nationalanimalofscotland - Tumblr blog

[nationalanimalofscotland]

Can you imagine what cathedrals would have been like if the medievals had access to neon lighting?

[nationalanimalofscotland]

reading the symptoms of autism as a now grown adult after being bullied for no explainable reason all your life

[nationalanimalofscotland]

Just found out I was thirsty not by receiving a signal from my body about it but by dozing off and dreaming about cold water from different alluring angles. This is great. I think all my wants and needs should be revealed to me this way

[nationalanimalofscotland]

[nationalanimalofscotland]

[nationalanimalofscotland]

[nationalanimalofscotland]

girl who wont shut up about how she "loves a man in uniform" but as she keeps talking it becomes clear she's talking about butches in customer service jobs

[nationalanimalofscotland]

I got to hold a 500,000 year old hand axe at the museum today.

It's right-handed

I am right-handed

There are grooves for the thumb and knuckle to grip that fit my hand perfectly

I have calluses there from holding my stylus and pencils and the gardening tools.

There are sharper and blunter parts of the edge, for different types of cutting, as well as a point for piercing.

I know exactly how to use this to butcher a carcass.

A homo erectus made it

Some ancestor of mine, three species ago, made a tool that fits my hand perfectly, and that I still know how to use.

Who were you

A man? A woman? Did you even use those words?

Did you craft alone or were you with friends? Did you sing while you worked?

Did you find this stone yourself, or did you trade for it? Was it a gift?

Did you make it for yourself, or someone else, or does the distinction of personal property not really apply here?

Who were you?

What would you think today, seeing your descendant hold your tool and sob because it fits her hands as well?

What about your other descendant, the docent and caretaker of your tool, holding her hands under it the way you hold your hands under your baby's head when a stranger holds them.

Is it bizarre to you, that your most utilitarian object is now revered as holy?

Or has it always been divine?

Or is the divine in how I am watching videos on how to knap stone made by your other descendants, learning by example the way you did?

Tomorrow morning I am going to the local riverbed in search of the appropriate stones, and I will follow your example.

The first blood spilled on it will almost certainly be my own, as I learn the textures and rhythm of how it's done.

Did you have cuss words back then? Gods to blaspheme when the rock slips and you almost take your thumbnail off instead? Or did you just scream?

I'm not religious.

But if spilling my own blood to connect with a stranger who shared it isn't partaking in the divine

I don't know what is.

[nationalanimalofscotland]

The other day I told a friend of mine that I never forget to take my ADHD meds because I fucking love my ADHD meds. I'm in my late 30s, I didn't finally get a diagnosis and meds until less than two years ago, and they have changed my entire life.

And he raised his eyebrow at me. We'd been discussing addictive medications a few minutes before, like the Tramadol I finally got from the pain specialist to take once a week or so to give me a break from my chronic pain, so I reassured him that methylpenidate (Ritalin/Concerta) is not addictive (at least not in people with ADHD).

His response? To raise his eyebrow even harder and say "Well it sure SOUNDS like it's addictive!"

And I had to explain to this man - who works in a healthcare related job by the way - that just because medication makes you feel good and helps you, just because you look forward to taking it, that doesn't make it addictive or dangerous. And he wasn't convinced.

The simple fact that I was excited to take a daily pill that has literally changed my life, after decades of fighting to get that medication, made him think I shouldn't be taking it so often. That it must inherently be dangerous.

I'm not even in America, but I'm pretty sure this attitude began there and then spread over here to Europe. This Puritan idea of "if something feels good, you must beware of it. Pleasure is dangerous, it is sinful, it is addiction, it is evil."

I know too many people who subconsciously believe that pleasure = addictive = dangerous = bad. Joy is a slippery slope to hell.

So here is your reminder for today that you don't need to be afraid of feeling good. If something improves your life, use it. Even if it is addictive - learn what that addiction means, whether the addiction is inherently dangerous or not, and whether the benefits outweigh the drawbacks and risks.

My ADHD meds are, in fact, not addictive. But I will take them every day because they make my life orders of magnitude easier. I will enjoy them every time I take them.

My tramadol is addictive. I will still take it. I will keep it on a schedule to avoid becoming addicted, primarily because addiction in this case would mean reduced effectiveness. But I am not afraid of my painkillers. They are life changing.

Take your meds, everyone. Don't let anyone scare you away from doing something that improves your life.

[nationalanimalofscotland]

shoutout to the words "ablest," "aphotic," and "antiseismic" for keeping me on my toes

[nationalanimalofscotland]

Unmute !

[nationalanimalofscotland]

remember when the daily wire was like "we should make a documentary where cis men try to sign up for women's sports by claiming to be trans women" and then they had to make it a fictional movie instead because, surprise surprise, women's sports leagues don't just. let cis men play. y'know, the way conservatives claim they do. and apparently, none of the people they were casting were willing to undergo hormone replacement therapy. I wonder why that is. why these men might not want to have female-presenting bodies. it might make them a bit distressed. about their genders. I wish there was a medical synonym for "distress" that would go well after the word "gender"

[nationalanimalofscotland]

A short animation of my cat Merlin begging to be fed. He usually starts this a full hour before food time.

[nationalanimalofscotland]

“punk is about politics” shut up shut up shut uppppppp this is why we have people saying that conservativism is punk or you’re automatically punk if youre an anarchist it is PRIMARILY ABOUT MUSIC AND PARTICIPATING IN THE SCENE

[nationalanimalofscotland]

*googles ‘how to nominate reporter for Peabody Award’* x

[nationalanimalofscotland]

[nationalanimalofscotland]

that hotel california comic makes me lose my shit every single time & i’m so thankful for it honestly