The Writing Well

-What if they're alive?

-What if they're sentient?

-What if they don't realize they're hurting us?

-What if what hurts us is what they need to live?

-What if we can communicate with them?

Star Trek takes the situation of, "these computer bugs are eating our ship and in an hour we'll all be dead and we COULD just wipe them out utterly but...what if they're like us?" because the ramifications effect what risks we ourselves are willing to take in the name of pacifism and understanding. it says that even the smallest most immenently dangerous creature deserves as much of a chance to live peacefully as we can possibly give it through understanding.

So I would tell "BANANA!" which meant "we need to stop and have some time so I can calm down before continuing the conversation"

Bonus: it's very hard to stay angry if you just yelled the word Banana out of nowhere

It worked and I would take the time to try and calm down and regulate my emotions so I could respond appropriately

It's not a tool we have had to rely on for a long time but it absolutely saved our relationship and helped me learn to recognise and regulate my emotions better

At first, it started out as something for my friend to use when I was being a complete bitch as my brain saw the worst intentions in everything.  Or if they were tired from work and their brain wouldn’t brain right for conversations. And even when I was FURIOUS and wanted nothing more than to throw the worst insults I could at them, if they said the word then I disengaged.  I had to respect it, or I couldn’t expect them to take it seriously when I used it.

The safeword allowed us to claim time and space to recharge when we needed it.  It also helped me figure out WHEN I was flying off the handle, which helped me figure out the triggers for WHY.  I started using the safeword for myself, when I recognized my building anger.  I used it for my friend, as I started seeing when I drained their energy.

A 13-year-old girl speaking at the Grand Rapids City Commission meeting in regards to the murder of Patrick Lyoya

https://twitter.com/Imposter_Edits/status/1547364174124224521

Seek from iNaturalist is good, if limited, but dammit, I want REAL gamification. I want people to get a serious hit of dopamine from their citizen science. Especially plants.

I want to record sightings of ten different shrubs and BAM you get a Shrubasaur, but he’s not gonna evolve into Oakdaimon until you log fifty species of tree. I want obscure-ass Naturemon that only show up if you’ve successfully logged thirty species of nearly identical lichens. I want to walk into a swamp and find a gamer in hip waders grinding water bug IDs so that he can finally get Belostoman, the Toe-Cutter.

Then ideally I want to be able to battle other naturalists. I want to yell “Sedgizard, I choose you!” and have my opponent stare in mingled awe and horror, because bitch, it took me years to document three hundred native sedges, and NOW IT WILL EAT YOUR FACE.