i am a firm supporter of changing your name to whatever you want regardless of your gender. if a woman wants to go by matt then matt she shall be. godspeed
Gamers this has been on my mind for a while, and I’ve been Going Through It so I can’t thoughtfully articulate it yet but: the little things can, and absolutely will, save you.
It’s noticing the bunny in the yard eating dandelions one by one. It’s buying lemonade from eager kids at a stand using change scrounged from the center console of your car. It’s enjoying the smell of hot pavement steaming after a brief summer rain. It’s taking a breath that feels fuller and more satisfying than usual.
It’s painstakingly training your brain to notice the small but rampant string of good things woven through every single day. It’s that same kind of training that you have to do in order to undo the years of anxious patterns that have been ruthlessly hammered into the soft pathways of your mind.
I don’t know how to connect the two dots, but the connection is there. I know it’s there because something as silly as the satisfying crunch of a knife cutting a crisp grilled cheese sandwich in half has meant the difference between hanging on and panicking during a stressful day.
I can’t explain how the many small things I did and asked for and noticed over YEARS finally coalesced into something solid and real and steadying but they did. I’m not saying that petting the one patch of fur between your pets ears that’s a little softer than any other spot is going to cure your depression tomorrow.
But I’m suggesting that when you stitch it together with a thousand other things from a thousand other days, it might just rescue you from the one day in your future that would have destroyed you otherwise.
father’s day is funny in my family because my dad is so angry this holiday exists that it’s the one day of the year i am NOT allowed to call him. we are officially estranged for 24 hours a year. wishing him a happy father’s day is a declaration of hostilities.
and like he is a good dad with a good dad, there’s no traumatic backstory to this, he just hates The Man telling him what to do so much that it’s a personal affront that someone decided that anyone is supposed to feel a thing on a specific day or, god forbid, spend their hard earned dollars because shaving commercials tell them to. if a dad did his job right (be a good father who unconditionally loves his kids), his kids should love him 364 days a year but FUCK the 365th day to spite hallmark and gillette specifically and you know what. i respect it.
