#but you chose this path. society has to be preserved. you have to continue. youre in too deep

[mishy-mashy]

Kudo and Lady Nagant are actually parallels and foils to each other.

Kudo led a Resistance to fight for what he believed would be the greater good (taking down AFO), knowing his path was hard and killing many for that purpose.

Lady Nagant follows that same path, Pro Hero version: being a Hero to help others, but killing many in the process and realizing how this bright light she believed in casts a darker shadow.

Lady Nagant's tired, which is why she killed the chairman and was arrested. Exactly because she grew tired of everything and shouldering the duty on her own, she's set apart from other Heroes and inmates

But even though she's sick of platitudes (righteous/flowery words for a greater moral purpose), Kudo doesn't dislike them

Kudo isn't tired of those. He wasn't tired of fighting against AFO. He's still fighting, and in ch. 413, he's still willing to die for this purpose.

Even if All For One is technically dead, the Quirk and will lives in Tomura, and Japan is still collapsing. It's all about to come down, and Kudo's seen this before.

Kudo could've easily been just like Lady Nagant. Fighting against society itself, scrounging things and people to fight, and watching so many die on your path, for and against you, so you can keep doing what you should...

Kudo's not optimistic like Midoriya and Hawks. He's aware of what he's done for his purpose, like Nagant. But he still looks toward the future, and is optimistic to believe in that. That what he's doing will help the future.

Lady Nagant saw Hawks and Midoriya, and wondered how they could keep fighting. Why were their eyes still alight?

Lady Nagant asks Hawks how that can be. AND HAWKS' RESPONSE?

HE WASN'T ALONE. HE'S STUPIDLY OPTIMISTIC. WHO DOES THAT SOUND LIKE?

Hi Kudo.

Can you imagine how bullheaded he has to be to do this? How could you grow up in crumbling Japan, and still think about stopping the great evil looming on the horizon? How could that thought have ever occurred to him, to go against current reality? That the person bringing peace really isn't? That he should stand up and fight?

Even Kudo thought Midoriya was delusional, and Nagant can't understand them for being so hopeful. But Kudo himself is crazy for standing up to fight the greatest evil at his peak, with even less strength than anyone else. First Generations were weak, not only because AFO took everything good, but because they were the base of the age of Quirks. The first Quirks were all weak. They'd only grow as they mixed and evolved through time.

Kudo falls into the group of people Nagant can't understand. The group that Nagant grew out of.

If Kudo had been alone like Nagant, he'd have been just like her in the end. But he wasn't. Even though their paths are so similar. They're both fighting a dark, bloody path for the "greater good" they can't see, and with all the death they're responsible for, the purpose behind this all is becoming muddled. But Kudo still managed to keep his eyes set ahead, and didn't lose sight of it.

Kudo knew he couldn't do it alone, and gathered allies. He had Bruce, and the Resistance, who followed him to their graves.

How could he have the will and charisma to gather people and be able to pull it off? Even All For One has to acknowledge that stupid, stupid light in their eyes that persists.

Kudo's eyes have a similar, if not the same light as Hawks and Midoriya.

The two panels even parallel each other. A shot of their left eye, with that light, and text in the exact same place, questioning the existence of that glimmer.

Kudo may not be a Hero or even a vigilante, but Star still reached out and caught his attention directly.

Bakugo has the same will as Kudo. Like Nezu with that "first step", and All Might paving the way for the next generation, will spreads.

Kudo had allies. Nagant was all alone. Only when Midoriya reached out to Nagant and told her to fight with them, recognizing her will, did Nagant smile and call him a real hero. She even gave them the information needed, and did join their side, to keep fighting.

Nagant had allies late. Kudo had them from the start, and so could continue.

[rei-ismyname]

President Cyclops

The 100th Anniversary Special: X-Men is bizarre shit and I don't know what it's trying to say. It has some very interesting content and implications, such as Scott Summers being President of the USA. That's right - his campaign slogan was 'equality for all.'

We're told that Revolutionary Cyke continued down that path until very recently. He very publicly saved the world and rode that goodwill to a successful presidential bid. I know time is screwy in Marvel but that means he was an active enemy of the state for ~50 years and not only became electable but presumably believed the presidency a means to achieve revolutionary ends. Hmm.

Execute the president? Hell yeah! Oh wait, it's the other context. The boring one. Bigots storming the White House to subvert democracy is not a fantasy concept, but would Scott really be giving this order? Institutions have established protocols for security, especially the US government. Is this meant to be him dirtying his hands? I'm down for direct action as much as the next person, but state violence apparatus don't need permission to act all that often. It's their reason for existing. It's vague wording that's sure to be overinterpreted, but using all necessary force is their mandate.

Yeah, we're not really getting any political content sorry. Why would anyone want that in a story about Scott becoming president? Lol at Logan and Scott only burying the hatchet recently and double lol at Logan instigating it. Yawn at the Emma/Jean rivalry, though sadly she's wrong. Lots of Superhero-adjacent people here, even Sebastian Shaw shows up to congratulate Scott. Maria Hill not only managed to keep her job but now she works for a guy she's been chasing for half a century - or at least long enough for Shogo to be old enough to be romantically active.

I see you Marvel, having the only textually queer person in the room interested in someone we've only known as a baby. Baffling choice, at best. Scott isn't very happy to see Sebastian Shaw, as his entire existence clashes with 'equality for all.' You're the US president brother, selfish oligarchs are now a big part of your world. Unless the country changed a LOT, and the revolution continuing this long implies it hasn't, the USA is a neoliberal empire of corporations. Being the president changes you, not America.

Scott is stressed out over ongoing organised riots. Becoming cock of the walk has galvanised anti-mutant forces, including a group called The Eugenics Society. At least they're honest? That's some ugly branding and honestly I'm starting to think this tale might be a little silly. Mrs Cyclops AKA Emma Frost listens to his woes and puts him to sleep. Then a fucking portal opens up and yanks Emma into it - with someone she knows on the other side.

I really thought that was Daken on my first read. Nyet, Logan has a ponytail, bub. He's definitely swagger jacking Daken but at least he's being sensible.

Is Logan in charge of security? Oh no

Scott runs out of his room in his underpants screaming about Emma, but nobody knows who that is. Scott has no wife and the Cuckoos don't have no mother (technically true I suppose, but they chose each other.) It's odd but everyone except Scott is concerned about the rioters January 6ing the joint.

Scott evades his security and Secret Service (if they exist) and gets up high to address the violent racists fucking shit up. They have no idea what he's talking about but figure 'one less mutant is great. Also, when did you get married?'

Scott the very vulnerable squishy person with a bullet allergy just stays still while ranting, though fortunately the X-Men spot the drawn gun in time to be heroes.

Lol, no actually. Scott gets shot dead. Done. Over. Triage can't heal him, Kitty failed to catch a bullet, and Scott must have left his sense of self preservation in the Weapon X facility. Tempus could go back and stop it but doesn't. This scene provokes confusing feelings for me. Presidential assassinations are a lark but I like Scott. Gotta face facts though, President Cyclops' term is over. What a strange choice for an anniversary issue. What next?

Oh, right. Obviously the Phoenix has a vested interest in US politics.🙄 It erased Emma and a bunch of other mutants from existence for reasons. I bet the Phoenix did 9/11 and installed Manuel Noriega too.

I think the book is trying to tell us that Scott shouldn't be President. The 'embodiment of eternity' is saying it so it must be true. All presidencies bring about war and disaster - it's in the job description. What makes Scott's so bad? 'The world is not ready...' Oh fuck it's even worse than I thought. This Phoenix is an ultraliberal.

HEAR ME X-MEN! NO LONGER AM I THE COSMIC ENTITY YOU KNEW! I AM INCREMENTAL CHANGE AND STABLE INTEREST RATES INCARNATE! THE STATUS QUO, NOW AND FOREVER! THE GLOBAL SOUTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT ARE FINE, DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT!

Hmm. I really wasn't sure what to expect when I learnt there was a President Cyke issue. Scott and this entire universe getting Minority Reported by the Phoenix into a nostalgic reset is metatextually hilarious. It's played completely straight, though. I guess the moral of the story is that Emma sucks, atoning is pointless, and change is bad.

I'm not kidding myself that a minority president in some massive game changer (in fact I welcome the death of empires) but the idea that people shouldn't try to change the systems they're in is odious. All formalism and function is telling me this is a happy ending/beginning but it really doesn't feel like it. Wow, I can't believe this comic exists.

[carnegiemuseumnaturalhistory]

How I Became an Archaeologist

If you had told me when I was 15 that I would spend my life as an archaeologist, I probably would have been pretty surprised. I didn’t grow up knowing a great deal about archaeology or even being fascinated by arrowheads. At that time, I might well have asked what an archaeologist really is and what one actually does. I did get to visit the Parthenon and other ruins while on a trip with my aunt when I was sixteen. Even then, I don’t remember having more than a casual interest in what could be learned from these places. I was more interested in the living people and the new food dishes I encountered on that trip, which was my first trip outside the United States.

From talking to other archaeologists, I’ve learned that there are a lot of paths to deciding archaeology is going to be your life’s work. In my case, what led me to archaeology was anthropology, and specifically an elective course I took in the Fall of my senior year in high school that was taught by a Ph.D. student at the University of Massachusetts. Until then I had not been a serious student, although I did well enough in school. Perhaps I was slightly bored by most of my courses, but anthropology was anything but boring! It looked at people elsewhere in the world and over great periods of time. Many of these people lived different lives than my friends and I did, and they sometimes thought very differently about what was important in life than people here in the United States. I was fascinated, and, honestly, I particularly liked the fact that the conventions of American society, which to my teenage self were sometimes a little confining, weren’t after all the only sensible way to approach life. That year, as I chose a college to attend, I specifically looked for anthropology programs. I chose Beloit College in Wisconsin, which to this day has an excellent anthropology program.

Initially, I thought that I was most interested in cultural anthropology, but like most anthropology departments in the United States, Beloit required its anthropology majors to take courses in biological anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and archaeology as well as cultural anthropology. These are what are known as the four fields of American anthropology and together, they give us a more complete picture of humans in both the past and the present. Most people focus their careers in one subfield or another, though we recognize the importance of each one for understanding humans, and in most cases in North America our degrees are in anthropology not one of the subfields. In college, I found all these courses more fascinating than anything I had studied before, and I actually became a good student as I explored anthropology. I was learning so much neat stuff! I also did volunteer work in the Logan Museum at Beloit, which was founded at the end of the nineteenth century and holds some pretty amazing ethnographic and archaeological collections. It was there I first became interested in artifacts and learned to clean and care for them. After a college internship in cultural anthropology convinced me that cultural anthropology was not the most interesting part of anthropology after all, I began to focus on archaeology. I was most intrigued by my courses in Mesoamerican archaeology and North American archaeology, which before college had been completely unknown to me.

When I graduated from college, I still wasn’t sure what I would do with my life. I worked for about two years both in social work and as a tax auditor for the IRS, but decided in 1974 to try graduate school in archaeology because I still found what archaeology had taught me about past people compelling. I lived in Chicago, so I enrolled in the Ph.D. program in North American archaeology at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

My graduate self in the late 1970s. Photo credit: Phillip Neusius

The biggest shock of graduate school was my professors’ almost immediate insistence that I pick what research I wanted to do. They pushed me to develop an expertise or skill within North American archaeology through my research. It sounds obvious to me now, but I think many beginning graduate students are like I was, lovers of the discipline’s knowledge, but a bit daunted by becoming an independent researcher. Developing an area of focus and specialty skills is part of becoming a professional archaeologist. One reason for this is because contemporary archaeological undertakings rely on teams of researchers, each contributing special skills and knowledge to accomplish the many aspects of excavation, analysis, and interpretation. If you envision archaeology as the solitary pursuit of an elusive artifact or site, you don’t have the picture quite right. Think instead of archaeological fieldwork involving groups of scientists working together to discover and carefully record many different bits of evidence about what the world used to be like and what people did in it. Also think about the many hours these scientists and others will spend not only in the field, but in the laboratory after an excavation is completed cleaning finds, describing artifacts, and analyzing data in order to make meaningful interpretations.

For someone like myself, who loved all aspects of anthropology, not to mention archaeology, and who had only gradually settled on North America as my geographic focus, picking a focus on entering graduate school was a hard task. There was so much that would be interesting to study! However, I did remember especially enjoying a research paper I had done in college on the relatively new interdisciplinary field of zooarchaeology, so under pressure, I told my professors I wanted to pursue this subfield in graduate school. Amazingly, this turned out to be a good choice of specialization for me. I found that I really love to work with collections of animal bone. For me, opening a bag of bone refuse from a site still is exciting. Bone identification work is a little like doing a jigsaw puzzle without all the pieces. It is challenging, and it takes concentration and careful observation to piece together what you can. There is so much to figure out about any single piece of bone! What animal is it? How healthy was the animal? What part of the animal’s body is it? Has it been burned or cut? How was the bone buried and changed after the humans were done with it? Then you have to record this information so it can be combined with other observations on the assemblage of bone you are looking at. After identification, making sense of what a collection of the bones means and correlating these kinds of data with other information from a site and region requires careful analysis, but also insight and creativity. To me it is endlessly fascinating.

Besides finding that I liked the work, choosing zooarchaeology was also serendipitous since my professors were looking for a student to work with them on this aspect of a big project they were undertaking in west-central Illinois centered on the Koster site, which was first inhabited more than 9000 years ago and then reinhabited by people right up into modern times. Most importantly the poorly known Archaic Period levels were numerous, well-preserved, and distinct from each other so we could add a lot of new information through our work. For my dissertation I was able to look at the animal remains from levels of this site dated between approximately 8500 and 6000 years ago, which represent how people used animals at that time.

Koster site strata. All those dark layers are from Archaic period camps at the site. Photo credit: Del Bastian, Center for American Archaeology.

Graduate school was intense, but I continued to be fascinated by archaeology’s ability to tell the story of people lost to standard Western history. In those days I was excited to be part of this science that could do so much more than describe and take care of cool artifacts. It was a heady thing to learn that I could contribute to what was known about people who lived thousands of years ago. In later years, I’ve had to think more critically than I did then about what a privilege it is for an archaeologist to learn about the history and lives of other ethnicities. Today’s archaeologists recognize their responsibility to present information about past people for both scholarly and public use in ways that are sensitive to what is considered sacred and private by the descendants of those people. I think this is an important change in perspective, but in the 1970s most archaeologists just wanted to show that people’s stories from the past could be told using the techniques of archaeology. I certainly was happy, if a little naively so, to have found a way to contribute to telling the human story.

If I consider entering graduate school as the start of my professional career as an archaeologist, I have been pursuing this career for more than 45 years! Over the years I have done zooarchaeological and archaeological work in the American Midwest, Southwest, Southeast, and Northeast working on telling the story of people who lived as long as 9000 years ago and as recently as the Sixteenth century. I’ve worked at several universities, in a small museum, and on small and large archaeological projects in the field of Cultural Resource Management (CRM) doing archaeological survey, site excavation, and zooarchaeological identification and analysis. I’ve written scholarly papers and articles as well as a textbook on North American archaeology. However, beginning in the late 1980s, I spent more than 31 years doing research and teaching anthropology and archaeology here in Pennsylvania at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In this job I taught both undergraduates and graduate students, but, as is typical of university professors, I also spent time doing fieldwork and analysis as part of my research while at IUP. Fortunately, because archaeology is a team undertaking, I’ve been able to involve many students in my research. Working with students in research as they discover what fascinates them has been a highlight of being an archaeologist for me. I’ve now retired from teaching but not archaeology. I’m still working with both physical and digital archaeological collections both through CMNH and elsewhere and writing about archaeology. Who knows what this career still will bring me!

Drawing a profile at the Johnston site with one of my students in 2008. Photo credit: Erica Ausel, IUP Archaeology.

Tracking down a bone identification with one of my students in the Zooarchaeology Lab at IUP. Photo credit: Beverly Chiarulli.

If you are reading this blog because you are thinking about archaeology as either a career or a hobby, I hope you realize that mine is just one story among the many that could be told. Because there are so many aspects of archaeology, people come into it from all sorts of backgrounds and because of all sorts of interests. I think that it is important to remember though that it really is about understanding people and telling their stories through the artifacts and other evidence we find. This is what interested me in archaeology in the first place. Discovering the details of the human story is a giant undertaking. There is no shortage of research problems or work to do, but solving the puzzles presented by sites and collections is both challenging and fun. I’m certainly glad I decided to become an archaeologist and zooarchaeologist so many years ago!

Sarah W. Neusius is a Research Associate in the Section of Anthropology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

Definitions of Bolded Terms

anthropology -the study of humans including the physical, cultural and social aspects in the past and present.

cultural anthropology - the study of the cultural aspects of humans especially recent and contemporary social, technological, and ideological behavior observed among living people.

biological anthropology – the study of the biological or physical aspects of humans, including human biological evolution and past and present biological diversity.

linguistic anthropology - the study of the structure , history, and diversity of human languages as well as of the relationship between language and other aspects of culture.

archaeology - the study of past human behavior and culture through the analysis of material remains.

ethnographic – relating to the scientific description of people and cultures especially customs and beliefs.

Mesoamerican archaeology - the archaeology of the area from central Mexico southward through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica.

North American archaeology - the archaeology of the area from central Mexico northward throughout the United States and Canada.

zooarchaeology – a subarea of archaeology involves the identification of animal remains from archaeological sites and investigates the ecology and cultural uses of the animals represented.

assemblage - a collection of artifacts from the same archaeological context.

Archaic Period - a time period from approximately 10,000 BP to 3000 BP that is recognized in most of North America.

Cultural Resource Management (CRM) – an applied form of archaeology undertaken in response to laws that require archaeological investigations.

archaeological survey – the systematic process archaeologists use to locate, identify, and record archaeological site distribution on the landscape.

[thesolitarystripe]

Tindyl’s Origin

How I’ve not posted this is beyond me..

It was an especially bright night, the evening that Tindyl was born. The moon was high in the sky. Its shimmering image was crisp and untouched by clouds. It was taken as a good omen as the young night elf was birthed beneath the giant limbs of Teldrassil. She was born of parents; Bai’len Moonwillow and Laurêl Sagebloom.

Bai’len, a Druid of the Claw, came from a long line of druids that also followed the path of Urso and Ursol. When his daughter was born, he dreamed of a life for her where she might follow in her ancestor’s footsteps.  As the world turned and decades passed, it became an apparent reality that times were changing. Female Kaldorei were becoming druids and males taking up Priesthood. Though he was conservative in his beliefs, a faint flicker of hope welled within him—perhaps Tindyl Willowmoon could become a druid.

It was a silent wish he kept to himself for many years.

Much of Tindyl’s childhood passed as it did for all Kaldorei children. She ran through the forests, danced with the whispering wind, and lost herself amongst the fields of flowers. Bai’len saw her connection with nature at an early age; though all night elves bore the same deep love for the perseverance of nature and swore their lives to protect it, he was sure that when Tindyl spoke to the trees, they spoke back.

When the young night elf reached the age of 100, she had a general grasp of all the duties available to her within their society. Bai’len taught her without sway. Though the druid tried to remain unbiased in his teachings, he couldn’t help but spend a little extra time showing her how to sharpen her claws or learn how to knit her pelt so tightly together that it felt like iron.

On days when the sun was high and the forest lost some of its naturally dim hues, Bai’len would take Tindyl to the main continent of Kalimdor, into the trees of Darkshore, and spar with her. The little she-elf practiced shifting in and out of different forms and did so adeptly. Bai’len knew fully that not every elf born had the knack for nature magic and the fact that his daughter caught on at such a young age, surprised even him.

He chose to practice away from their home for fear that others might think ill of him. While it had become more commonplace for females to practice druidism, his old bones felt the uneasiness of thousands of years of tradition. Some still did not approve of the societal changes and Bai’len feared that Tindyl might be treated harshly for her interests.

So, they spent their mornings nestled in the cool forest of Darkshore. Tindyl would practice shifting until Bai’len saw no hesitation in the way her body morphed. This simple teaching left her too fatigued to carry out any other lessons but; as she grew, her body became resilient and she took on the form of a cat, doe, bear, and dolphin with relative ease.

When she had the energy, Bai’len challenged his daughter to a sparring match. At first the young one was shy and meek to fight her father. When she stood beside her father in his guardian form, her eyes would fall to the massive prints left in the damp dirt as he walked from her and she worried that her own paws might never grow to even half the size.

Despite the hesitant approach Tindyl took to swatting at her father with a thick paw, the elder did not relent. With the same ferocity he would take to battle, he dove at Tindyl; teeth bared, claws protruding, and a mighty roar shaking the trees around them. Day by day, she cowered less and fought back more.

There were not many matches that she won but every so often, her teeth would nip the right spot behind her father’s neck and the druid would howl. One paw might swipe above his massive head, but she was small and quick. With the distraction, Tindyl would seize her opportunity as Bai’len stood with only three feet upon the earth. Their bodies crashed together as she lunged fearlessly, and they toppled into the grass in a pile of silver fur.

Bai’len’s laugh was as loud and rumbling as his roar. In an unusual display of public affection; he’d scoop up Tindyl and press his forehead against hers and scold her playfully for picking on her old father. Tindyl would laugh, roll her glowing silver eyes, and push herself out of his grasp.

It wasn’t long into her adulthood that he watched Tindyl’s demeanor change. While she obeyed and trained in the shade of Darkshore, there was a heaviness upon her heart. Her laughter did not echo between trees like part of nature’s symphony. Bai’len found her one evening sitting in a large meadow, head back as she stared up at the moon.

“What troubles you?” He asked in his deep baritone.

Tindyl’s eyes shut and a long breath slipped through her lips slowly.

“You’ve always told me of my ancestors, of your father and mother, and of theirs, Druids of the Claw. Druids of the Talon.”

Bai’len stood with bated breath. This was the moment his heart had held onto from the moment Tindyl’s first cries were lifted upon the wind and into the branches of their home. Yet, he felt as if he hadn’t enough time to prepare over these last 105 years. The druid stood beside her now, eyes fixed upon her face as his daughter’s brow knit together.

“I do not think I was meant to follow in their stead,” her voice was almost fearful as she said it. Those bright eyes opened and watched for her father’s reaction.

Inwardly, Bai’len felt a piece of him shatter but his face remained smooth.

“You have always had a choice, daughter. It would be an honor to serve with The Sentinels or even one day, The Wardens.”

“An’da,” her hand waved in the air dismissively.

Thinking that his daughter meant to shy away from his suggestion of becoming a Warden, Bai’len continued. “It is a high honor Tindyl, you’ve trained extensively in many areas I do not doubt—” Bai’len was interrupted.

“I do not want to be a Sentinel or a Warden.” As if preparing for battle, Tindyl got to her feet noiselessly.

“Then, what is it you want?”

Their shadows were cast long against the lush green grass as the moon shined down upon them. A desperate prayer was lifted to Elune as Tindyl took another deep breath and clenched her fists.

“I want to be a Druid of the Wild, I want to learn more of what you’ve taught me all these years. You said when I was young that it was uncommon that someone should be able to shapeshift into more than one form. I think..I must have been born with this gift, given to me by Elune herself!”

It amused Bai’len slightly to see his daughter’s purple skin flush with a red undertone as she passionately delivered her reasoning.

“While I love spending time with you in the forest, I do not think that I was meant to follow the path of Urso and Ursol. Nor am I meant to follow Avianna.”

“What do you intend then?” Bai’len’s arms were crossed lightly over his wide chest.

“I’m going to use magic…nature magic…to…heal.”

A single thick, silver brow raised high as Tindyl delivered her intentions in full. Bai’len’s composure broke mildly as his lips parted and he gazed down at his child in bewilderment.

“I’ve not taught you anything of restoration, who has put this thought into your head?”

“I did.” Tindyl stared up at her An’da, voice firm and calm for the first time during their meeting beneath the moon. “I would gladly spill blood to protect our home, our kin, our ways but it does not feel right. I am a warrior only because you’ve taught me how to be one, but it is not who I am within my heart.”

Tindyl waited in agony as silence fell between them. It was not within her nature to fidget or show any signs of her true emotions, but her eyes did hold the vision of Bai’len’s face tensely. The elder rubbed his forefinger over his bearded chin. The white hair bristled beneath his fingers as he scraped at the dark purple skin below it.

“I will not allow this, Tindyl.”

“But you would allow me to strap a bow to my back and ride a nightsaber alongside my sisters who die in battle against those that encroach on our home?”

“Do not raise your voice to me,” Bai’len threatened, voice like the snarl of a bear.

“Traditions are important, father.” Tindyl composed herself in an effort at another attempt to persuade him. “I believe that fully. Our ways should be preserved, our beliefs upheld, but I ask if you would allow me to practice druidism—something once unheard of for a female not many moons ago, why do you baulk at the idea of my healing? I only want to serve our people, to heal the wounds that would not otherwise mend. I’ve seen the soft green glow of that magic flow through my veins in dreams sent to me by the moon goddess. I can feel it in the tips of my fingers when they graze the petals of flowers and trunks of our trees. I will not allow it to consume me, not like it did to mother.”

Bai’len’s head snapped upward from where his eyes had drifted to a single flower swaying in the breeze.

“You will release this foolish dream from your head.”

That was the last word. Bai’len left Tindyl standing under the comforting rays of the moon. Tindyl sunk to her knees where she stood. The small stalks of grass were light against her skin, wrapping around her fingers and wrists as if to console her. The earth beneath her fingertips sang to Tindyl in the chirp of insects and call of evening birds. She knew it in her heart that what she said was true.

A single tear dripped down her alabaster skin and fell into the dirt below. In a dizzying instant, a wisp of green light shot upward. It vanished as quickly as it came and, in its place, stood a fresh silver flower. Tindyl’s hands hesitantly cupped its petals. The faintest green hue emanated within her palms and caressed the smooth edges of the plant that had just come into existence. A somber smile graced the night elf’s lips. She kept her hands around the flower as she leaned back and looked up at the moon.

“Thank you,” she whispered. Her words were carried away upon the wind, whisked up and away into the leaves of their mighty Teldrassil. She could only hope Elune heard her and continued to show her the path she was meant to tread.

[shamaste]

Discrimination and Spirituality. Often it is to see yourself as a victim. But asking yourself is: why and what makes you feel that way. Often made by circumstances, or you got in the way or by others imposing that feeling on you either; by their way of speaking, thinking and doing. Things that make you think and feel differently about yourself, and even starting to bring yourself down. And if you are unsure about yourself, partly because of your past, you feel quickly: disadvantaged, not belonging, discriminated and more.

A group, feels disadvantaged and left out, will be triggered even more in these days, and that will be fueled with Corona as an unwanted ally to use for his own business/purpose and also by using what happens in Europe, especially from the USA, as an excuse overhere.

In the USA rests many deep feelings or are close to the surface, waiting to let it be freed. That is happened, old things. And now people react because of these old feelings. Only now they attach a name to it, it is called ....: discrimination and / or racism. If shops are looted, it is justified? Kristallnacht, ww2, but now the American way.

Social injustice is not yet discrimination. But it is now being brought forward. Everything is suddenly seen as discrimination or explained like that, even when it isn't. Rage, is making blind for judtice and is just for preserving self-interest. Only for a certain group, but I am for everyone, don’t get me wrong. And exclusion is making distinctions, that is, discrimination. Then I also have something for those people and groups who are now so hard on others with regard to discrimination. But .... I don't because I accepted myself years ago, not being a victim. And because of that...I don't live in or am i my past now. Of course it could have been different or turned out differently. But I chose. I have chosen not to judge, to condemn, to discriminate. And you?

Because that is discrimination, a choice! And your life is also about making choices. Just like mine.

Either you choose: to hang around in the past, to be a victim, or to choose to make a distinction, or to choose to blame someone else as usual, or to choose to discriminate. Or whether you choose not, not to be, to do what makes you guilty of that what is written.

Tolerance. Tolerance is tolerating, but no acceptance yet. Often is tolerance to here is not there: not in my street, house, village, town or country. Are you getting too close, then ..? Everything is allowed, as long as I am not confronted with it, you, your kind.

I also don't have to tolerate everything, such as: being left out, discriminated against, ignored and hated for who i am. I won't allow. That is called... free will. It's a piece of humanity to yourself, a form of selfcare. But it should not turn into hatred, disgust, envy, anger, violence and more. And anger is, in this case is... a bad destructive emotion, fueled by fear of?

I was often (as a gay) only tolerated by others. Acceptance, that was only possible if I started to accept myself, and decided not continue to see myself as a victim or as a failure. But just thought myself that I am successful, valuable and a sincerely improved version of my old hurt self, i started to get free as i learn to see who i am. I find myself and I found out ...: I have something to offer!

But if you have something to offer that is successful, you attract people who want it too, a part of it. -in which the other person can quickly make a big improvement, progress and making a lot of money. These factors playing the main role and the tolerance level is because of selfish reasons suddenly higher. Then you can take your place in their circle. But watch out! This is still not an acceptance of you. But make use of you. Its temporarely. Until they get it, and then ..? Then you are pushed aside, thrown out again. This is called social injustice.

Abuse, or call it social injustice, that is to use someone or a situation for personal (ego) purposes and well-being. This has nothing to do with race, religion or whatever the preference are. It's just an ego thing in that other person. You are, have something, and they want to have that something, anyway ... is to benefit themself, because that's what it's all about. Gimme Gimme Gimme!

But sometimes it fails, and then ...! And sometimes it fails more often and suddenly society seems to turn against you and then the terms are used, such as: this is discrimination, racist etc. But forgetting that them selves are the cause of their own disadvantaged. That is forgotten, and which is also not fair to the other. But karma is a bitch. Get the gueste?

Well, sometimes it's not your path. And if your intentions are not pure either, then there is such a thing as karma. Cause and effect. When I do things, I am responsible for that, not the other person. And there I think, it goes wrong. Everywhere. De People do not want to take responsibility for their own actions, or life.

Is it due to this crisis, the coronisation of this society? Beware, don't forget, but everyone is responsible for their own thinking, feelings, behavior and also health, and yes: you are also responsible for what you pass on, and you are responsible for that, not the other person, what you have given and gotten also unwanted - that is without their approval or knowledge also. Like giving covid19 to someone else. Or secretly giving an STD or worse? And thats happening now, are you going to put the blame on that, to them too? Shame on you. Poor human being! So with that, youre building up bad karma. From now on you need al the luck in the world.

Spiritual people cannot afford to do that at all, because they already have a knowledge, its called consciousness. But if you still want to act like that as a perpetrator, without conscience, or responsibility for yourself, you will be thrown back .., confronting all your fears. Then you start complaining and winjng about everything and everyone. Too bad (s).

Injustice or discrimination? There will always be injustice, because it is also determined by other things, like ego and fear. Naturaly, as mentioned before, you possess that the other person don't or that person has something that you do not have, or the other way around, giving and taking, or it is still out of your reach, such as a well-paid job, that car, a beautiful house. But it's also te be in control or decision-making, those rights. Birth rights, such as being happy, free, the right to have a free will and more. But it should not be at the expense of others. Then you are wrong.

That can trigger something in the other, or evoke such things as: envy, jealousy, anger, fear of repetition from the past, that all play a role. This way you get groups facing each other. A kind of (ego) war.

Spirituality is about: to create unity, equality, not to use it to want to (over) rule, (to) judge and yes, even to discriminate. Because now your coming across that line, stepping over that thin line. Really! Spiritual people seem to take the lead in this. When someone is righteous and against everything at the same time, (judging) ..! Discerning, you good, you bad. Shit it is. There is no good or bad.

Spirituality is not meant for that, to upset others, or put people down. But fear has also to struck there. But whether it is real? No. This is called: we are not the past. It is not our war, whatever happened then. This is not us! Because slavery was born in a time of progress, this through discovery, prosperity and domination. They knew no better. Now we do.

This in an laat part of an era and it is still called: the age of pisces. And it stops at 2100. Power, ego and money. We are still in and part in that. This is called the transition phase. And is 100 years long. From 2000 until 2100.

Mother Earth's future depends on this period. That is why everything is discussed and relived again, and before new things emerge, that when the wheat is separated from the chaff. Dutch saying. Get the bad things out. Let the good things in. How annoying it may be. But to enter an era of higher consciousness and spirituality, you must first create space. And humans has no longer natural enemies. Except them selves and diseases. Viruses belong to us, to humans, plants and animals. Therefore, new ones are added all the time, and they mutate. And what do they teach us if you want to learn?

The other and me? Racism and discrimination ar originated from fear, fear of losing something that is valued, such as freedom. Your loved one. And unfortunately it is now often linked to white people. But history also teaches: the Indians also robbed people, especially women, she was called squaws, from other tribes, for their own good;

African chieftains also had their slavery practices, they also had slaves from other countries and / or tribes and traded with white shipping companies for profit;

the Japanese wanted to subdue the Chinese;

in Russia you were or are still murdered because;

and Turkey is still doing it. From power.

Leaders in different countries keep racism / discrimination alive, even TRUMP. But it stays alive as long as your ideas allow you to distinguish them and to justify them. It is good / bad, it is this, it is that ...! Than... ?

See Qatar? And so it is also to watch out for you and me and that an opinion is not a wrong thought, because you make distinctions so quickly.

WW1 / 2. Just before the outbreak of the WW2, the Jews were suddenly victims of violence. That because they were prosperous. Because most of them had shops, they were learned, they were successful because of their drive and hard work. The underprivileged 'German' population, which was abandoned as lowlife and in poverty by 'Der Kaiser' after WW1, was looking for a scapegoat. A deep world recession of 1929-39 followed the WW1. It was poverty against wealth. If you come to me, it will be better. Making promises to the people, the Kaiser was deposed and left for the Netherlands. HITLER rattled at the door of the 'Regierungssitz'. The outcome is still remembered? And in that place, Hitler found his chair and played nicely on that old pain. He found a scapegoat! What have we learned from this? How are you now?

Social discontent. This discontent manifests itself especially at times, when something global happens and that has become this virus Corona, the big motivator. Without this virus, the Floyd case would have turned out quite differently. I know for sure.

Group discontent, group fear, being insecure about themselves and the future, certainly death and life knocking on the door. Suddenly life, it has a different meaning for a certain group. They woke up rough and immediately, because those people realize ..., they are mortal and it suddenly comes very close. Suddenly people started to appreciate and feel their life differently. More prescious then others, now with that fear arose: "I first ...!" Feelings. A lot to deal with and In addition, others quickly forgotten. Survival first. Can you manage it alone? Now and later? No. You need people.

Corona. It suddenly seems like a green signal, of something that was already on orange. The previous economic recession is still fresh in the memory. - My company did not survive that and that is my blessing now. Don't think about having a gym ... at this time. It seems as if anything is allowed to do and must be possible, by a group that feels discriminated against, excluded or limited, and which also limits others by their actions. Who limits who actually, who discriminates?

What is the spiritual lesson of this? That it will last forever when it is fed by ego and fears.

But is that also discrimination? It has to do with fear. You can decide for yourself, and worst of all, you know about yourself when you are a racist or when you discriminate. All colours. And you also know quite well when it is your ego and fears, what you project onto others. This is called self-knowledge. Spiritual people have enough awareness, provided their egos havent got in the way of their fears. And that has already been proven that it is. No wisdom in there, because knowledge is still in their heads and it is not yet in their heart, and wisdom is from the heart. We will go there. Anyhow.

Where there is fear (heart), wisdom cannot rule there, can it? And you are caught. That's where your freedom is. In you. That's why it is important to stop this madness now. To stop scaring yourself, to feed it. It throws you back. There are probably more you can stop doing that. Now! Some tips for you. I wrote them for this moment. These are things to stop saying to yourself.

1. "I'm not good at ..."

Instead, say, "It's just a skill and something I can learn."

Personal affirmation: I am okay!

2. "I'm such a failure ..."

Instead, say, "I'm wrong, and everyone makes mistakes."

PA: I don't make mistakes, I learn.

3. "There's no point in trying ..."

Instead say, "It can be difficult, but step by step I will reach my goal in time."

PA: If the first one fails, then the second time it will not. I can do it.

4. "Everyone hates me; I have no friends ..."

Instead, say, "It doesn't really matter what these people think of me.

There are others who will recognize my worth and true self. "

PA: I appreciate myself just the way I am.

5. "I hate myself. I deserve to be rejected ..."

PA: "I am beautiful on the inside and I have enough self-esteem and self-esteem. I deserve to be cherished and treated well."

Your new life begins here. The better you is how you thinking about yourself, positive, then you feel more powerful, staying strong in your shoes, the less victim you feel. Because you determine how you deal with it. I have let go of my victimrole a long time ago, when will you?

This way you regain and remember your power and strength.

And give yourself the space and space is freedom that you were looking for. No more outside going to your search freedom, it is in you to enter the future correctly. Go inside.

And say, I'm okay. And that is enough.

I'm Hans, Dutch and I'm okay. In every way.

[perfectly-balanced]

Thanos, I understand that you're trying to accomplish something good from your perspective, but I think you're overlooking the resilience of human nature. Even if the Earth gets destroyed humanity would be able to find a way to escape, to go to another planet or solar system perhaps. That's the beauty of human nature, we adapt under any condition and overcome to survive.

Since you have come to me with a rational, at least in comparison to others, approach, I am inclined to humor your argument.

Even though of course the very thought that you believe you were able to come up with an angle that I, an immortal all-powerful being, was not able to is still naive at best and insulting at worst.

Now, I have many counters to your points, as just about everything you said is deeply flawed under closer inspection. First of all, the human race isn’t the only species I did what I did for, far from it. So even assuming your arguments were correct, which they aren’t, the same couldn’t be said for all the other species.

As always, you humans remain self-centered and assume everything revolves around you, which is part of the problem that got you into this mess in the first place. To me, your kind is merely one infinitesimal grain of sand in the beach of the universe.

A particularly stubborn and irritating piece of sand, rougher than many of the others, mind you, and one insistent on getting into places it shouldn’t be, but still a single grain nonetheless.

Now, aside from that, as I said before I am immortal, which means I have been alive for a very long time. Long enough to have changed drastically since I was young.

I wasn’t always so intent on my current mission. Before I reached the conclusion that I would have to erase half of all life, I considered other options first. As in, all of them.

I was raised as a scientist, and so my first approach was naturally to eliminate all other possible solutions, the ‘nicer’ ones, first before resorting to drastic measures.

After my planet was destroyed, I traveled to many different worlds that were similarly on the brink of collapse, and ran experiments to test out my different options. Thousands of them. Even accounting for all of the variables, they all inevitably failed and the result remained the same: total self-destruction.

Believe me, I never wanted to harm anyone, and I never would have chose to do so without good reason. Had you known me as I was as a naive and helpful young man, you would believe me.

Now, from the experience of what I have observed and lived through, as well as just basic common sense, here is the truth. For convenience’s sake, let us merely talk about humans and Earth, since that is all you understandably know of.

The first flaw in your argument is that you are assuming that your planet will even see your own doom coming before it is too late. But all it takes is one event, one second to change everything.

For example, my own planet, Titan, appeared completely fine to the naked eye. It was only from studying and looking into the patterns and signs that I was able to predict what happened. But to anyone who simply lived there, everything seemed relatively fine.

Sure, there were massive population issues, as well as a shortage of food and other resources, but the same can be said for your planet, and you certainly wouldn’t consider that an apocalypse by any means.

Because you have grown up in a time when this is very normal, and likely haven’t had to deal with it yourself, slowly escalating warnings and catastrophes are expected for your society.

So even though your climate is changing and more damage is being done environmentally, you don’t take the increasing rate of hurricanes, floods, disease, starvation, fires and earthquakes to mean the world is ending. No, it is normal to you, what you have always known.

It is easier to get used to something when it is increased in gradual increments, and naturally humans as a whole are complacent in their ways of life until they are forced not to be, so as long as these inconvenient natural disasters are manageable, you will find a way to persevere through it. The sad fact is that most of you wouldn’t even notice your own total doom until it has already arrived.

After all, it is such an ugly concept that denial is truly the only option for most people until they are slapped in the face with the cold hard reality. But wouldn’t you rather take control of your own destiny for the better than to be at its mercy on its terms?

Regardless, as I was saying, on Titan things looked relatively fine on the surface, nothing to visually indicate the end of everything was near, which is why people were so quick to deny me. But I knew the truth, and just as I predicted, the first catastrophe to strike Titan came from the depths below.

Our planet’s surface was littered with cryovolcanoes, and our main center of population, the Eternal City, was surrounded by them. Everything seemed fine, up until the very moment when they erupted.

The initial wave of eruptions wiped out two-thirds of our population in one fell swoop. No one in their path even had time to escape. Most, I suspect, didn’t even see it coming. The spew of liquid nitrogen exploded miles above into the sky and flooded down, freezing the people solid until their corpses were reduced to broken little bits.

Unluckily for me but luckily for the universe, I was not on Titan during this time, as I had been banished into space by my own father, by my own government, for trying to help. I was spared the fate that so many suffered below me.

Of course, the volcanoes were merely the catalyst in a long series of resulting disasters that within days wiped out everyone who had survived that initial disaster. And that part I was there for but couldn’t ultimately do anything to help but put people who lay half-dead on the streets out of their misery.

The point is, chances are you won’t see destruction coming unless you know where to look and have the motivation, intelligence, opportunity and resources to look into it like I did.

But alright, let’s say for the sake of the argument that you are correct and enough people will see it coming. The first problem with that is that not everyone on Earth is of the same credibility and privilege.

Because you place your value socially on wealth and other material criteria, the smartest people are often not the ones in power. If someone smart enough to predict this sort of thing was able to in time, who’s to say anyone would even believe them?

Damn, you already have actual respected scientists on your planet coming forth daily with strong warnings, and no one of consequence listens or cares. Even citizens who do believe them forget about it quickly and go back to their daily lives and distractions. It’s all background noise until it affects them personally.

So somehow, the people who figured it out on Earth would need to convince the governments, the powers that be, of their validity, just like I had to try to do on Titan and many more planets.

And in my case, I was actually the son of the ruler of Titan, so I had the connections to back me up. On Titan our higher classes consisted of the most intelligent individuals rather than the wealthiest, and you would think rational men would be easier to convince of the truth than those who could profit from denying it, but alas.

All in all, even though I was not popular among my people, I still had more in my favor than a human would as your leaders are often corrupt and foolish and uneducated on scientific matters. I had all those advantages going for me, and yet I still wasn’t able to convince my government. That bodes ridiculously ill for the average human.

But again, let’s give you the benefit of the doubt and assume the best case scenario despite all reasoning. The next problem that comes up is that even if both the masses and the government do listen, the result is that only people with power and influence will be able to save themselves.

Rest assured that were the apocalypse on your door, the only people who would be able to buy a ticket off your planet would be the people who could literally buy a ticket off your planet. And trust me, it wouldn’t be cheap.

Why should it be the rich and powerful who get to live on to continue humanity’s legacy, when they are quite plainly the worst among you, the ones who got you into this mess in the first place? Would they not just repeat the same mistakes on their new planet?

The human race would quickly die out in these hostile foreign conditions not meant to host them, seeing as these are not the best of you to begin with. Your chance of survival as a race would die out with these people who do not carry the necessary traits for survival and are not qualified to represent you or anything greater than their own self-interest.

Keep in mind as well that these people are mostly older since the elderly tend to be wealthier, so they would not be able to reproduce very quickly if at all and would not have a lot of time to actually implement their changes to a new planet that they would need to terraform it to be suitable for human life. All signs point to them being one of if not the last generation regardless of leaving Earth.

Which brings me to my next point. Would those who escaped not just end up destroying other planets, either quickly or in the future? How is that fair to other planets, to other species even who may get invaded and corrupted by those unpleasant humans who were rich enough to escape?

Why continue the cycle to its bitter end until everything is gone and ruined, when my plan halts that downward spiral completely? Sure, you get to live, but at what cost?

As I said, I don’t only care about whether humanity lives on, but life as a whole. If humanity surviving means other life being negatively affected, then the choice is very clear to me which takes priority.

You see, you self-righteous humans who fight me claim to desire only to preserve the life I will take, but the truth is you think only of preserving your own lives and, selfishly, the people you care about, not life itself.

Which yes, saving loved ones first is still selfish because you only wish to save them because you personally would be affected by their absence. You save your children from me, yet you give no thought to the futures you leave those same children you leave behind.

The truth is that you only have selfish reasons for saving yourselves. You, the generations who have ruined the Earth to begin with and left this mess for others to clean up.

But then you get mad when I, a person with the desire and ability to fix things, come around and do exactly that cleaning for you. You are simply unhappy because you have to live to see it instead of shifting it off to your descendants once its not your problem anymore.

They deserve a voice advocating for their best interests too, you know, arguably more than you do, and I will always seek to stand up for the little guy, the ones those in power overlook and bully.

Just like the rich people who would leave this planet behind and go off to a new world, you, the very generations who have caused this mess, would simply ‘leave’ to a peaceful death content in being able to preserve your own moral self esteem and leave everyone else behind to suffer.

These people will die either way. At least with my plan, they disappear painlessly, with a snap of my fingers, a merciful end compared to the prolonged suffering and fear and confusion you would leave them with. I do not wish to cause them pain, they simply cease to exist in order to be spared a torturous life.

As I said before, I am old, and so this truth is all very apparent to me. I see the long game because of my age and experience, so quite frankly I care more about maintaining a future overall than I do about your individual happiness right now, because the generations of the past and present have done nothing to deserve what you would leave those of the future with.

The future is innocent and savable, seeds of potential and hope, whereas you are sinful and damned and your plight self-inflicted through selfishness and ignorance and laziness.

I know because I have seen it time and time again. I have not only thought this out, but lived it, for millennia upon millennia. Can you say the same? Do you have any right to call me crazy or deluded when you’ve never been through what I have?

I know people have taken to calling me 'mad’, but I am not insane, as many would have you believe. Especially because you simply cannot use human terms like 'crazy’ to compare to me because I am not human, and cannot be compared. There is no human word for my state of consciousness, it is beyond anything you could ever even comprehend.

And so the word 'insane’ as it relates to me is not only false but irrelevant because humans have no idea what it is like to live for thousands of years or the kind of change in perspective that brings when you can see the bigger picture outside of your own existence.

It brings wisdom, and eventually you reach a point where you achieve the highest form of yourself possible. I have already reached that potential through all of my experience.

I am a visionary, and historically, visionaries have not been treated the best. They all get called insane in their time, simply for seeing the larger story and daring to defy the norm.

So for you, a human who has never had to think about anything outside themselves, to consider life as a whole beyond the eighty or so years of your own life, my ideas seem mad. Because they affect your whole life, and to you, based on your perspective, eighty years is a long time, so obviously it seems much more harsh than it is objectively.

But the truth is, your individual eighty years don’t matter in the grand scheme of things once you are gone, and whether you’d like to believe it or not, the world doesn’t stop once you and everyone currently around you is dead. Your legacy continues only through the new generations who you have set up to take your place.

To you it might not matter what happens in the future because you won’t be around to see it, but for me, I see it all, generation after generation, and so each one is all the same to me.

I am not blessed with the same ignorance as you, I have been cursed with responsibility and opportunity that cannot be overlooked. Your flawed if noble intentions to preserve your lives matter to you, but not everyone is human and not everyone sees things that way.

There is an order to the universe, one that mortal beings have no business meddling in because they cannot fathom the big picture, how everything connects. 

And so like your gods from your religions on Earth, you simply must trust in your higher powers and believe that they have a grand design in mind that makes it all worth while, such as the Christian god did when he flooded Earth, an objectively cruel and vengeful act, for the greater good.

Which, curiously, people still defend him for and worship him regardless yet hate me for doing the same thing. You wouldn’t question whether you know better than a god, who can see all ends and beginnings, so why do you question me, for whom the same can be said?

The answer, I can tell, is simply because you do not like me on a personal level, and because it is easier to defend the actions of a god that occurred in the past and which you are standing on the other side of unaffected. Which is a foolish reason.

I have always said that if any of your very gods came down to Earth and stood before you, they would be rejected, attacked, defied, just like Christ himself was, to use another Christian example.

Society hated Christ in his time, it was only with the benefit of hindsight that people realized and appreciated his divinity, his pure intentions, the necessity of his actions, just like those of his 'father’s’.

Like the Romans, you may crucify me now, but my work has been accomplished and your future generations will thank me for it whether you like it or not. History will look down upon you, the selfish and misguided blasphemers who tried to save themselves at the cost of goodness.

Now, I believe I have explained everything adequately, so I will leave you with one final thought to counter your last claim.

If you humans are so resilient and capable of adapting under any circumstance, why weren’t you able to adapt to my snap? I agree that you are able to adapt theoretically, but your choices and refusals to adapt play a bigger role than your potential capabilities.

So long as you are unwilling, you will not adapt. The same applies to any potential disaster situation you are referring to if I were to have not intervened and let nature run its course.

Accept it, you will always deny and cling to your ways to the bitter end, unless you are forced to change. In this case, you were forced by me. You’re welcome.

[house-gardinier]

Uluscant - First Meeting in the woods

This is a very personal memory of mine. More than you might assume it to be, since it touches on parts of my history that I have purposefully forgotten. From any perspective aside from my own, this may require more narrative than what I can offer, but I will explain to you how the event transpired, regardless.

Time has barely eroded the clarity of this memory for I have studied methods of preservation much like the relics on display here in Bisnensel. It takes care and diligence. Truth and clarity. I have many vivid memories of cherished moments from my past.

It was morilatta, the season of shifting colors and falling leaves. The southern arid winds retreat as the shadowy overcast brings rain to this land.

It was loneliness that drew me into the Viridian Woods one particular evening. An unorthodox solution to what I would have otherwise elucidated through socializing among my own. In reality, the woodland life was far more vibrant than the doldrums of the Ayleid cities. Within their societies I felt dissonant and unconventional, too young to understand the inconsolable loss that my people had endured, but old enough to know how they brought about their own contention. Many were hesitant to interact with the native Bretons for that reason, but I found myself seeking out such an encounter deep within the woods. To seek other outside the realm of my understanding.

In all my previous attempts, I only found the strained comfort of self-reflecting silence. I pondered on several subjects that brought me unease. I could see what I presumed to be my own visage in a still pool of water below my feet. Barely recognizing the being who returned my gaze. I wore clothes and used self-defining terms that were opposite what others expected, but not only did l need to convince my peers of this dysphoria, I had to convince myself that I knew it was not my own reflection gazing back at me.

I still had an inkling of doubt. A sense of guilt.

I pondered the subject more, until the sound of scraping tree limbs broke my meditation. There was a breton above me, peering like a crow observing my intrusion. Clad in black with their face partially obscured behind bark colored hair. They were about average sized for a human, but spindly and slim. As I looked up I could easily spot a pair of discerningly cold grey eyes affixed to my very location.

I spoke a greeting in Cyrodilic, but I assumed the attempt was made in vain as most humans had their own regional dialects. To my surprise, they understood and replied more clearly than I expected.

“You are familiar, what is your name?” They asked. I replied honestly; with a name I felt fondness for.

“Uluscant.”

“You speak the truth, but you only vaguely appear and sound like the Uluscant I know. Is this another form you take?”

I was perplexed at this moment in time. The only other form I could wear was an owl; An alteration spell that Corvus Direnni taught me.

“I am a novice in that study of magic, this is how I have always appeared. Perhaps you have met another with my name?”

“Possible…” The ominous breton replied. “But untrue. You are the Uluscant I know, but you vaguely resemble him. I think I am starting to formulate where, and exactly ‘when' I am. The Alessian empire had driven your people from Cyrodiil a few years ago, yes?”

I could not formulate a reply as easily as I wished. One part of that sentence was confirmable but there was one single word that stood out as a possibility that I could not yet validate. I chose to accept it, as if I trusted the being before me to only speak truth. At the time this was a naive hope.

“They have, but I hold no grudge towards humanity. Our fate has followed after lineages of cruelty and I will accept and mend that.”

“You are truly a healer then, just as I've always known you.” The breton replied.

I stared up at the sturdy oaken trunk with its limbs outstretched, perplexed at the willowy figure who perched a few heads above me. I distinctly remember the rain falling softly upon yellowing leaves as the stranger formed a crooked, yet reassuring smile. Beyond the intensity of their expression, I knew they doubted themselves as equally as I did.

“I do not wish to be rude, but I am not a healer. I once found the subject to be in my interests, but such studies are not supported by the scholarly masters that I apprentice under. Perhaps if was born to a different clan in a different point of time, it may have been an option, but that is not in my fate.”

The enigmatic breton paused, contemplating what I said for reasons I could not discern.“How can you claim to know Fate?”

“I do not.” I reaffirmed.

“Exactly. You can not assume that you know where Fate guides you, Uluscant.”

At that precise moment, I vividly recall the experience of an epiphany. As if I truly aligned myself to something that felt familiar and lucid. It was a mere amalgamation of words spoken from a stranger’s mouth, yet it affected me so strangely.

“May I burden you with my concerns?” I offered, feeling the weight upon my dissonant body and mind.

“For all that you will do, and have done for me. Always.”

I might have assumed this was the mad prattling of a stranger, but they knew so much of who I was, or wanted to be. Who I would be. Perhaps I was assuming too much, but at this moment, I wished to confess a plethora of my concerns to the person before me. Anxieties and complications that I had suppressed to fit into my people’s culture.

“I must first apologize for not knowing who you are. I have not expressed my interests in the restorative magic for many years, knowing that my theories aren't conventional to most. I accepted the path of my apprenticeship, but the practices are too mundane for my tastes. I feel as if the scholarly masters of Balfiera underestimate the unexplored potential of restoration, but the priests of Merid-nunda are equally as fixed in their tradition.”

In my pause, the breton slid from their seating and gently levitated to the forest floor. They gave no reply, but their focus was unyielding.

“In many ways…” I took this cue to continue. The words that refused to manifest in front of my colleagues became easier to speak here. “I feel ungrateful to what I have been given. Am I selfish to yearn for something more? In many ways I feel as if I want more than what I am given.”

I could discern their features more clearly. Sharp angles of a mer, but the intense yet rounded eyes of a human. Despite their noble attire, their posture was slouched and disheveled.

“What do you define as ‘more'?” They replied. I had to ponder this question before carrying on. The answer was intuitively felt but beyond verbal description.

“More...is wanting something beyond what I have been given. This body, in how incorrect it looks, how improper certain words and pronouns describe me. How I wish to study the complexities of our minds and correct the wounds that exist there; to balance an understanding of the forbidden with the foundation of empathy. This balance does not exist among my people. They only dwell in the extremes and choose to feed their blind hubris. I struggle with how much I empathize with them, but I feel isolated and easily dismissed. I owe my life to the elders, but I am restricted by that same respect.”

“Their hubris has already spelled their end, and you are wrong, Uluscant. What you ask of is not ungrateful. You must realize that you are not a product of your own people. However, I know that you already understand that, but it is in your nature to disregard this concept for the sake of others well-being.”

Their advice had the figurative strike of a blunt-ended weapon. I had no window for rebuttal, so I spoke the truth.

“I care about them and I know that they too, care about me.”

“...but do they understand you?”

“I…” I paused for a moment. “No. I suppose you can express emotional attachment towards someone without understanding who they are.”

The breton's hand wove magicka like thread, as the space around their fingertips bent and warped. This alerted me, but I sensed that it was nothing more than a small conjuration spell.

“May I ask, who are you?” My inquiry was polite. “You have no bags to be traveling, and the woods are increasingly untame here.”

The stranger cast their gaze upon me. A pair of stone colored eyes affixed themselves to my location as a book manifested into the palms of their hand.

“You, like any seeker of knowledge and truth know who I am.” I watched as a black mist formed and faded to reveal what was brought into this plain of existence. An aged black covered book was offered to me. I took it into my hands and inspected the cover. My finger traced the details, feeling the foreboding magic that emanated from its core. My instincts warned against briefly ‘thumbing' through the pages, as the black cover suddenly pulsated like a heartbeat. The shape of a tendriled creature with multiple eyes served as the book’s ‘title'.  

“You are Hermaeus Mora.”

That name was uttered infrequently by the mages of Balfiera. This was long before such recognition was considered taboo, before the Dragonfires created a veil to prevent the natives of Oblivion from entering Mundus.

“If you believe that, then I suppose it’s true.” The stranger replied. I was not satisfied by this answer but I entertained it. Despite the omnipotence of their identity, their parlance was unceremoniously lax.

“Why have you offered me this item? Are you attempting to sway me into your servitude?” I did not intend to oblige the idea, but outright denying a possible deadric prince a favor felt ill advised.

“I govern over Fate, the intersecting lines that have provided our meeting. It is Fate that brought you here to me, and me to you. I want to offer you this book, but it is not the key to your potential. This Black Book is merely an instrument that you will learn to use with caution. With trust.”

“...and what do you wish from me?”

“A choice, not a demand. If you wish to become Uluscant, then make that your choice. Return to Bisnensel and do not blind yourself with the hubris of your peoples’ Fate.”

Raindrops graced the leather surface of the harrowing tome. I felt a daunting sense of responsibility placed squarely into my hands. The biblichor of worn pages wafted in the evening air alongside the sharp stench if ink. It would have been wise to decline this presumed demon of knowledge, but I was not a pious follower of Merid-nunda. In my hesitation, Hermaeus Mora spoke once again, the prince’s voice shifted into a distorted lull.

“Your Fate is greater than your restrictions. I depend on you more than anyone. One day you will know that for certain, but for once in your lifetime--consider who you are, and not what is expected of you. I come here in the displacement of time--in the moment that we have first met to give you this expression of my gratitude; to save you from circumstance.”

In my memory of this moment, I recall how silently I pondered. My gaze passed through the being before me and words dared not leave the sanctity of my mouth. A new potential outcome of my life aligned itself like the hands of a clock. I had a renewed sense of certainty.

Apart of me still remained anxious and doubtful, however. I knelt to graciously return the deadric artifact to its owner. I respected this offer, but I could not yet fully accept it for myself. I pondered my own worth and self-entitlement to such things.

...but they were gone. The distant rolling of thunder echoed through the woods. A pair of footprints gathered water as the storm picked up its pace. I covered the book in my apprentice robes, and quietly allowed the rain to wash away my regrets.

From that point forward. I was, and always would be, Uluscant.

[chromsai]

The Pendulum Guiding Towards Uniqueness

Oh man. I haven’t done this in a while but...

Let’s talk about something real quick:

Let’s talk about what an important and wholesome message this is.

I know the fandom loves to give Yusho a lot of crap, especially with how he acts during the last arc of the show, among a few other things, but let’s just appreciate that even if Yusho isn’t the best father in Yugioh history, he’s still a good dad overall.

Good especially for Yuya.

Let’s talk about the fact that Yusho isn’t entirely pushing an entertainment persona onto Yuya. I’m certain he’s beyond happy that his son looks up to him and is following in his footsteps, but he’s never wanted Yuya to be like him. He’s wanted Yuya to be like Yuya. 

I mean...

Children of celebrities and public figures like Yusho usually have their work cut out for them. If normal kids are already expected by their parents to be the absolute best at everything, I think celeb kids can have it especially hard because they’re dealing with living up to their parents’ expectations, their own expectations, and lastly...

Society’s expectations.

y’all know where i’m going with this, right? 

*coughszarccoughs*

Yusho supports Yuya no matter which direction he chooses to take for himself, so at the very least Yuya doesn’t have to worry too much about pressure from expectations from his parents.

That leaves just his own expectations and what society expects from him as the only pressures affecting him constantly.

Well the problem is, Yusho isn’t there for most of the story to reassure him of this. To reassure him that there is no pressure on his part at all, something that Yuya, due to Yusho’s prolonged absence, isn’t entirely aware of.... (if you don’t believe me, recall Yuya’s painful breakdown in ep. 135 as proof... the poor boy apologizes to Yusho, even when he’s not there, thinking that Yusho would be disappointed or ashamed in him, even though we, the audience, know that he has nothing to apologize for).

Hell, we saw in the second duel Yuya had against Jack Atlas that it apparently took Yuya years and an intervention from Jack Atlas himself for him to realize what Yusho meant about “preserving his Yuya-ness” and not using his “borrowed words”. He wanted Yuya to find his own words instead.

The pendulum itself is a great symbol for this since it can represent two things: swaying between one thing to another, a.k.a. indecision or uncertainty (specifically, uncertainty in yourself) BUT it can also symbolize a tool for discovery, as Yusho has pointed out before in a different flashback— if Yuya ever gets lost, the Pendulum is there to guide him.

But the Pendulum only swings between two (2) extremes; in this case, since Yusho is gone and with him his expectations of Yuya (if any) as well, what’s left is that, for Yuya, the Pendulum swings between: his own expectations vs. society’s expectations.

We see several times that Yuya is always troubled between either to entertain people and make them happy or to fight to save the world, and of course striking a balance between the two isn’t quite as simple as just stopping the Pendulum in the middle of its tracks, especially not when there are other factors that are in the mix. Thus, we get Arc-V’s story and the conflicts Yuya faces throughout it.

Going backwards a bit, though, I also want to point out the sad irony that is carried by Yuya repeating the words “preserve my uniqueness...”

This should be a bit more straightforward for a couple of reasons (such as the fact that he isn’t the only Pendulum user anymore, or later on, as stated before, the fact that his entertainment style is based on his father’s “borrowed words”, etc.), but mainly because as the story progresses, we find out that Yuya isn’t quite so unique:

There are 3 other boys who look just like him. Granted, these 3 other boys might look like him, but they act nothing alike (thankfully). But, okay, then it’s revealed that they were once actually all one person.

I’ll repeat that and add onto it:

Yuya and these three other boys who look just like him are actually the same person, and, to top it all off, this person that they once all were (Zarc) had no Pendulum at the time, meaning he had no guidance, and, as a consequence, found himself succumbing to society’s expectations.

So given his ultimate background, how does Yuya, aka a fragment of someone’s soul, as Zarc likes to call him, “preserve his uniqueness...”?

Well, think of it this way: if you break a glass, you end up with fragments of that glass. And although you can gather the pieces and put them all back together to make it into the original whole again, you still have just fragments merged into a whole again. Each fragment has its own unique edges that make up its own unique shape, and I guarantee that none of the other fragments are quite the same, even if they’re all equally important to the whole.

It’s this uniqueness about him that Yusho wants Yuya to preserve, but that Yuya can’t see for himself. It’s why Yuya’s Pendulum is so necessary to him: it’s why when he lost it as a child, he cried, or why when Zarc finally takes over him and Yuya is lost to his darkness, his Pendulum falls to the floor— unswaying and directionless. And it’s why Zarc doesn’t even bother with it either— why would he since he already chose a path— just like he did the first time before Ray split him into four fragments. He said so himself: he made a vow back then to meet the expectations that society thrust upon him for more violent entertainment, and that vow remained unwavering even after his revival...

I suppose it’s, once again, ironic that Yuya doesn’t regain control over Zarc & himself until Reiji points out to Zarc, who denies being Yuya, that he is Yuya... but that he’s also always been Zarc. Always been swaying back and forth between his two extremes: Yuya, the entertainer who ultimately always seems to choose to live up to his own standards of what he believes Entertainment should really be for (which is to bring and protect smiles), and Zarc, the entertainer who lived solely for the purpose of meeting society’s expectations. 

And thus, the Pendulum guides Yuya back to his own heart again...

But what about the other three fragments: Yuto, Yugo, and Yuri? Are they even unique? What can make them unique?

Well of course they’re unique! The nuance here is that they’re parts of Zarc, as Yuya is as well, that make up Zarc’s whole HUMAN entertainer personality. 

Yuto was the part of Zarc that didn’t actually want to hurt anyone but did so because it was expected of him. Yugo was the competitive and obsessive part of Zarc that kept him motivated to continue his violent duels since it was expected of him. And, of course, Yuri was the psychotic, lost part of Zarc that led him to his ultimate endgame: fusing with his dragons to become an ultimate force of destruction, as was expected of him. Leo himself expected Yuri to be reliably unstoppable and used him (since he was a mere child, in fact), much like the Original Dimension’s society did, to meet his expectations of completing Arc-V (the machine).

But then we’re back again to question which part of Zarc Yuya made up. Well, it’s very simple:

Yuya was the part of Zarc that originally just wanted to make the people of the Original Dimension, his monsters, and his opponents smile.

THIS is the uniqueness that Yusho desired for Yuya to preserve about himself.

Yusho, despite the adversity and the reality about Yuya that inevitably presents itself before him...

...has absolute faith in Yuya.

That Yuya, as Yoko would say...

... will surpass Yusho Sakaki in that ability. Thus why Yusho would be at ease if he passed on, knowing that Yuya is still alive and well and would take on his role.

But again, we’re back to an expectation of Yuya. Neither Yoko nor Yusho actually care how he does it, they just know that Yuya will bring smiles to the world. Because they have that much faith in his uniqueness.

But it’s not a far-fetched expectation— Jack Atlas himself knows this is true of him. He knows it’s Yuya’s role to play in his life. That why he pushes Yuya to recognize that his father’s borrowed words about entertainment and smiles aren’t his true dueling, his Pendulum summoning is.

This is why Yusho never led his son into the path that Dennis eventually took as his protege: he had faith that Yuya would eventually found something completely UNIQUE of his own, just as he did, and SURPASS HIM.

The courage to take YOUR OWN step forward.

By the end of Arc V, we see Yusho recognizes this in Yuya, otherwise he wouldn’t have bothered challenging him head on (as he claimed previously within the last few episodes that if Yuya wasn’t able to save Reira, and to an extent the world’s, smiles, then he wouldn’t be a true duelist after all, but Yuya of course did).

In the end, Yuya himself has outgrown his own ambition of becoming like his dad, Yusho. He’s learned that his uniqueness due to his Pendulum has given him the unbound potential to surpass Yusho.

And that truly is a Miracle Drawn by the Pendulum of Uniqueness.

[pope-francis-quotes]

21st September >> (@VaticanNews) #PopeFrancis reflected at Friday #Mass in Daily Homily on the importance of not forgetting one’s own sins and remembering that the Lord chose us to be Christians. #SantaMarta

Pope at Mass: ‘take the road of mercy to God’s heart’Pope Francis celebrated Holy Mass on Friday morning reflecting on the importance of not forgetting one’s own sins and remembering that the Lord chose us to be Christians.

(By Linda Bordoni @VaticanNews)

Pope Francis on Friday told Christians the memory of their origins and of their sins must accompany them throughout their lives.

Speaking to those gathered at the Casa Santa Marta for Holy Mass, the Pope reflected on the liturgical reading that tells of how Jesus invited Matthew, the tax collector, and other sinners to join him at his table.

“One may think that Jesus lacked the good sense to choose the right people as his followers” Francis said, but then he remarked on how in the life of the Church, so many Christians, so many saints have been chosen by Jesus from the ‘lowest ranks’.

Thus, the Pope said, Christians should always be aware of where they come from and they should never forget their sins; they must cherish the memory of the Lord “who had mercy of their sins and chose them to be a Christian, an apostle”.

Matthew never forgot his origins  

Describing the tax collector Matthew ’s reaction to the Lord’s call, the Pope said he did not dress in luxury, he did not begin to tell others “I am the prince of the apostles, I issue orders… No! He lived the rest of his life for the Gospel”.

When an apostle forgets his origins and starts off on a career path, the Pope explained, he distances himself from the Lord and become an ‘official’. An official who perhaps does a good job, but he is not an apostle. He is incapable of ‘transmitting’ Jesus; he is someone who organizes pastoral projects and plans and many other things; he is what he called an “affarista” -  a “wheeler-dealer” -  of the Kingdom of God because he has forgotten from where he was chosen.

That’s why, Francis continued, it is important to preserve the memory of our origins: “this memory must accompany the life of the apostle and of every Christian”.  

We lack generosity, the Lord does not

Instead of looking at ourselves, Pope Francis said,  we tend to look at others, at their sins, and to talk about them. This, he said, is a harmful habit.  It’s better to accuse oneself, the Pope suggested, and keep in mind from where the Lord chose us from.

“When the Lord chooses it is for something great. To be a Christian is a great thing, a beautiful thing” he said.

It is us, the Pope said, who distance ourselves: “we lack generosity and we negotiate with the Lord, but He awaits us”.

The doctors of the Law were scandalized

When Matthew was called by Jesus he renounced all to follow Him, the Pope said, noting that he invited his friends to sit with Jesus to celebrate the Master.  At that table, he said, sat “the very worst of society.  And Jesus with them".

The doctors of the Law, Francis continued, were scandalized. They called the disciples and said: "Why does your teacher eat with these people? Eating with some who is unclean contaminates you”. But, Jesus heard this and said “Go and learn the words:  ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’.

“God's mercy seeks everyone, forgives everyone. The only thing he asks of you is to say: ‘Yes, help me’. That’s all” he said.

The mystery of mercy

To those who were scandalized, Pope Francis concluded, Jesus said that “those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do”.

"The Lord's mercy is a mystery; God’s heart is the greatest and most beautiful mystery.  If you want to make your way to God’s heart, take the road of mercy, and allow yourself be treated with mercy”.

[junker-town]

Anti-vaxxers are getting way too much say in NBA Covid protocols

Set Number: X163652 TK1

The majority of the NBA is vaccinated, so why is the anti-vaxx minority calling the shots?

Every sports league has had to find ways to deal with trying to run professional sports in the middle of global pandemic. Concessions have been made, plans altered — all in service of trying to keep games going while ensuring players and fans are protected. Intelligence prevailed when the the NFL and NFLPA eventually found common ground on a way to proceed in 2021. Now the NBA is in the midst of its own negotiations, and the league is on the verge of collapse because of it.

There is no point trying to mince words on the issue or dance around what’s happening. NBAPA vice president Kyrie Irving, who has always had a penchant for conspiracy theories, is now in a position of power in helping decide the biggest health issue the league has ever faced. While an estimated 90 percent of the league has been vaccinated, a loud, anti-vaxx cabal is using the NBA/NBAPA negotiations as a soap box to peddle their misinformation, and nobody is stepping in to stop it.

On August 7 an NBAPA meeting was held to discuss the league’s desire to have players reach 100 percent vaccination by the start of the NBA season. It was an important topic the union needed to discuss, but was met with a widespread unwillingness to even talk about the issue. According to a piece by Matt Sullivan in Rolling Stone, while the majority of NBA players who have not yet been vaccinated are guided by misplaced skepticism, a small, but vocal minority of anti-vaxx conspiracy theorists are railroading proceedings by killing conversations.

As NBA media days started this week, Irving was among those dancing around the topic of vaccination when asked directly is simply an effort to preserve his public image. Instead of accepting the damage he’s doing, Irving is touting the “personal choice” line, which has been repeated ad nauseam by vaccine skeptics as justification not to get the jab. Overwhelming scientific evidence indicates that choosing not to be vaccinated is a societal choice, not a personal one — because of the myriad ways it impacts those around us.

Meanwhile Bradley Beal is out here peddling the notion that NBA players are getting sick from the vaccine, despite there being absolutely zero evidence of that being the case.

Bradley Beal on his bout with COVID-19, which cost him the Olympics: "I didn’t get sick at all. I lost my smell. That’s it.” Beal adds that no one will talk about adverse reactions to the vaccine and how it impacts player health. No NBA player has missed time due to the vaccine.

— Ben Rohrbach (@brohrbach) September 27, 2021

On the plus side, Beal can’t smell his own bullshit.

A recent tactic by the anti-vaxx contingent has been to try and seek religious exemption as a means to avoid getting vaccinated. Andrew Wiggins was denied vaccine exemption from the NBA on Friday, meaning he needs to either comply with orders mandated by the San Francisco Department of Health, or not play in any home games this season.

The NBA has announced the following: pic.twitter.com/6t1spKMU35

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) September 24, 2021

A similar provision in New York City will prevent Irving from playing in Brooklyn this season, and there’s no evidence he plans to get the shot.

Jonathan Isaac of the Magic, one of the players who chose to stand during the national anthem inside the NBA bubble and not side with players supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, is also vehemently against vaccination, citing his religious beliefs as a key factor. He told Rolling Stone:

“If you are vaccinated, in other places you still have to wear the mask regardless. It’s like, ‘OK, then what is the mask necessarily for?’” Isaac continues. “And if Kyrie says that from his position of his executive power in the NBPA, then kudos to him.”

Let’s be abundantly clear: Wearing masks is not some huge hidden secret warranting discussion. This is not Scooby and the gang zooming around in the Mystery Machine to solve another groovy mystery. The topic of masks has been discussed, again, and again, and again since the pandemic began. Saluting someone for “asking the tough questions” is simply acknowledging that you have done ZERO research on the topic.

Vaccinated individuals can still spread Covid

The more Covid spreads the greater chance of mutation into more harmful variants that vaccines may not offer protection against

Children who can’t be vaccinated and those who are immunocompromised deserve consideration and care, making masks the bare minimum society can do to help protect them

Isaac’s choice is to ignore science and put his faith in God. He has every right to do that. That right does not extend to allow him to play in the NBA with any impact on his career. Furthermore, invoking religion as a defense is a particularly insidious rhetorical technique that positions religion and science is oppositional forces. This is something that particularly frustrated Enes Kanter, who is a devout Muslim and also in favor of players being forced to be vaccinated.

“If a guy’s not getting vaccinated because of his religion, I feel like we are in a time where the religion and science has to go to together,” he tells RS. “I’ve talked to a lot of religious guys — I’m like: ‘It saves people’s lives, so what is more important than that?’”

Kanter plays for the Celtics, a franchise intimately aware of the risks of Covid. Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, a 23-year-old with no prior health conditions, is still experiencing “long Covid” symptoms requiring him to use an inhaler before games, this despite contracting the virus in January of 2021.

Karl-Anthony Towns, another healthy, elite athlete who already had to deal with the tragedy of losing his mother to the virus, told Sports Illustrated that he lost 50 pounds after contracting Covid himself. Now players like Towns and Tatum, ravaged by the virus, are forced to sit back while decisions are being made by the least-knowledgeable people.

The fight is taking front stage in the NBA, but the concern is that the sensible voices are not the loudest. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is doing his part, explaining why it’s so critical that current superstars lead the charge to combat the public health crisis.

“Which is why it’s so shocking and disappointing to see so many people, especially people of color, treat the vaccination like it’s just a matter of personal preference, like ordering no onions on your burger at a drive-thru. While I can understand the vaccine hesitancy of those who have been historically marginalized and even abused by the health care system, enough scientific documentation has been given to the public to set that past behind us for now. Yes, we should never forget. Those experiences should sharpen our critical thinking to not accept things blindly. But it doesn’t mean we reject things blindly. The drowning man doesn’t ask if a racist made the life preserver keeping him afloat, only that it works to save his life.”

Kareem went on to say that “those who claim they need to do “more research” are simply announcing they have done no research.” To take this a step further, I would add that people who want to do “more research” are specifically waiting for something, anything to support their biases, regardless of whether it’s intelligent or not.

That’s how we reach the point where numerous vetted, supported medical journals are thrown out in favor of one, which has not been corroborated, but supports an opposing view. It’s how hundreds of millions of vaccinated individuals who have had zero complications are ignored in favor of one person saying their cousin’s best friend’s daughter’s mail carrier died after getting the vaccine. It’s how Dr. Fauci and dozens of other respected virologists are branded as “liars.”

There is no doubt this is a supremely difficult situation. It is not right to ignore the concerns of people of color when they talk about trusting a government, which for generations has established a pattern of abhorrant behavior designed to put their needs last. However, there has to be an intelligent way to broach this topic that doesn’t involve outwardly rejecting any vaccine mandate, while siding with beyond ludicrous conspiracy theories. We can have the discussions, like Kareem is trying to, where we address this distrust, but also champion saving lives.

Unfortunately as it stands it’s a question of whose voice is the loudest, and sensible people like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jayson Tatum, Karl-Anthony Towns and Enes Kanter are being drowned out by uninformed, unintelligent stupidity. The NBA and the NBAPA need to do more, and do better — and not accept that inaction is the path forward.

[romancatholicreflections]

3rd September >> Sunday Homilies and Reflections for Roman Catholics on the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A.

22nd Sun Ordinary time -Year A

Gospel Text: Matthew 16:21-27

vs.21  Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, to be put to death and to be raised up on the third day. vs.22  Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. “Heaven preserve you, Lord;” he said “this must not happen to you.” vs.23  But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.” vs.24  Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. vs.25  For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it. vs.26  What, then, will a man gain if he wins the whole world and ruins his life? Or what has a man to offer in exchange for his life? vs.27  For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and, when he does, he will reward each one according to his behaviour.”

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We have four sets of homily notes to choose from. Please scroll down the page for the desired one.

Michel DeVerteuil :      A Trinidadian Holy Ghost Priest, Specialist in Lectio Divina Thomas O’Loughlin:   Professor of Historical Theology, University of Wales. Lampeter. John Littleton:              Director of the Priory Institute Distant Learning, Tallaght Donal Neary SJ:           Editor of The Sacred Heart Messenger  

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Michel DeVerteuil Lectio Divina with the Sunday Gospels- Year A www.columba.ie

General Comments

In meditating on this passage, we need to make some choices – guided, as always in lectio divina by feelings, not reason. For example, we can focus on the disciples, and Peter in particular, so that the passage speaks to us about our relationship with Jesus or with someone who has been Jesus to us. We then celebrate the times when we have been brought to see how our way of thinking was “human” and not according to God’s plan.

I am proposing another approach however – to focus on Jesus, seeing him as our exemplar, the one in whose destiny we his followers are called to share. This is the approach of Hebrews 12:2 ? we “keep our eyes fixed on Jesus” as the one who “leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection.”

The passage is in two sections: – verses 21 to 23, a narrative; – verses 24 to 27, a collection of sayings. I am proposing that we experience both sections as a unit, with the teachings flowing spontaneously from the narrative. This is always the teaching method of the bible – truth flowing from experience.

We capture the power of the passage by situating it historically, remembering that the incident it relates came at a very significant moment in the life of Jesus. It is one all human beings pass through – a moment of truth. Up till then Jesus had been ministering in Galilee in the North of Palestine, far from Jerusalem in the South. He had met with great success at first: “he went round the whole of Galilee… his fame spread throughout Syria… large crowds followed him” (Matthew 4:23-25; cf. 7:18; 9:15).

Opposition to him had grown, however, mainly from scribes (e.g. 9:11) and Pharisees (e.g. 12:1, 24). At this point in his life then, Jesus decided that the time had come for him to confront these opposing forces at the seat of their power, Jerusalem, home of the scribes and Pharisees (15:1). It was a decision which would have tragic consequences, but the passage shows that he accepted them fully (verses 21-23), basing himself on his understanding of every person’s life journey.

The passage then invites us to celebrate similar “moments of truth” we have lived through, when we chose a course of action which we knew would cause hurt to people we loved and admired, and would bring us rejection and pain. We celebrate the great men and women who have inspired us by the way they entered courageously into their moments of truth – our saints, “personal” or “canonized”. We can also read it as the story of the Church (or of a group within it, like a religious order) taking a decision to be more radical in its following of Jesus.

The passage is also a call to conversion in that it makes us more aware that we – as individuals and as communities – do not respond like Jesus. We pray that the spirit of Jesus will continue to live in our church, our families and the world.

Our meditation will enable us to recognise the different characters in the narrative. Who are “the elders, chief priests and scribes” – the “experts” we must confront? Who is the “Peter” – a dear respected friend, and yet we must find the courage to say to him, “Get behind me”?

Through meditation on verses 21-23, the sayings in verses 24 to 27 will no longer be abstract theories, but lessons about life which we have experienced concretely. We will be aware of the things we would have “lost” if we had tried to “save” them, of wonderful things we “found” because we took the risk of losing them. We will feel convinced that there is nothing we would “exchange” for the blessings which came to us as a result of our choices. We will naturally pray for those who are facing moments of truth at present, with compassion since we know the pain involved, and also with confidence, since we are aware that Jesus is living  his story in them.

Prayer Reflection

Lord, we thank you for the times when you allowed us to experience the peace that Jesus bequeathed to us, times when, like him, we had to make a difficult decision we knew would not be pleasing to family and friends: – get married to someone from a different race or social class; – give up a well paid job and take one that offered little security but gave us satisfaction – teacher, artist, community leader; – enter the religious life; – join a radical movement; – bring up a child in a way others considered unconventional; – make a new beginning in a foreign country,

Which way?

We made it clear to them that you had destined us to go to this Jerusalem, and that we knew we would have to suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and to be rejected, perhaps disowned and treated as dead, but we were confident that in time we would be raised up. Close friends, members of our family and of our church community, took us aside and started to remonstrate with us, invoking your name, saying, “Heaven preserve you, this must not happen to you.” But you gave us the grace to turn and say to them, “Get behind me Satan, you are an obstacle in my path; the way you think is logical in your eyes, but it is not what I know to be God’s will for me.” We understood then that to be followers of Jesus we must walk in his footsteps by renouncing ourselves and taking up our cross. We are truly grateful now that we stuck by our decision. What would we have gained if we had won the whole world and lost the deep joy we have experienced? Is there anything that life could have offered us which we would exchange for the satisfaction we have had? How true it is that the most precious things in life are those which we end up losing if we try to save them: – friendships, – peace of mind, – a clear conscience, – a sense of achievement. We discover them as life-giving only if we take the risk of losing them. We thank you for teaching us that in life it is not important to please human beings, no matter how experienced or how holy they are. We are accountable only to our conscience, knowing that the Son of Man is coming in the glory of the Father with his angels and will reward us according to our behaviour.

Lord, forgive us that in our Church communities, parishes and religious orders we encourage submissiveness and conformity, and even invoke your name in doing so. Remind us that you want true followers of Jesus to emerge among us, men and women who are free, who once they know that they are destined to go to Jerusalem, will not be afraid of suffering grievously at the hands of elders and chief priests and scribes, and even to be put to death, knowing they will rise again on the third day; who are not afraid to take risks, knowing that this is the only way to find their lives; who will exchange nothing, even all the possessions in the world, for finding their true selves; who will fear only the Son of Man coming in the glory of his Father, surrounded by his angels, to reward all according to their behaviour.

Jesus always kept his destiny in mind while making decisions.

Lord, we thank you that your Church in many parts of the world has chosen to identify more closely with Jesus by adopting the cause of oppressed groups – ethnic minorities, – women, – people with gender issues, – religious groups considered marginal. Its leaders have often suffered grievously at the hands of elders, chief priests and scribes, some within the Church itself, others from the world of academia, business or the professions. How true it is, Lord, that if the Church is preoccupied with saving itself, it ends up losing its true identity; it will live only if it remembers that the Son of Man is coming in the glory of his Father, and he will judge his Church not on large numbers, big buildings, or prestige in society, but according to its behaviour.

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Thomas O’Loughlin Liturgical Resources for the Year of Matthew www.columba.ie

Introduction to the Celebration

In today’s gospel we hear the call of Jesus to become his followers. This is no easy invitation: ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.’ We enter into the cross of Jesus, and begin our following of him, when we are baptised. It is at that moment that we become members of this body that can gather at the Lord’s table, and it is the grace of baptism that sustains us on the difficult road of following the Lord of life, and goodness, and truth. So now let us recall the fact that we are a baptised people, and ask God to bless us and strengthen us to continue following his Son.

Homily Notes

Aspects of discipleship

1. Think about these statements: Christianity is about discipleship. Christianity is about community. Christianity is about doing the heavenly Father’s will. When we relate these statements to one another, we start to glimpse that Christianity is not a ‘well-designed consumer product’.

2. Discipleship. This is never easy because we like to imagine that we know the best way to our own happiness without any guides. This is even more problematic for us because we are left in no doubt that following is a matter of the cross. ‘From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.’

We do look forward to new life, but is not something that just happens or to which there is an.easy road. ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it,and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.’

3. Community. Community is problem for us as we are convinced that others get in our way and limit our choices. Most contemporary visions of a happy ‘society’are based on the notion that everyone will be happy if there is as little restraint on their activities as possible and the only limit is that We should not get in the way of others doing’their thing’. At the same time, we are people who crave companionship, crave acceptance, and fear being alone. A,pretty mixed up situation.

But Christianity is built on the notion of being gathered from being scattered and lost individuals into a community. We talk about the importance of caring for one another; loving self, indeed, but to the extent that we love others; acting as sisters and brothers in the family of the Father, and gathering each week as a community not because we as ‘individuals’ like the idea, but because this is the will of the group.

Being disciples also involves community, for we are part of a group around our teacher and we become his body by working together.

4. The heavenly Father’s will. This also is hard for us because while our society is very good at noting the affective side of religion (it gives people a sense of ‘where they are’) and the individual choice aspect of religion (‘this religion suits me’) we have problems with the notion that there are demands to act with justice, to bear witness to the truth, to oppose wickedness. This is where religion ‘pinches.’

5. All these ideas come together in what we say about the for­mal act of becoming disciples: baptism.

• Baptism is about following Jesus by joining him in death and resurrection. • Baptism is about joining the community and declaring that we wish to belong to it. • Baptism is about becoming daughters and sons of the Father and praying that his ‘will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’

Are we ready now to declare that we wish to renew our baptismal promises?

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John Litteton Journeying through the Year of Matthew www.Columba.ie

Gospel Reflection

When Jesus told his disciples that he was going to Jerusalem and would suffer grievously there, and be put to death and then rise again, they must have been confused and distressed. Peter had been appointed the rock on which Jesus would build his Church. Now he was hearing that Jesus was going to be put to death.

Impetuous as ever, Peter remonstrated with Jesus, saying that this could not be true. Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God — Peter had acknowledged this earlier and Christ had confirmed it, pointing out that it was God who had inspired this knowledge in Peter. So how could the Son of God be about to suffer and die? The faith that had led to Peter’s insights about Jesus being the Messiah had now deserted him.

In turn, Jesus’ response to Peter’s hostile reaction to his future suffering was stern, unlike his warm words when Peter had affirmed his belief that Jesus was the Son of God. He castigated Peter: ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s’ (Mt 16:23).

Jesus then described the essential condition of being one of his followers, and this condition would apply to Peter, the first pope, just as much as to the humblest disciple: ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me’ (Mt 16:24).

For the disciples, this teaching must have seemed incomprehensible. Even today, many people resist the idea of having to embrace suffering. Yet dealing with suffering is at the root of the Christian life. The willingness to appreciate the transformative value of suffering is a pre-requisite for authentic Christian living.

Recognising the disciples’ incomprehension, Jesus sought to make them understand. He told them that, in order to gain eternal life, they must lose this life —their attachment to the things of this world. Nothing matters more than pleasing God.

Jesus posed a crucial rhetorical question: ‘What, then, will a man gain if he wins the whole world and ruins his life? Or what has a man to offer in exchange for his life?’ (Mt 16:26). What, Jesus asked, is more important than saving the soul?

If we lose our soul, what joy will the pleasures of this world bring us? None. On the contrary, they will haunt us throughout eternity as the cause of our downfall. Jesus reminds us, as he reminded his first disciples, about this possibility: ‘For the Son of man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and, when he does, he will reward each one according to his behaviour’ (Mt 16:27).

In summary, then, the reality of Christian living is that we are challenged to be fully prepared to suffer for the kingdom of heaven. We need to be clear in our minds and hearts about the central importance of saving souls. That is our greatest task while living in this world.

For meditation If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Mt 16:24)

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Fr Donal Neary, S.J Gospel Reflections for the Year of Matthew www.messenger.ie

The third day

We meet deep human concerns and feelings in the gospel today. Peter is shocked to the core that Jesus would die; so shocked that he always later seemed to forget that Jesus promised that he would rise on the third day. Jesus talks very seriously about the cost of following him, like the cost of following any commitment in life.

Jesus invites us to live at the deepest level of ourselves. In the area of life where we live and love, laugh and cry, worry and en­joy, hurt and forgive. In all these very personal sides of life, Jesus dwells, since he says that he makes his home in us.

We can call it a sort of “third day’ hope. Nothing except love, which is eternal, was final for Jesus. For all the worst things of life there was a third day. The day on which hope would be full­er than any despair, and when life would be more lasting than death. Jesus was like that – when people met him, they remem­bered him and remembered how he touched the fears and anxi­eties of their lives with a deep hope.

We are “third day” people, knowing that the love and life of God, promised at our baptism, will always be in the air around us, filling us with the breath of God, and breathing fragrance all around us like the best of flowers. Later they would be raised from final despair and hopelessness at his resurrection. But it took time!

Breathing in and out receive the peace of God.On the in-breath, let the word ‘peace’ echo within you.Lord, may I never lose faith in you.

[thesoulpatch-blog1]

Contentment (Sorry, It’s Been A While)

Are you content where you are? Are you on a path to eventual contentment? Or do you just go to work every day, then come home and fall into your default evening routine, just to go to bed early and do it again and again without ever really thinking if there’s any other way? I don’t mean to be presumptive. I would really like to know how people answer these questions in their head. People just seem so miserable to me everywhere I go, but it’s like they aren’t aware that they don’t have to be.

Contentment is ultimately a choice, though it’s a choice that gets harder to make as your circumstances get shittier. There are some living deeply in poverty, perhaps with violent battles being waged right outside their homes, who must still find a way to rejoice. Some of us scream and shout and almost bust a vein over spilled milk. It just seems to me that we have something messed up here.

I was struck in a particular way by our new White House Communications Director’s recent interview with the New Yorker. The basic details of this scenario are that unknown members of the White House staff keep leaking information to the press and then reports come out to criticize Trump and his administration with info from the inside, and we know Trump and his administration don’t take kindly to criticism. Enter Anthony Scaramucci, a former Goldman Sachs employee and hedge fund manager, as the new communication’s director brought in to tighten the bolts on the White House machine and locate all the faulty, “leaky” parts that need removed.

The premise of this hiring makes sense, as this guy has blindly and aggressively defended Donald Trump since the election (prior to which he said he hoped Hillary Clinton would be the next president), and The Donald gets along best with his blind defenders. But take into account that Sean Spicer – and we’ve all seen some of the ridiculous falsehoods Spicer was okay with promoting as truth and obvious truths he promoted as lies – had a moral dilemma with the addition of Scaramucci and chose to resign as a result. Everyone in America should’ve raised an eyebrow at that point.

I’ll just get to the quotes from the interview with Scaramucci, and all of these came out of his mouth:

“Reince Priebus — if you want to leak something — he’ll be asked to resign very shortly. … Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac.”

“I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock. I’m not trying to build my own brand off the fucking strength of the president. I’m here to serve the country.”

“What I want to do is I want to fucking kill all the leakers and I want to get the president’s agenda on track so we can succeed for the American people.”

The interview happened July 27th, and Donald Trump praised Scaramucci’s handling of it, saying he ‘loved’ it.

I don’t feel I need to explain how disgusting it is to have a senior White House official speaking this way to a reporter, about his coworkers, in a public setting, and having the president himself respond with approval. Especially when these leakers are only leaking information that the American people are usually pretty upset to hear about. Trump’s administration blatantly wants to be able to operate shadily behind closed doors with only people who can be trusted to keep quiet. If that is achieved, the next three and a half years are even more frightening than the last six months.

But the alternative, barring some sort of social awakening for which we missed the opportunity long before November of 2016, was Hillary Clinton. And in that case I imagine shady dealings behind closed doors with only people who would keep quiet would’ve hit the ground running on Inauguration Day. So I have no ideas to offer for a political solution here. It’s all fucked. They’re all fucked and those of us still adhering to the ideology of these fucked people are also all fucked.

The ideas I have are social. Economical. Maybe spiritual. And they start at the place that I began this rant: Are you content where you are? And not just content in the sense of feeling fine with where you are in life, but I mean if you die in ten minutes, and there’s no time to do anything but call your parents (you probably won’t even do that), can you accept what your life was? Can you rest easy leaving behind whatever it is you’ve created and destroyed in your time here? Have you even made an impact, or are all those ideas to do so just thoughts that will never come to fruition? Did you even try to make something of this life? Or are you right where you’re supposed to be? Do you feel that your choices have led you here, or your submission to authority? Now my questions are getting more presumptive. I believe it is usually the case that we do not choose our paths according to our free will. We follow the guidelines of society. We fear stepping outside of them into alternative lifestyles because then our peers shame us. Because everyone is a drone and the divinity of our emotions is managed and manipulated to make it emotionally difficult to chase whatever outside the box plans we want to have for ourselves.

My point to connect the politics with the hippie shit is this: why the fuck are we powerless individuals doing anything we’re “supposed” to do under the guidelines of a society led by gross, vulgar people like Trump, Clinton, and Scaramucci? The NRA had a recent controversial ad criticizing liberals for violent protest, making protestors out to be the horrifying members of society that we need guns to protect ourselves from. I’m not a supporter of violence. I believe we have these supercomputer brains so we can logically determine solutions, and not to develop better ways to hurt people. But when I read an Anthony Scaramucci interview and then hear about someone throwing a few bricks through windows, I think, “Well… Yeah.” If there’s an argument for more guns, it’s more likely to be that we need protection from the people to whom the NRA makes multimillion dollar campaign contributions. *Cough* Donald Trump *Cough* *Cough*

We’re broken. People, society, institutions, the planet. It’s easy to see that whatever we’re doing with this place is not natural, but by our own design. Look at how much forest floor is now covered with buildings instead of trees. What I expect people to do is keep doing the same shit. Go to work, buy Chipotle for dinner, and watch Lip Sync Battle and whatever else you have on your DVR until it’s time to fall asleep. But it’s these actions, the “normal” actions we’re “supposed” to be taking, that allow for such gross people to be in charge and continue breaking their own rules with little to no consequence. Go publicly call your boss a ‘fucking paranoid Schizophrenic’ and see if your other boss ‘loves’ it.

What I want people to do is nothing that’s expected of them. I do not condone violence, but it will happen as more and more people realize that their entire life has been defrauded. Better reactions than violence are to seize the means of production, create something that will outlive you in others’ memories, unify people to love and trust each other, and live in ways that others must rely on you as you rely on them. Your freedom, this value that the constitution vows to protect, has been taken by the very power structure pledging to preserve it. So take it back and break the rules as much as you can. That’s the only way we’re ever getting anywhere worthy of contentment.

[ms-m-astrologer]

Transiting Vesta Stations Direct

Timetable (current events in bold): Vesta enters retrograde zone: Friday, September 16, 2016, 20:07 Cancer Vesta into Leo: Wednesday, October 19, 2016 Vesta retrograde: Thursday, December 1, 2016, 5:42 Leo Vesta retrograde back into Cancer: Tuesday, January 10, 2017 Vesta direct: Wednesday, March 8, 2017 Vesta into Leo again: Tuesday, May 2, 2017 Vesta out of retrograde zone: Friday, May 19, 2017

In all the gas-giant/ice-giant/TNO Cardinal Sign Capital-D Drama over the past several months, with Ceres (Lady Asteroid) and Eris (big bad TNO) chipping in, something as quiet and, well, as private as Vesta retrograde is apt to be overlooked. This is par for Vesta’s course. She isn’t flashy or extreme, and prefers to stick close to hearth and home. Nevertheless, as she has approached her station-direct, she turned the “mere” cardinal t-square (Jupiter/Libra opposite Uranus-Eris/Aries, all squared by Pluto/Capricorn) into a bona fide cardinal grand cross. What’s up with that?

As a refresher, let’s see, first of all, what Martin Bulgerin (website link) writes about Vesta retrograde:

“Vesta rules over a core sense of identity and independence, a kind of faithfulness to yourself that allows no compromise or selling out. You are focused or centered in yourself, able to tap into the great powers of the self when you act out of truthfulness and integrity. When Vesta is in reverse, this fidelity to yourself is tested. Situations come up that force you to decide how much integrity really means to you and how much you'd rather ‘slide through life.’ She teaches us to be beholden to nobody, to stand up and be responsible for ourselves, to demand the best of every experience.”

Of course, during this entire Rx period we’ve seen the opposite of “truthfulness and integrity.” We have seen and heard people who really would rather “slide through life” team with an antiquated and unfair Electoral College to give us President Untruthful Corruption Petites-Mains. But in a sense, weren’t these vicious, malevolent people being true to themselves, too? Add the negative characteristics of Leo (pride, bombast, arrogance, egomania) to those of Cancer (insecurity, clannishness, timidity), and we get 2016.

Vesta has another association: sanctuary. In the wake of Bannon/Dolt 45’s assaults on everyone who isn’t a straight white Christofascist wealthy guy, the concept of sanctuary will increase in importance.

But, let’s focus on the first part of Vesta retracing her steps in Cancer for now. What can we do to redirect the insecure, clannish, timid, stuck in the past energy?  Considering that the antonyms of “insecurity, clannishness, and timidity” are the Leo traits of “confidence, friendliness, and bravery,” it won’t be enough (or appropriate, yet) to just do the opposite. We can do that after Vesta goes back into Leo.

With Vesta in Cancer, we’re going to focus on nurturing and comforting ourselves and each other. We have to create the “safe space” for the upcoming Vesta/Leo dramatics. There can be no exclusion, none - if Dolt 45 shows up on your doorstep wounded, you do the first aid! If we’re too focused on preserving what we have to give, for our own use, we’ll never stop worrying about having “enough.”

In Thomas Cahill’s words (from How the Irish Saved Civilization), “Perhaps history is always divided into Romans and Catholics - or better, catholics. The Romans are the rich and powerful who run things their way and must always accrue more because they instinctively believe that there will never be enough to go around; the catholics, as their name implies, are universalists who instinctively believe that all humanity makes one family, that every human being is an equal child of God, and that God will provide.”

Toward the end of Venus’ retrograde, she gets close to a trine to Vesta - but although the trine gets within one degree, it’s never exact. They WERE exactly trine back on January 28, at 25+ Pisces/Cancer. This was the day after Dolt 45 restricted travel and immigration from citizens of oil-rich countries with whom he and the Russians don’t have business ties. Sanctuary, remember? If we want to find it, we need to provide it to others.

Wednesday, March 8, Mercury/Pisces trine Vesta/Cancer, 20:07; Friday, March 10, Sun/Pisces trine Vesta/Cancer, 20:09

We certainly start Vesta’s direct motion with the best of intentions! High-minded and spiritually elevated, we want to understand (Merc) and embody (Sun) the notion that there is but one human family - walking it like we talk it, if you will. Whether or not our inner flame can continue to give light and warmth will be seen, as Vesta proceeds slowly to interact with most of the other cardinal grand cross planets (Pluto excepted).

Planets/Points affected lie between 19:07 and 21:09 of the yin signs Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Pisces.

Sunday, March 19, Jupiter/Libra square Vesta/Cancer, 20:38

We need to reconcile our own self-focus and self-dedication with what “society” tells us we ought to do. Ms M wonders if most of us aren’t going to run headfirst into a brick wall called “Intersectionality,” because this sure as hell looks like it to her. We don’t have all the answers, and what “works” for us isn’t necessarily valid for somebody else! Give people the courtesy of their own experience.

Planets/Points affected lie between 19:38 and 21:38 of the cardinal signs Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn; and between 4:38 and 6:38 of the mutable signs Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces.

Friday, March 24, Mercury/Aries square Vesta/Cancer, 21:15

First of three, with #3 occurring after both Mercury and Vesta have moved into the next sign. Mercury and Vesta have a lot in common (or maybe I just have them conjunct in my own chart), so this is almost certainly some kind of problem with communication &/or mental attitude. We don’t stop to think before we speak, and blurt out some nonsense that we don’t honestly ascribe to, anymore. We may also become aware of the need to get around, or overhaul, some habitual thought patterns.

Planets/Points affected lie between 20:15 and 22:15 of the cardinal signs Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn; and between 5:15 and 7:15 of the mutable signs Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces.

Wednesday, April 5, Eris/Aries square Vesta/Cancer, 23:06

We’re called to put our money where our mouth is, with this square. If humanity is truly one big happy family, that includes Dolt 45 and Steve Bannon, right? It includes that homeless vet who doesn’t smell very “nice” and keeps muttering to herself, right? And the kid with Trisomy 18, the octogenarian with Alzheimer’s, the insurance salesperson who chose the “safe” path, the family who goes to Bible study three times a week. This square challenges you to own up to your less-than-savory “relatives.”

Planets/Points affected lie between 22:06 and 24:06 of the cardinal signs Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn; and between 7:06 and 9:06 of the mutable signs Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces.

Tuesday, April 11, Uranus/Aries square Vesta/Cancer, 24:19

More challenges, with the emphasis on motivation. Do you really believe what you profess, or are you just trying to appear glamorous? Demetra George put it beautifully: “The resolution of these challenges lies in committing and dedicating oneself to a type of innovation and reform that promotes constructive and healing changes in the old order, or building functional structures of a new order.” The Moon in Libra might exacerbate “things” and make us wish for a balance when we can’t have one.

Planets/Points affected lie between 23:19 and 25:19 of the cardinal signs Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn; and between 8:19 and 10:19 of the mutable signs Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces.

Thursday, April 13, Mars/Taurus sextile Vesta/Cancer, 24:50

Finally, something that isn’t challenging!! Yay! We are STRONGLY focused today and have tremendous amounts of practical energy at our disposal. It’s also pretty sexy - take care of your partner, and your partner will take care of you. Also a good omen for working in the yard/garden, which is (now that I think of it) the same principle as sex.

Planets/Points affected lie between 23:50 and 25:50 of the yin signs Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Pisces.

Friday, April 14, Sun/Aries square Vesta/Cancer, 25:01

This can make us overly self-absorbed, directionless, and alienated. As Mufasa told Simba, “Remember who you are!” We’re challenged to keep on the “right” path for us, no matter how lonely it makes us, and no matter if we can’t see where we’ll end up. Create a purposeful vision of yourself, and align your energies with it.

Planets/Points affected lie between 24:01 and 26:01 of the cardinal signs Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn; and between 9:01 and 11:01 of the mutable signs Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces.

Friday, April 21, Ceres/Taurus sextile Vesta/Cancer, 26:42; Saturday, April 22, Chiron/Pisces trine Vesta/Cancer, 26:52

Keep in mind that Venus/Pisces is “in there,” too, although her trine to Vesta never becomes exactly exact. April 22 is Earth Day. This whole setup screams “Get out in the garden” - at least get outside and as much into Mother Nature as you can manage. It’s therapeutic as hell, this weekend. Pick up trash as you walk; leave the earbuds at home and listen to the birds; absorb what’s going on with Mother Earth (unless there’s lightning). As it’s known in these premises, “ground and center.”

Planets/Points affected lie between 25:42 and 27:52 of the yin signs Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Pisces.

Monday, April 24, Mercury Rx/Aries square Vesta/Cancer, 27:29

Second of three. If you spent Earth Weekend grounding and centering like I told you to, you’ll have an easier time finding all the mental traps and habitual patterns of thought that hold you back. At this point Mercury is “Promethean Retrograde,” and its being in Aries, is a double emphasis on finding new ways to learn, think, reason, and communicate.

Planets/Points affected lie between 26:29 and 28:29 of the cardinal signs Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn; and between 11:29 and 13:29 of the mutable signs Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces.

[7r0773r]

Autobiography of a Corpse by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, translated by Joanne Turnbull

Now I understand: Any “I” not nourished by “we,” not umbilically attached to the maternal organism enveloping its small life, cannot begin to be itself. Even the mollusk hidden inside tight-shut valves, if one helps those valves by binding them with a tight metal band, will die. (Autobiography of a Corpse, p.13)

***

With a new day nearing, I began to consider how to convey everything without saying anything. To begin with, I must cross out the truth; no one needs that. Then variegate the pain to the limits of my canvas. Yes, yes. Add a touch of the day-to-day and over all, like varnish over paint, a veneer of vulgarity—one can’t do without that. Finally, a few philosophical bits and ... Reader, you’re turning away, you want to shake these lines out of your pupils. No, no. Don’t leave me here on this long empty bench: Hold my hand—that’s right—tight, tighter still—I’ve been alone for too long. I want to say to you what I’ve never said to anyone: Why frighten little children with the dark when one can quiet them with it and lead them into dreams? (In the Pupil, p. 60)

***

3. PURVAPAKSHIN

This name wound up in a notebook of mine years ago. I remember I was rummaging through English editions of ancient Indian texts, copies of the Vedanta and the Sankhya, commentaries and compilations, when I came across it: Purvapakshin. The Purvapakshin seems never to have existed, yet who of us would have the right to say “I am,” if not for the Purvapakshin? This man-myth was invented by Indian casuists for the sake of constructing antitheses. Builders of systems came and went—one after another. So many builders, so many worlds: Each one—be it Vyasa or Patanjali—brought with him his “yes.” And each one, having relinquished his “yes,” returned to death. But the man-myth Purvapakshin never died, if only because he was never born; he never said “yes” to anything or anyone because his name means “he who says ‘no,’” A defender of antitheses, the Purvapakshin objects to everything always; treatise after treatise, millennium after millennium. Therein lies this man-diagram’s sole existence: to trump every “yes” with his “no.” For me too the immemorial Purvapakshin is the non-dialectical personification of an Indian rishi. I can almost see and keenly sense him here beside me on my evening boulevard bench: Wrapped in ragged, many-colored stuffs, his stubborn bony brow bowed, he unpurses his thin, shriveled lips for the sake of a single, brief-as-a-blow “no.” Oh, how often have we—elbow to elbow, the Purvapakshin and I—on these noisy Moscow boulevards, amid the clangs and whirlings, the rush of lights and shadows, raised up over all of this, again and again, our “no.”

Yes, I am drawn to him, indeed I almost love him, him alone perhaps, this man who does not exist, with his “no.” I want to squeeze my temples between my palms, draw the whole world into my consciousness, and brandishing my “no” like a hammer, object to everything: smite what is above, below, and all around; strike near and far. This is my one happiness, however fitful, however sick: overturning all verticals; extinguishing the imaginary sun; entangling the orbits and the world in worldlessness.

I cannot make this life, which walks over me, other than it is or altogether nonexistent, and even so—I object; we object: the Purvapakshin and I. We do not want clockwork days; we do not want lives insured by State Insurance; we do not accept the ideas ironed into newssheets neatly folded in four; as in the days of the emperor Ashoka, so now, in this time of tsarlessness, he says and I repeat, he asserts and i concur: “no.” A persecuted and half-dead pauper, I cannot overturn all things, the houses that have sunk into the ground, all the lived-in-to-death lives, but I can do this: Overturn the meanings. Let the rest remain. Let it. (Seams, pp. 64-65)

***

7. STOLEN SOLITUDES

For everyone, reality is in one’s self. Yet every “I” is sewn into a “we”; from individuals—however loosely stitched together—comes a society, a kind of unit composed of solitudes. The strangest paradox of all is a city, connecting the unconnecting. Here the need to be alone nearly coincides with self-preservation: People survive so as to buy from each other, at a cost of ceaseless labor, the chance to be without each other. People hoard the coins from their art, their work, their thieving so as to acquire walls. In the countryside, far from human congeries, their solitudes are not protected, not bounded by walls, and so open to attack; in the city, they are organized, hidden behind blinds and walls, kept under lock and key, properly defended. Man, however, must be not only without man but without God; the tenet of divine omnipresence violates his right to solitude; that unblinking eye fixed on his life, peering through its mystical triangle as through a prison-cell peephole, must be removed. Hence the distinctive urban atheism of beings who, after a long day of rushing about among questioners and observers, of struggling frantically to break away from “we” to “I,” crave at least a few minutes of complete isolation, out of sight and reach of everything without. Thus does the silkworm, when its time has come, creep away in anxious search of stillness, soundlessness, so as to wrap itself in its cocoon. A city, too, consists of anxious creepers and a system of discrete cocoons, its only purpose. And of course a city is most city-like not at midday but at midnight, not when it’s all clamors and clanks but when it’s all hush and dreams: Only a deserted street with dead, rayless windows and rows of shuttered doors can fully explain a city. Yes, we can only live back to back; everything—from the small children on an  urban boulevard slapping together their separate cities, of sand and clay, to the corpses in suburban cemeteries lying in graves separated from one another by iron fences—everything confirms and corroborates this thought. 

I remember once, as I was pacing up and down the crooked camber of a side street before dawn, I heard first footsteps, then someone’s measured muttering. The footsteps broke off but the muttering continued. I walked toward the sound. By a gray stone pile, still hazy in the half-light, stood a man with his back to the wall; his legs wobbled, while his head looked as if it would come unscrewed from his coat collar. He did not notice me or the dead stone surround and, as if inscribed in an inviolate magic circle, went on rocking and raptly repeating: “God, thank God, doesn’t exist. Thank God, God doesn’t exist.”

This sounded like a declaration of solitude. Walking past the drunk, it occurred to me that the only thing that still interested me was following human solitudes, solitary souls who were trying—with comic ineptitude and tragic obstinacy in the thick of this human hive—to inscribe themselves in their own inviolate circle. As my hours of leisure were long and many, I decided to devote myself unstintingly to stealing solitudes. That’s right. Indigence and indolence always incite one to sin: to steal solitudes. (Seams, pp. 70-72)

***

And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.      And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.      And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.     Wherefore that field was called, the field of blood,  unto this day.

I

With these four verses I could fill a dozen tomes and turn them into ten adventure novels. In fact, let’s review the images: a handful of coins thrown down on the temple flags; a man’s neck in a noose; an avaricious potter none too mindful of the money’s smell; a striking title—”The Price of Blood”; a burial ground for stravaging strangers; and a masterful last verse that takes that square of earth earmarked for the dead by its four corners and stretches it unto... But that will depend on who decides to develop this theme—a realist, a Symbolist, or a Romantic.

I’ve been circling round the third verse for a long time and once I got inside, though by a different door; I tried to picture the potter’s field, cracked and sere with the scorching heat, strewn with dry-needled thorn branches, a hundred square cubits or thereabouts, surrounded by cart tracks and paths, a web of roads delivering strangers done stravaging. Here the theme asked me a question: Why had the chief priests in buying land for a burial ground bothered only about foreigners and not about their own, not about Jerusalemites, or even about themselves? The fourth verse explains: the price of blood. The chief priests, who conducted the proceedings against Jesus with a subtle grasp of canon law, cannot be accused in this case of improvidence: one cannot bury one’s own in earth besmirched with blood, whereas with strangers one needn’t stand on ceremony. Farther on, however, the theme began to frown: strangers there were many, land there was little; the bodies multiplied, not so the burial ground. The field of blood, like a pool without drainpipes (the kind never found in math primers), was soon filled to overflowing and the theme brought to a standstill; one had to apply to the ghosts trailing over the graves, to appeal to restless strangers who even in death could not lie still till Judgment Day. In short, one had to resort to the sorts of stale Romantic stunts that neither censorship nor good taste (a rare coincidence!) will let pass.

So then, still circling the third verse, I entered it through “bought” and chose for my hero the thirty pieces of silver: unromantic, ringing, countable, relatively imperishable. After all, who and what remained of this gospel story about deaths: one man was crucified; another hanged himself; still others (the strangers) were buried one after another in the field of blood. Only the thirty ringing coins remained in circulation; wherever those silver pieces roll, my story shall follow. I’ll begin. (Thirty Pieces of Silver, pp. 162-63)

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Meet the mum from Bega booming with her low carb baking business

New Post has been published on https://bestrawfoodrecipes.com/meet-the-mum-from-bega-booming-with-her-low-carb-baking-business/

Meet the mum from Bega booming with her low carb baking business

Anna and Lilly Hopkins. Photo: Supplied

The Protein Bread Co caught my attention whilst embarking on the ‘post baby bounce back keto diet’ I set myself 12 months ago.

Most ‘low carb’ flour products leave little to be desired and have you back on the carby sugars before you finish the packet! I can’t claim this bread helped me lose weight but it did allow me to continue eating toast and pancakes for brekky and pizza for dinner leaving me feeling less like a dieting social outcast.

The Protein Bread Co, like every great success story, comes from humble beginnings.

For siblings Luke and Anna Hopkins it starts in Bega with a passion for cooking, health and fitness. Their goal was to create better versions of normally high carb foods by utilising locally sourced high protein and low carb meals, seeds and flours.

I caught up with baker and self-confessed glamper, Anna Hopkins, the lady behind Australia’s first low carb and no added sugar range of baking mixes…

Weekly Newsletter

We package up the most-read About Regional stories of the past week and send direct to your inbox every Tuesday afternoon. Subscribing is the easiest way to keep up, in one hit.

What was it like growing up in Bega? 

At the time, I dreamed of living in the city, and loved our trips up to Sydney to go shopping however now I think about my childhood in the country with so many fond memories.

Looking back, growing up in the country really enhanced my creativity, resilience and resourcefulness, all which have been skills that I heavily relied on when setting up the business – and life in general!

Activities like roaming the paddocks picking blackberries then coming home and making blackberry pie and jam, or swimming in the dam on hot summer’s days are my favourite memories from that time.

How did you become motivated and inspired to follow your dreams?

I consider myself very fortunate that my parents were always very supportive of us following our dreams, even if that meant a slightly untraditional path. My childhood dream was to have a cafe/restaurant just like McDonalds but healthier.

I was always taking Mum’s traditional Danish baking recipes and making them healthier by reducing sugar (and at that stage fat).

At school I chose subjects that I felt would give me the skills to achieve this dream, such as food technology and hospitality.

I loved working, gaining experience and earning my own money. When I was 12 I started baking healthy cakes for Bega Health Foods to sell by the slice. Then when I was old enough I started working at Bega Foodworks in the Deli.

The more I worked, learned and progressed, the clearer I became on my vision of my future in business.

Anna and Lily feeding the sheep. Photo: Supplied.

What business support did you have to help you get your bread on the market?

I can’t say we really had any official business support as such, mainly honest feedback and moral support from friends and family!

Protein Bread was a product that I created from my cafe, that was on the menu for my health conscious customers.

Due to regular Facebook posts, I was soon getting demand from all over Australia for my Low Carb Protein Bread.

Being a fresh product, with no preservatives that required refrigeration, sending bread around the country wasn’t an option. This is when my brother Luke came on board and set up our website, and we started selling the bread mix online.

Today the business (now PBCo – formerly The Protein Bread Company) has 12 employees, over 20 natural, low carb, high protein products, and two manufacturing facilities in Marrickville, Sydney.

We sell direct to consumers online around Australia, NZ and the US as well as in leading health food and independent grocery.

We’ve grown and evolved by staying on the leading edge of ingredient innovation, working with our farmers and suppliers to process ingredients to our specs, and listening to our customers.

What did you study after high school?

After school, I was keen to start working and gain experience in hospitality and leadership. I moved to Sydney and started studying business through TAFE.

I also gained a casual position at McDonalds in McCafe. After about 6 months my restaurant manager asked if I’d like to commence a Management Development Program through McDonalds, instead of TAFE,  which I did, and went on to achieve my Advanced Diploma of Business, at the same time as gaining real life, hands on experience.

This experience was absolutely invaluable for my confidence and knowledge of business. After a 10 year career in leadership with McDonalds Head Office, I decided to take the plunge and bring my childhood dream to life.

Whole Meal Cafe opened in Darlinghurst, Sydney in 2010.

I ran the cafe for 4 years, then successfully sold in 2014 to focus all my attention on The Protein Bread Company.

I really believe that everyone has something special to offer the world, and the best thing we can do is encourage kids to follow their dreams and forge a path that they are passionate about, then success will come.

The traditional education system has its place for certain careers, however definitely not the best approach for everyone, nor the only way.

Anna Hopkins is the managing director of Protein Bread Co. Photo: Supplied.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

My ultimate goal would be to have the business in a position where we can move back to the Far South Coast, or maybe have even sold and started a new business down there.

My passion is enabling people to feel their best, by making better food choices. As a society, we have made some progress when it comes to health education and understanding of food, and the impact this can have on our bodies, and minds, however, there is still so much work to be done.

People often think that healthy food choices are expensive, hard and not tasty – I try and show people that this does not have to be the case! There is so much focus and attention on exercise, personal trainers, the gym – all of which play a part, however, can also come unstuck if the wrong food choices are made.

Right now my focus is on PBCo and creating our products – healthy foods that people love to eat, however, I would also love to travel around and talk in high schools about food and the power of food to change lives.

Who is your most famous customer?

Guy and Jules Sebastian, Kylie Gillies, Karl Stefanovic and James Stuart have all used our products in their recent transformations, as well as Para Olympian Mon Murphy.

How have your parents supported your dream? 

By giving us all the flexibility and freedom to pursue our goals without judgement or expectation.

There has never been any pressure that we ‘should’ go down a certain path, which I am so grateful for. Also asking the right questions to help gain clarity and just bouncing around ideas.

Anna Hopkins is the managing director of Protein Bread Co. Photo: Supplied.

You’re a mother of a 1 year old, how do you get enough sleep to run a company?!!

Mmmmmm very good question, it’s definitely a struggle!!

I’m fortunate enough to have Lily in a great little family daycare place near work three days a week, and then my partner Aaron has her at home one day a week, so I can work four days a week without her.

Re the sleep…. it’s just a matter of doing the best I can each day, some days are better than others depending on how many times she has woken up! I try not to be hard on myself but it’s definitely frustrating when there’s just so much I want to do!!

Apart from that eating the best I can, avoiding sugar/carbs really helps my energy.

How do you spend your time when back in the Bega Valley

My #1 is definitely glamping at Tathra Beachside Caravan Park, which we do about twice a year and absolutely love.

Switching off, being in nature, breathing the fresh air, hearing the ocean and exploring all the beautiful places down there are what I love most.

I now have a 1-year-old daughter who also loves being outdoors in nature and she really loved the last trip we took.

The Far South Coast is just so beautiful and has such a special place in my heart, it’s definitely my go to for holidays and mini breaks.

We enjoyed dinner and drinks at Tathra Pub, the renovations are stunning, and the staff were also very impressive, and we had some amazing bacon & egg rolls and coffee from Wild Orchid Cafe.

It’s so pleasing to see some great business popping up or reinventing themselves on the Far South Coast.

Protein Bread Co. source the ingredient Lupin from Brocklesby in NSW. Photo: Supplied.

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Source link Keto Diet Drinks

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Meet the mum from Bega booming with her low carb baking business

New Post has been published on https://bestrawfoodrecipes.com/meet-the-mum-from-bega-booming-with-her-low-carb-baking-business/

Meet the mum from Bega booming with her low carb baking business

Anna and Lilly Hopkins. Photo: Supplied

The Protein Bread Co caught my attention whilst embarking on the ‘post baby bounce back keto diet’ I set myself 12 months ago.

Most ‘low carb’ flour products leave little to be desired and have you back on the carby sugars before you finish the packet! I can’t claim this bread helped me lose weight but it did allow me to continue eating toast and pancakes for brekky and pizza for dinner leaving me feeling less like a dieting social outcast.

The Protein Bread Co, like every great success story, comes from humble beginnings.

For siblings Luke and Anna Hopkins it starts in Bega with a passion for cooking, health and fitness. Their goal was to create better versions of normally high carb foods by utilising locally sourced high protein and low carb meals, seeds and flours.

I caught up with baker and self-confessed glamper, Anna Hopkins, the lady behind Australia’s first low carb and no added sugar range of baking mixes…

Weekly Newsletter

We package up the most-read About Regional stories of the past week and send direct to your inbox every Tuesday afternoon. Subscribing is the easiest way to keep up, in one hit.

What was it like growing up in Bega? 

At the time, I dreamed of living in the city, and loved our trips up to Sydney to go shopping however now I think about my childhood in the country with so many fond memories.

Looking back, growing up in the country really enhanced my creativity, resilience and resourcefulness, all which have been skills that I heavily relied on when setting up the business – and life in general!

Activities like roaming the paddocks picking blackberries then coming home and making blackberry pie and jam, or swimming in the dam on hot summer’s days are my favourite memories from that time.

How did you become motivated and inspired to follow your dreams?

I consider myself very fortunate that my parents were always very supportive of us following our dreams, even if that meant a slightly untraditional path. My childhood dream was to have a cafe/restaurant just like McDonalds but healthier.

I was always taking Mum’s traditional Danish baking recipes and making them healthier by reducing sugar (and at that stage fat).

At school I chose subjects that I felt would give me the skills to achieve this dream, such as food technology and hospitality.

I loved working, gaining experience and earning my own money. When I was 12 I started baking healthy cakes for Bega Health Foods to sell by the slice. Then when I was old enough I started working at Bega Foodworks in the Deli.

The more I worked, learned and progressed, the clearer I became on my vision of my future in business.

Anna and Lily feeding the sheep. Photo: Supplied.

What business support did you have to help you get your bread on the market?

I can’t say we really had any official business support as such, mainly honest feedback and moral support from friends and family!

Protein Bread was a product that I created from my cafe, that was on the menu for my health conscious customers.

Due to regular Facebook posts, I was soon getting demand from all over Australia for my Low Carb Protein Bread.

Being a fresh product, with no preservatives that required refrigeration, sending bread around the country wasn’t an option. This is when my brother Luke came on board and set up our website, and we started selling the bread mix online.

Today the business (now PBCo – formerly The Protein Bread Company) has 12 employees, over 20 natural, low carb, high protein products, and two manufacturing facilities in Marrickville, Sydney.

We sell direct to consumers online around Australia, NZ and the US as well as in leading health food and independent grocery.

We’ve grown and evolved by staying on the leading edge of ingredient innovation, working with our farmers and suppliers to process ingredients to our specs, and listening to our customers.

What did you study after high school?

After school, I was keen to start working and gain experience in hospitality and leadership. I moved to Sydney and started studying business through TAFE.

I also gained a casual position at McDonalds in McCafe. After about 6 months my restaurant manager asked if I’d like to commence a Management Development Program through McDonalds, instead of TAFE,  which I did, and went on to achieve my Advanced Diploma of Business, at the same time as gaining real life, hands on experience.

This experience was absolutely invaluable for my confidence and knowledge of business. After a 10 year career in leadership with McDonalds Head Office, I decided to take the plunge and bring my childhood dream to life.

Whole Meal Cafe opened in Darlinghurst, Sydney in 2010.

I ran the cafe for 4 years, then successfully sold in 2014 to focus all my attention on The Protein Bread Company.

I really believe that everyone has something special to offer the world, and the best thing we can do is encourage kids to follow their dreams and forge a path that they are passionate about, then success will come.

The traditional education system has its place for certain careers, however definitely not the best approach for everyone, nor the only way.

Anna Hopkins is the managing director of Protein Bread Co. Photo: Supplied.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

My ultimate goal would be to have the business in a position where we can move back to the Far South Coast, or maybe have even sold and started a new business down there.

My passion is enabling people to feel their best, by making better food choices. As a society, we have made some progress when it comes to health education and understanding of food, and the impact this can have on our bodies, and minds, however, there is still so much work to be done.

People often think that healthy food choices are expensive, hard and not tasty – I try and show people that this does not have to be the case! There is so much focus and attention on exercise, personal trainers, the gym – all of which play a part, however, can also come unstuck if the wrong food choices are made.

Right now my focus is on PBCo and creating our products – healthy foods that people love to eat, however, I would also love to travel around and talk in high schools about food and the power of food to change lives.

Who is your most famous customer?

Guy and Jules Sebastian, Kylie Gillies, Karl Stefanovic and James Stuart have all used our products in their recent transformations, as well as Para Olympian Mon Murphy.

How have your parents supported your dream? 

By giving us all the flexibility and freedom to pursue our goals without judgement or expectation.

There has never been any pressure that we ‘should’ go down a certain path, which I am so grateful for. Also asking the right questions to help gain clarity and just bouncing around ideas.

Anna Hopkins is the managing director of Protein Bread Co. Photo: Supplied.

You’re a mother of a 1 year old, how do you get enough sleep to run a company?!!

Mmmmmm very good question, it’s definitely a struggle!!

I’m fortunate enough to have Lily in a great little family daycare place near work three days a week, and then my partner Aaron has her at home one day a week, so I can work four days a week without her.

Re the sleep…. it’s just a matter of doing the best I can each day, some days are better than others depending on how many times she has woken up! I try not to be hard on myself but it’s definitely frustrating when there’s just so much I want to do!!

Apart from that eating the best I can, avoiding sugar/carbs really helps my energy.

How do you spend your time when back in the Bega Valley

My #1 is definitely glamping at Tathra Beachside Caravan Park, which we do about twice a year and absolutely love.

Switching off, being in nature, breathing the fresh air, hearing the ocean and exploring all the beautiful places down there are what I love most.

I now have a 1-year-old daughter who also loves being outdoors in nature and she really loved the last trip we took.

The Far South Coast is just so beautiful and has such a special place in my heart, it’s definitely my go to for holidays and mini breaks.

We enjoyed dinner and drinks at Tathra Pub, the renovations are stunning, and the staff were also very impressive, and we had some amazing bacon & egg rolls and coffee from Wild Orchid Cafe.

It’s so pleasing to see some great business popping up or reinventing themselves on the Far South Coast.

Protein Bread Co. source the ingredient Lupin from Brocklesby in NSW. Photo: Supplied.

Share:

Source link Keto Diet Drinks