Listen: John Dearheart is dead. No one knows how it happened, but there are theories. Whispers.
He was murdered.
He committed suicide.
There was an issue with his car’s exhaust.
He dropped where he stood and his cat ate him.
None of these are true. He doesn’t even have a cat.
The truth is this: John Dearheart is dead, and it doesn’t really matter how it happened.
Death, with the face of a little brunette white girl, maybe around age 12, explained this to John. He nodded every so often.
“How did it happen?” he asks.
“You don’t care,” Death replies.
“Why don’t I care?” he asks.
“Not like you can do anything about it,” Death replies.
John supposes this is true.
“Will I go to Heaven?” he asks.
“Do you deserve to?” Death replies.
John Dearheart considers this a moment. “I probably could have been better but I definitely could have been worse.”
“That’s common.”
“Will I go to Hell?” he asks.
“I didn’t know you were Catholic,” Death replies.
“Not really,” John says. “I was raised it but I don’t know if anything stuck.”
“That’s common.”
“Am I a ghost?” he asks.
Death shrugs. “Technically. Do you want to be one?”
“Will it be like the cartoons?” He sounds hopeful.
“I don’t know what those are,” Death replies.
“Oh.”
John pauses. “Maybe you’d like them.”
“Cartoons?” Death asks.
“Yeah,” John replies.
Death appears to consider this a moment.
“Do I get to pick my afterlife?” John asks suddenly.
Death smiles.
John Dearheart, taking this non-answer for an answer, offers a hand out to Death.
Death, disguised-but-not-really as a little girl, furrows their brow. This has never happened before,
no matter how many times John Dearheart dies.
“Then let’s go find out.”
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appalachian ballad time B)
this is my very favorite ballad ever recorded by the incomparable berzilla wallin and probably the only baptist tune i'll ever sing lol
this is the original* version of the song 'O Death' (yes that one) written and performed by lloyd chandler in the late 1910s-20s, and was intended to serve as a cautionary tale about adherence to religion and preparedness for death.
*kind of. as is usually the case with this type of traditional ballad, it's based on the songs that came before and what is considered a "new" ballad and what is considered to be a variant of an earlier work can be hazy and fairly arbitrary. lloyd chandler's version of 'conversation with death' does bear some significant resemblance to a song by an unknown composer that was collected in 1908 and sung in Black communities in north carolina, and both 20th century songs can be seen as modern variants of 'death and the lady' (roud 1031) (16th century, with nonmusical predecessors recorded as early as the 14th century)
image credit: self-portrait with death playing the fiddle by arnold böcklin, 1872
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aaron bushnell knew exactly what he was doing. he states his intentions with total lucidity and sense of purpose. he knows what he's about to do is extreme--he says so. he speaks calmly, but he's clearly terrified. he takes a deep breath after pouring the accelerant over himself. he has to psyche himself up to light the flame. he struggles with the lighter. he says "free palestine" normally once before he starts to scream it. even through his agony he manages to say it one last time before he stops being able to speak at all. this is a man with total conviction. he wanted to help people, in any way possible. this action was a moral one, and any news outlet painting this as simply a mental health issue is a disservice to his memory. he knew what he was doing when he burned himself in uniform. he knew that there was a chance that sacrificing his own life could go on to save many others. this was the ultimate act of selflessness, and it should be treated as such. may he rest in peace.
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If you’re not Jewish/Muslim/Israeli/Palestinian and you are talking publicly in any way about the i/p conflict you should probably do your research about dog whistles and take that info seriously. It shouldn’t be up to affected groups to educate you while actively being triggered and traumatized.
It’s not fun to constantly worry if your friends secretly hate you or if they are sliding into antisemitic spaces or are ok with genocide as long is against the right group of people.
You aren’t free of antisemitism or Islamophobia just because you don’t sit around thinking, “I hate Jews/Muslims/Arabs.” This shit is structural. I don’t care how many Jews or Muslims or Arabs you know. If you haven’t actively deconstructed your own bias against these groups, you’re probably still hateful whether you realize it or not.
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D&D warlock who’s literally just Fortunato from “The Cask of Amontillado”, having survived his immurement by making a deal with something in the dark, and the costume he was wearing the night he “died” has become the sign of his pact, so basically you’re playing as a depressed, alcoholic jester who sometimes has to run errands for He Who Waits Behind the Walls.
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