look at the skill and spirit

the grammarian Aelius Herodianus in the 2nd century CE writes "οἱ δὲ Αἰολεῖς... ποθέω ποθήω οἷον καὶ ποθήω καὶ μάομαι", which means "and the Aeolians... [spell] potheō 'I long' as pothēō, for example, 'and I long and I seek'"

and the scholars look at that and say "the dialect sounds like Sappho and Alcaeus, and those four words sound like the sort of thing that Sappho would write" and they slap a fragment number on it and say that that's Sappho Fragment 36

and Dan Beachy-Quick translates it "and longingly I long and searchingly I search…"

and different people do different things with those four words and some of what they write is good poetry and someone on instagram attributes "longingly I long and searchingly I search" to Sappho

@kallistoi i really appreciate your making this point!

as you might imagine from my description of the scholarly practice of compiling fragments in this post, i do think that the work of "sappho" as we know it is a construction of not only literary translators but also scholars and the ancient textual tradition itself. this body of work was very likely not all composed by the same author, and the ancient editors who assembled it may also have had inclusion criteria like "well, the dialect is aeolic and the subject matter sounds kind of feminine". (a version of this also applies to every other archaic greek poet and every other fragmentary writer.)

In the US today, around a quarter to a third of aides and caregivers for the elderly are immigrants [1, 2], the vast vast majority of whom are women. (From what I can tell) a major reason for this is that nursing or social work degrees/certification programs provide a straightforward (well, relatively) pathway to citizenship or permanent residency; and many simpler caregiver jobs only require a high school diploma, which is useful for immigrants in the US who may not be able to attend college. While I'm sure many of these workers have a sincere passion for caregiving, in a world without severe immigration restrictions and these obvious pipelines the numbers would not be this skewed. I do not think most of these people would put these careers as their first choice.

For starters, they do not pay very much. Average base salary on Indeed for caregiver jobs was $16.83 an hour. For seconders, how often have you had to deal with older relatives making sexist, racist, or otherwise uncomfortable comments at family gatherings? Frankly, lot of old people suck to be around! So do a lot of mentally ill people! Mentally ill old people (so, a lot of the ones receiving home care or living in facilities) can extra suck to be around!! Sexual harassment, violence, and abuse towards workers is common in home care and facilities. [1, 2, 3]. Many caregivers of color experience racism from coworkers, patients, or patients families. Now, many of these people are not fully in control of their thoughts or actions (hence why they require care). And even if they were, being a racist abusive serial harasser doesn't mean somebody deserves to be tortured or medically neglected or left to die.

1- most of the people in caregiver jobs currently are not people who can really have their pick of whatever careers they desire. This is relevant because people often bring up "care provided for people who need it regardless of their sociability" in the context of like, what we as a society should work towards as an ideal. But in an ideal world, how many people would choose the career path of "care for the assholes nobody wants to deal with"?

2- many healthcare workers are nonwhite and experience racial harassment

As a former music teacher, I can also say that "learn the fundamentals first" is the death knell for a vast percentage of beginners, especially adult learners.

I've run into this with drawing several times, where some well-meaning artist has lectured me on needing to study anatomy properly or not use shortcuts like CSP brushes. And oh, believe me, I know. I know exactly how to learn an artistic discipline in a structured way. I just...don't want to!

The thing is, I'm not aiming to be a professional artist. I want to draw my gay little anime guys. I would undoubtedly improve at art much faster if I approached every gay little anime guy drawing as a study exercise. But I would also have quit drawing a decade ago if I couldn't just let myself enjoy drawing imperfect fucked-up little guys with whatever shortcuts I needed to body myself across the finish line.

With my adult piano students, my approach was always "What's your goal?" If their goal was to learn exactly one Elton John songbook to play at parties, then...that's what we did. We'd put tape on the keys to label the notes, and just fuckin go for it. Learning exactly one Elton John songbook is a good and noble musical goal, full stop.

Some of my students needed and enjoyed a more structured approach to learning; if they wanted to be able to play classical music, then yes, scales were going to have to enter the equation at some point. And yet others would learn the Elton John songbook, catch their white whale, and realize they wanted to explore more of the ocean. The scales were still there for them to learn!

Often the choice isn't between "learn art well" and "learn art imperfectly" - the choice is between "learn art imperfectly" and "don't do art at all." To which I say, learn imperfectly! Or, what the hell, don't 'learn' art. Just do, and enjoy the doing of it.

How to see whether a Chinese handmade teapot is well done or not - quality of the spout is an important standard. 

“One of the issues with which many abuse survivors struggle on a daily basis, in just about every relationship, is compliance. When you are abused as a child, you learn all too well that you have no choice in what happens to you. Like it or not, you must comply with the demands of another person. Your body is not your own; your wishes and needs don’t count.

“As an adult, you may find that it is difficult to say ‘no’ to people who make requests, even when you know you don’t want to do what is asked. Instead of saying ‘no’ or negotiating mutually acceptable solutions, you may go ahead anyway and become resentful or angry with the other person or yourself. Because of this tendency, it is helpful to develop ways to “buy time” and give yourself a chance to think of what you want to do or say.

“A good way to buy time for yourself is to respond to most requests with comments such as, ‘I need to think about it and get back to you,’ ‘I need to sleep on it,’ ‘I’ll get back to you later.’ Without being rude, you have given yourself some space within which to bring your adult self to the fore, instead of responding automatically in ways you had to as a child. The sense of control that comes when you are able to buy time is very satisfying, even thought i maybe accompanied–at first–by guilt or fear.

“What’s important to tell yourself is that, even if the other person continues to push you, you have a right to take some time to decide if you want to honor any request or offer that may come your way. You may have had no choice as a child, but now, as a grownup, you can politely insist on some time to think things over. In time, and with practice, you can discover how good it feels to respond to the demands and needs of others in a way that feels good to you and that is free from the old feeling of ‘no escape.’“