners are drug offenders, b) even most violent offenders are just victims of class society and could very easily be turned into non-violent people, and c) our country seems to be run by people who are either rapists or murderers and no one seems to care.

2) using that bad reputation to not only make people apathetic to any kind of brutality or atrocity committed against prisoners who don’t deserve any of it (see a and b) but using it as an excuse to increase the power the carceral state has over EVERYONE, all while smearing those who disagree as supporting rapists and murderers.

when talking about prison abolition, it’s important to note that most people, including most leftists, have internalized these ideas to a huge extent.