#disinherited

[remembertheplunge]

My name is Lew Wentz.

I am a 68 year old gay criminal defense lawyer. I have been keeping journals for 46 years. I am writing a book based on the journals.

I came out as a gay man in 1984. I was married to a woman then. I left the marriage after telling her I was gay.

My younger sister, Zoe, who I was very close to, died rather suddenly of pancreatic cancer in May of 2023. She gave me permission to blog the last two weeks of her life. Those blogs run from May 1 to May 14, 2023.

I journaled my journey through the turbulent 1980's and 1990's. During that time, I was pretty vocal about being gay. I volunteered to help people with aids through their illness and death. And, I believe because of this, I was fired from my job as a deputy Public Defender in Modesto California. I also documented the 12 year relationship I had with my partner, Jim, who died in 2009.

I wrote pretty much daily about these events and many others. I never intended for the entries to be made public. But, I now think they should be, as they weave what I believe to be our common story of what it's been like to be out, human and gay in the past four decades.

And, as I journaled, I developed ideas and ways to journal and wrote about them in the journals. I discuss the impact journaling has had on me. And, the amazing revelation reviewing journal entries for the blog and book of just how incredible our lives have been. Memory fades. The journal details do not.

My hope is that , after reading the blogs, and maybe some day the book, you too will become addicted to journaling. Your life on paper will amaze you down the line.

My blog turned one year old on February 5, 2024.

[scottjpearson]

Howard Thurman & the Disinherited: A Religious Biography

Howard Thurman & the Disinherited: A Religious Biography This #newRelease describes the "mentor to the movement," including MLK. In the 1940s, Thurman founded an interracial church in SF, proving it could be done. #BookReview #ScottsBookReview

Howard Thurman is a name that scholars of twentieth-century Christianity and African-American culture know well, but few in the mainstream United States are familiar with it. However, more people should be, and Harvey writes this religious biography to bring his name to the fore. Thurman was known as “the mentor to the movement” and mentored dozens of civil rights’ leaders, including Martin…

[daenerysies]

the same people capable of clocking that the phrase ‘sharply questioned’ means torture are now the ones suddenly incapable of understanding that being ‘touched’ in the medieval era means penis in vagina sex NOT ‘oh they kissed each other/played with each other uwu’ even if that is still damaging because of how deep chastity culture had rotted into that society; it was not what alicent was asking about in the courtyard.

rhaenyra did *not* lie to alicent when she said that daemon ‘had never touched her’ and regardless she didn’t owe alicent the truth anyway. they had only just -sort of- reconciled earlier in the day and hadn’t been friends for years at this point + alicent came to her extremely aggressive; mocking targaryen customs and making it clear that whatever rhaenyra said in defense of herself she would be ridiculed and shamed *by alicent* in response. it’s why rhaenyra’s initial tune of wariness changed to outright defensiveness.

rhaenyra’s position at court was unstable and she understood that not only was alicent otto’s creature through and through (whether she wanted to be or not) she knew they were actively working to install aegon as heir over her. meaning she made it a priority to save herself from the accusations taking place against her. that is not a bad thing, and it wasn’t used in a malicious way against alicent. please use your brains 🫶

[lovl3igh]

"according to the law aegon should be the king" according to the law aegon should have been castrated and sent to the wall

[greenerteacups]

I’m not sure if you’ve specifically answered this before, but how long did it take you to outline, research, and prepare the foundational meat of Lionheart since it’s such a sprawling saga with threads for so many characters? Did you have it all mapped out before you started writing? What about shorter pieces like The Climb and the latest, delightful The Death Eater Diaries?

The series outline for Lionheart I wrote on one bleary, rabbit-hole of a day in the summer of 2022 when I was definitely supposed to be doing something else, and after that, each book took me between 3 days and 2 weeks to outline completely. The later books have taken longer because of their length and the number of threads — the series has a way of getting wider as well as longer, and for the last two books, I sometimes got a bit grumbly about how many characters pop up in every novel. As for research, most of that will happen before or during the outlining process; I'll have a copy of the book on-hand to check plot details, but for the most part I try to work without flipping back to the text, to avoid copying beats or stylistic choices unless I have a thematic reason to. I also use HP Lexicon and fanwikis while I'm editing for content, though when I'm drafting I make a real effort not to switch out of the tab for any reason, because it breaks flow. I'm sure I have missed some details despite my references, but c'est la vie; JKR had to do continuity edits in subsequent edition releases for several books, so at least I'm not alone.

For The Climb, I wrote the first chapter in the raw, then went through and blocked out the second two in an outline at the bottom of the document. Very very broad strokes there — TC is different from Lionheart because it's a slice-of-life tone piece, so there's not as much plot to be done. It's a novella conceived for the sole purpose of exploring one particular relationship, so the plot came secondary to the things I wanted to highlight about how that dynamic worked. It's a character-forward piece, to borrow culinary terminology, and outlining for character is a lot easier than outlining for plot. (For me.)

The Death Eater Diaries emerged almost fully-formed from a Tumblr post I made joking about the sort of ludicrously awful decade Narcissa experiences. The hardest part of outlining was nailing down canonical dates. Stuff like how old Andromeda was when she got pregnant, when Bellatrix got married, when the members of the previous generation died, all that's unspecified — but it's also all functionally constrained to a narrow window of time, if you take in where the characters are at certain other parts of the story, so you can't just say anything. It was very fun to write, though. Doing so also stressed how hilariously short the timeline on the Black family collapse actually is. Between 1971 and 1981, they go from a two-branch family with an heir, a spare, and three healthy daughters -> completely extinct in the male line, two of its descendants disinherited, two imprisoned, one missing, presumed dead, and Draco Malfoy's mom.

[backjustforberena]

Rhaenys Targaryen + the Strong boys

[atopvisenyashill]

i think it’s really annoying silly when people imply rhaenyra would have ever disowned the velaryon boys when she spends over a decade digging in her heels about jace being her heir even after she’s had true born sons by daemon. she could have disinherited joffrey after the oldest two died, might have even been able to use the reasoning that as laenor’s only son, she wants him and baela/rhaena to have driftmark together as a way of slyly putting her true born son on the throne. but she doesn’t and there’s a really obvious, in your face reason for this and if your reading of rhaenyra is that she would EVER concede on this point or that coming to the throne uncontested was more important than jacaerys succeeding her in the line of succession, you just have a reading of rhaenyra that is fundamentally at odds with the way i see her and also with the way she’s written

[fallenlightsif]

giggling, kicking legs in the air, twirling hair @ possible florian/julian/mc ot3. going from a lord's bastard to getting together with the future king and their advisor??? OOF.

Julian: You’re gonna disinherit me? Fine, I’ll go fuck the king and the king’s advisor!

Julian’s dad: Wha-? NO!

At least Julian’s mom fully supports our throuple.

[words-and-coffee]

I feel most like my grandmother when someone is scraping my name out of me. I feel most like my grandmother’s mother when I’m already gone. When I’m peeled down to my seam. When I lift my skin and smell—nothing. No rot. No story. Not even the emptiness of salt.

Franny Choi, The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On - Disinheritance

[remembertheplunge]

No words for "when" "want" or "worry"

June 10, 2007.  5:22pm Sunday

The TV news show “60 minutes” had a segment on the language of the people of the Trobriand Islands. The Trobiand Islanders have no word in their language for “when”“want” or “worry”.

 If asked "How old are you?" They don’t know.

There is no word for “Hello”

No word for “good bye”.

They do have words for give and take. But, no word for “want”.

They have no need for things. They are nomadic.

Just before the Trobriand Islander story, there was a story about a really rich guy who was mean to his employees. He yelled at them. Every word was “want”, “when”, “worry”. Age on his forehead. Full of hellos and good byes.

My partner Jim got a check for $98,000 plus as his share of his parent’s estate. . Jim is angry. Feels nothing. 

One of Jim’s two brothers got $50,000 more than Jim. Jim now has no reason to contact his brothers. I agree. They were horrible through this division of the estate process. A lot of money went to lawyers. Odd. Outside of memory and emotion, there is no connection between them anymore. No hello. No good bye. No want. No worry. No when.

End of this part of the entry

Jim was my partner of 12 years. He and his brothers got into a legal battle over their parent’s estate after their mother died in 2005.

Later, a similar situation happened in my family. My sister Zoe and I were disinherited by our mother in 2011. We learned about it after her death in 2012. Our younger brother and his wife and her son and his wife inherited everything. My brother and I have never spoken again. We never  will speak. No good bye. No hello. 

Jim and his family were good teachers. They showed me this can happen. This is sometimes part of the family experience. 

“This is what white people do to each other”. This is a line from the 2019 movie “The Last Black Man in San Fransisco”. A young black man desperately wants to own a victorian house in San Fransisco's Filmore district. An elderly couple lives there now, but, are forced to leave because of an inheritance battle.The young black man says to his friend “This is what white people do to each other”.That one line, more than any other, has helped my through the desolate landscape of being disinherited.

[fromtheseventhhell]

I'd be interested in seeing Sansa's reaction to Robb's will and the news of her being disinherited. She's spent so much of the story being tangled in the plots of others because of her claim to Winterfell and it's something she reflects on often, and quite bitterly. I wonder if the news is going to be met with relief on some level; she's no longer the valuable pawn that has motivated so many people to use her.

[aryastarkthelittleshewolf11]

Apparently it’s “Sansa hate on another level” to simply point out that Jon would be fucking pissed if book Sansa tried to pull what show Sansa tried to do to Arya in season 7.

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

No but something I love is how fucking loyal Miklan really is (in Hopes specifically since we don't have enough information in Houses).

At the camp, he takes his job seriously. Very seriously. He doesn't act begrudging or like he's just doing anything by force. As the chapters go on he not only goes from relatively aloof to a full fledged commander (which is great development in that span of chapters btw considering how fast the story has to progress) and one who fights for Faerghus because he wants to (why would he reassure the player that he's going to, literally, hold down the fort? Why doesn't he flee when his life is in immediate danger despite that Dimtiri prefers his allies to flee and save their lives over sacrificing themselves? Why does he like helping citizens who had their lands destroyed by the war, despite being a bandit who used to plunge towns just like those?).

At any time when the Empire was attacking, he could've surrendered and even joined their side because of not liking Faerghus and its people... if he didn't like Faerghus and its people. Also, someone brought this up to me once that Miklan likely has family in the Empire still, because his mother was from the Empire. He had a perfectly good out that wouldn't even necessarily be considered treason to Faerghus, i.e. surrendering and going to the Empire to protect that side of his family.

He doesn't. He dies for Faerghus. It was both a matter of honor due to the fact that he was finally living the life he always should've been and wanted to be respected for that, and also his loyalty that followed in the past's wrongs being righted. No matter what you think of Miklan post disinheritance, he was the heir who was removed because he didn't have a Crest. All over just that, despite that Sylvain having a Crest never meant they didn't still have someone capable of fighting off Sreng invasions.

They had someone able to wield the Lance of Ruin, so why did it matter if he was officially the heir? Miklan felt like his life was stolen from him (and I'm not saying what he did to Sylvain was okay either). Dimitri gave him all of that back and he started to become loyal to Faerghus and its king because Dimitri was giving the chance even the man's own father never gave him from the moment Sylvain was determined to have a Crest.

What happened in his life before Dimitri had him brought to him as soon as he became king is, in a way, almost like it never happened as far as Miklan's behavior. It was obviously there at first, but over time it's like it never happened. That is, if someone met him and didn't know about his past, by chapter 9 they'd never even know he'd had that history. He was the person he would've been years ago if he hadn't been disinherited, which led to the mess that led to him being disowned (and he says he just "left", but Matthias doesn't mince facts. At all. If that had been the case he wouldn't just say he disowned him. He would admit Miklan ran away. That means Miklan claims he left as a means of coping and trying to convince other people that it was his choice and not forced on him).

Miklan became a lot more loyal than he's ever given credit for, both in the game and in the fandom. Gwendal did recognize it, but that's about all we're given.

Gwendal corrected himself when Miklan died, referring to him instead as Sir Miklan instead of the insults he was spewing during their fight which were very clearly pissing Miklan off; but Miklan kept fighting and defending the fort, not just because he wanted to prove Gwendal wrong but because he was here because he was pulled out of his life as a bandit. The people he was defending the fort for were the people who effectively gave him his life back.

Basically, he would've been there in that fort defending it anyway if he had lived the life he should have to begin with. If his value was acknowledged all along, he would've been defending the most important fort in Faerghus all along (if this exact scenario occurred and everything was the same except him being disowned in the first place). He would be there being the commander and fighter he was supposed to be.

Mind you, it was the king himself who gave him that chance, meaning the person who reigns over Faerghus and has the most power to change whatever the hell he wants - including how people with Crests and without are treated. Miklan was part of a fight to better their society and be part of the new generation taking over. Nobody could truly change things unless the king - the top power - had the thought to change them (not saying Lambert thought the political climate was good the way it was, but he clearly had other priorities and it didn't seem to be something weighing on his mind. He may not have even truly noticed the problems and power discrepancies because he was so focused on other things).

However, the moment the king thought to change all that old stuff, Miklan was one of the first people who came to mind, and one of the first people he took action regarding, to integrate into his new army (and he even mentioned completely rearranging his army and whatnot, and then we find out he had Miklan located basically right after becoming king. We had a two year timeskip and Miklan had been there for those two years because of how soon after Dimitri was crowned that he had decided to bring Miklan back and give him another chance).

If the king sought to change things and was taking active action to prove it, that was something Miklan could see and realize was actually going to happen. It wasn't a blind trust - he could see Dimitri was actually doing it. He had a reason to be able to trust him with this.

He was also able to trust the people who were watching over him, i.e. the people Dimitri had making sure he didn't revert back to any sort of banditry. Those people could have easily faked it, made up that he did something and that they had killed him on the spot. Dimitri trusted those people not to do that of course, but those people were not told to bring him to Dimitri if he did anything. They were told to apprehend him and kill him immediately (which is reasonable, given what he'd done in the past, and they wouldn't want to try to wait to get Dimitri over to wherever they were. If Miklan escaped in that time, they'd just have a big problem on their hands).

So that is to say, those people could've just faked it at any point and killed him. They didn't. They, like Dimitri, were willing to give him another chance provided he didn't do anything bad.

The same goes for Felix and everyone else who had qualms about him being allowed into their army. Dimitri explicitly stated if anyone had issues with his appointment as a commander to "by all means" kill him themselves. He literally made it an open option for his friends to just up and kill him if they truly couldn't forgive him (which at that point was more reasonable of a time because the war was still new and people didn't know if they could trust him with this specific appointment yet. By later in the story I don't think it would have been as reasonable for someone to try to kill him after he'd already been proving himself).

In other words, nobody did it. Everyone, literally everyone, backed off and respected Dimitri's decision (and technically Sylvain and Matthias' as well). None of those people, even when given open opportunity, turned a weapon on him. Not one. These people all gave him a chance. These are the same people he died fighting for, and for himself to be able to feel like he was fighting and dying for what he would have to begin with if he hadn't been disinherited - Faerghus and its people.

In the end Miklan was in both rank and heart a top ranking commander of Faerghus and he both appreciated it and knew he appreciated it. He was looking forward to the future Dimitri would bring, basically saying that he thinks Dimitri is a fool ("weak-willed") for it but that he now believes in it too. If anyone wants to try arguing those points, I have receipts as the young folk call them, fresh from Miklan himself about his feelings about it as spoken to Catherine and Shamir!

Miklan fought for the future he was hoping to see, and he died protecting that future. Again, not something he by any means whatsoever had to do. He was tasked with guarding the fortress, but was never told to lay down his life defending it. After years and years of being hateful and angry, he finally had some peace of mind and hope for what he could be. He was loyal to Dimitri in the end because Dimitri was loyal to him - that is, he kept his word and Miklan was able to thrive in Dimitri's society without being a bandit or having to worry about his future because of his status.

Like Dimitri said, the only thing holding him down by that point were his past mistakes. It was up to Miklan to do something about that for himself with the opportunity he was given to fix it. Dimitri said here, fix it, and Miklan said okay, and worked to fix it. For me the saddest part is that he didn't even get enough time to properly fix it and be able to be free of his past. He died for Faerghus though, with his dying words being that he was able to buy them time (to arrive and fight back against the attacking Empire). That's not something someone who holds a resentful grudge would say in their last moments. He was grateful he managed to buy the other fighters time, even though it cost him his life.

hopes was a dumpster fire a whole lot of times but its incorporation of miklan into the plot was not one of them. miklan fire emblem my love you will live on in my heart and in my fics. i am also deeply grateful to hopes for uh i guess hopes-canonizing (hopesonizing???) basically every one of my headcanons about him before the game came out.

[hanakogames]

the universal translator is a thing that will never make sense if you think about it too hard but poking it gently can produce amusement

Everyone knows about Darmok, but I also have an old pocket books trek paperback where Uhura is called on as a communications specialist to help negotiations with a species which speaks simultaneously in word and sign (the sign language disambiguates words that have multiple meanings, shades emotional intent, etc, it's not just repeating the same thing as the voice) and the universal translator can't handle both at once so it misses a lot of nuance, which is okay for everyday communication but a problem for delicate diplomacy.

(there was also a voyager fanfic with a sort of tower-of-babel situation in which the mixed alien groups imprisoned somewhere all had their translators disabled to make it 'impossible' for them to find common purpose and work together. but seven of nine ends up down there and points out that the borg don't USE universal translators, they just assimilate everybody and get the language that way, so without that technology she still understands just fine.)

[marzipanandminutiae]

when your mother's excuse for calling your friend's late partner of 20 years "his friend" is that she's Still Learning and This Is All New To Her

and you've been out to her since you were 14

and you're 30 now

[pbnmj]

Ur tags about how Miles and Pavitr are the ones who say "I can do both" because it IS quintessential spiderman thinking AND because they're too young to have seen that devastatingly not work yet. BUT the thing is they are RIGHT but only if it's "we"! Spiderman's mythos is inherently a lonely one reinforced by Miles and Gwen's isolation and by every. single. intro. reminding us that every spider person is the "one and only spider person"! And yet!! These films are just about relationships (1/2)

YES YEAH YOU GET IT !!!! and (quite recently rewatched it and mentioning it here cause i can't believe i forgot to mention it in the post you're talking about) it really gets me that gwen also says 'i was doing both' in regards to protecting miles and protecting the canon event, and i love that the phrase was reflected like that, even tho (at this point of the movie) miles and gwen pretty much oppose each other in views/priority !!

it also absolutely kills me the way that gwen begins (like you say) atsv quitting the band and isolates herself, and then throughout the whole thing she finds something/someone that she wants to take that leap for, all over again :') she (and the entire spider-team!!) is willing to bet everything on miles and is ready to fight for him, and i really just love the idea that miles just is a force that inspires good !!!! IT REALLY IS ALL ABOUT LOVE!!!