Serendipity and Chance

Next up someone is going to claim that the Narnia series isn't kids books.

Like it's bad when a "tattoo is undulating" (as opposed to... "drawn in a wave like pattern on the skin"?), or when hair is "wet wheat from a late Summer field" (as opposed to "sort of brownish light yellow that dries lighter, but is not actual wheat stalks growing on someone's head but kind of reminiscent of the color and texture"?), or when when ice cream tastes like midnight at the fair" (as opposed to "ice cream flavour bringing back memories of undefined ice cream flavours that are individually popular but always tied to a memory of late evening at the fair ground and probably smelling vaguely like popcorn and sugar"?).

see, you wouldn't necessarily pick up on this, but beluga skulls (and most cetacean skulls in general) are pretty much

flat...

so what's going on up there? well, most of the beluga's head is taken up by soft tissue and a large organ called the melon, which is basically a big ol waterballoon of semiliquid fat!

(boob. it's a head boob.)

this organ is found in every toothed whale and dolphin species on the planet and it's INCREDIBLY important, because the melon is what lets them echolocate!

the actual sound-producing organ is inside their nasal passage of all places, which sits up behind there, but the melon is what's actually used to fine-tune the soundwaves into the laser-accurate pinpoints that dolphins and toothed whales are so famous for.

1/3rd of Americans are Evangelical, and Evangelical Protestantism is a cult. We just don’t think of it as one because it’s so normalized. However, it follows the B.I.T.E. model of cult dynamics.

Evangelism teaches its followers to always maintain states of bliss and ecstasy for Jesus. What this does is condition the brain to always operate out of less-evolved parts; areas that are responsible for more primal emotions like euphoria, anger, and fear. Because of how we’ve evolved to survive, the brain will actually shut down our higher functioning—including critical thinking skills—in favor of these primal emotions, when they’re active.

Always feeling bliss = never questioning or feeling doubt. Evangelicals may actually fear the thoughts that do originate from their higher brain-parts because they think it’s the devil tempting them away from their religion. They’ll engage in self-indoctrination techniques to make this stop.

This creates a cognitive dissonance so great that many Americans have no separation between how they feel and what they believe. This is really bad because their minds have literally no defense against undue influence. They’ll vote for the dude who hyped them up enough. They’ll buy into the conspiracy theory that excites them the most. They’ll side with whatever gets the best reaction out of them, and getting a rise out of people is super easy to do.

Cult conditioning has nothing to do with how smart or dumb people are. You can condition literally any brain with the right time and environment.

The best and most immediate answer I could come up with, and the one I've stuck to, is telling people that America is a country defined by being a haven for cults and religious extremists since its inception. And people are always like "god that makes so much sense."

The minimum amount of contact with family that is expected of people in the groupchat-facetime-instagram era is so much higher than at any previous point in history. The ceiling is about the same, since then and now multiple generations often live under the same roof, but the floor is higher by orders of magnitude.

'26.2.8 宝山寺奥の院にて

雪降る朝。写真展の搬入があるのでいつもの奈良公園には行かずに近所の古刹へ。本堂を越えて奥の院に着くと、時折強風が吹いてぶわっと雪が打ち付けるように降ります。

寺猫さんも寒そうに「にゃあ～」と鳴いてややしかめっ面･･それでも近くでじっとしていると寄ってきて僕の足元をスリスリ。「寒いやんなぁ⛄」などと撫でつつ久しぶりの雪中撮影。

･･ということで、2/10から合同写真展です（PR😉）もう数回お知らせしましたが、しつこく告知😆

★G2.8写真展”断片集” No.31★

日程：2026.2.10(火）～2.15（日）12:00～19:00（2.15のみ17:00まで）

場所：同時代ギャラリー（京都三条 1928ビル２F）