Good evening, everyone! Thank you for the warm welcome! Incredible to be in the Empire State Building. I remember as a kid, watching movies and seeing this incredible, iconic building. And I was really, really fortunate my mum saved up and brought me out here for my 17th birthday. We came and visited and we went to the top of this building. So it's amazing to be back here and to see the sport growing so much, being so welcomed in this amazing country and I can't wait to see the continued growth. - Lewis Hamilton
Actually let’s see what people think. What rising sign do you think Lewis Hamilton is? Like without googling anything or even if you know, what would you say?
One day in 2019, I had pain so bad I went to the ER.
My gut felt like there were red hot needles and knifes being stabbed into it. I felt nauseous. I felt faint. I very nearly threw up.
It was not the first time I felt this way but it was the worst I’d ever felt. I’d been getting increasingly bad pain for over a year and I had gone to countless doctors trying to determine what it was.
The doctors at the ER — thankfully — took me seriously. They determined I had a severely infected gallbladder and the only way to save my life was to have surgery to remove it.
I still had to give consent before the surgery.
I remember being terrified. I was alone. There was no one to help me. And somehow, even though the only course of action I could take was to consent to the surgery the fact that I had to before they could take action made it all the more terrifying. The consequences of the surgery would mean I would live, but I’d never quite be the same. I felt cheated by my own body. Why was it this way? Why couldn’t I be healthy? Functional? Why wasn’t my body working with me?
The nurses, doctors, and surgeons there were all incredibly kind to me.
One surgeon in particular — the one who ended up operating on me — said something that will stick with me for the rest of my life. “Your body is there to help you. Sometimes, when part of the body is no longer helping you, the best thing to do is cut it away. You’ll be so much happier after the surgery. You won’t be in pain anymore.”
I think about that a lot.
I think about it a lot when I see trans men begging for help to get top surgery and are met with resistance or well meaning but ignorant messages begging back to not “mutilate” their body.
I think about my surgeon, who was so kind to me and knew what to say when I was scared and crying and alone in my hospital bed.
Your body is there to help you.
Sometimes, when part of the body is no longer helping you, the best thing to do is cut it away.
You're just a mammal. Let yourself act like it. Your brain needs enrichment. Your body needs rest. You feel hunger and grow hair. You need to pack bond with other sentient things so you don't become unsocialized and neurotic. You are biologically inclined to seek dopamine and become sick when chronically stressed. "Hedonism" is made up to place moral value on taking pleasure in sensory experiences. I am telling you that if you don't let yourself be a fucking mammal, as you were made, you will suffer and go insane. No grindset no diets no trying to be above your drive for connection. Pursue what makes you feel good and practice radial rejection of the constructs meant to turn you into a machine. You're a mammal.