Hestia Luna

The way Kurosawa encouraged Adachi to apply for the contest really struck a cord on me, because he's exactly the kind of support someone as anxious as Adachi is, needs. He's not saying "Go for it, I know you can do it!" Or "Do it for me, I want to see you happy!" Not even "I'll support you, so do it" which people usually think is a great way to encourage others to take a step forward, and it may be nice and actually helpful for some people but in my experience, it is not when you're already anxious and insecure.

It puts a weight in your chest because now you're also scared of letting that trust down. You're scared they're going to finally realise you're a disappointment. And it may actually drive you to do the thing just to not let down others, leaving no choice for you do it because it's something you'll like to do.

So, when Kurosawa says "It might be none of my business, but you looked interested. Why don't you give it a tought?" He's not telling Adachi to do the ting, he's not pushing him to the edge, he's being almost nonchalant about it while still supportive, and man does that make a difference! I'm fully projecting here but bare with me, at this point Adachi is panicking, that's the tilting point where you don't know where you're standing, if this is going to actually take place or you'll just forget about it and act like nothing happened while it eats at you from the inside.

Then Kurosawa says "If you take part, I'll be rooting for you all the way!" Still, he's not telling Adachi what to do, just leaving the opportunity open and then assuring him that no matter what, he'll stay by his side. "If" it's the key point, and the Kurosawa turns away. He's not expecting an answer, not putting implicit expectations on Adachi either. It's simply a "Hey, you looked interested in this so I got more info for you. What you want for dinner?" It's all up to Adachi, no expectations to met, no one that's waiting for something from him.

[image of woman in suit with scarf, subtitled: “That’s not true.”

It was very hot outside the second time I went to see Ghostbusters, so @hestialuna and I decided to spend the rest of the day parked in front of the AC unit in my room drinking beer and watching every single Kate McKinnon video we could find on youtube. It was the right choice.

Some people wanted me to share my faves and tumblr seems like the place to do it, so here you go:

Ghosts of Christmas Past

Hillary Clinton Bar Talk

McKinnon as Justin Bieber

McKinnon as Ellen with Ellen

McKinnon as Ellen with Ellen A SECOND TIME

- Starbucks actually did the hard work of figuring out how to donate perishable food in a foodsafe way.

- 500 elephants were relocated to a better, safer and bigger home.

- “Unadoptable” cats (who are usually killed) may have a really important place in the world in their traditional area of work, given we’re thinking maybe poisoning stuff all over the place is a bad plan.

- We made massive strides in Alzheimers’ prevention.

- We found out that the ozone layer is repairing itself and that all the work we did to get rid of those aerosol chemicals was actually worth it.

- This therapy could cure radiation sickness.

- The Anglican church resolved to solemnize same-sex unions the same as opposite-sex unions, which required a super-majority of all three orders of the church (lay, clergy, bishop) and got MORE than that from both lay and bishop.

- The Rabbinical Assembly issued a resolution affirming the rights of transgender and non-conforming individuals.

- The Liberal gov’t changed the Canada Child Benefit so that it’s actually helping people who NEED THE FUCKING HELP. (I am sorry if you are a six figure income you do not actually fucking need this make some fucking lifestyle adjustments for fuck’s sake.)

- Highway of Tears is finally getting some regular fucking bus service.

- Eastwood donated a bunch more land to the Carmel River restoration project.

- We have developed gene-therapy for autoimmune disorders.

- Precision treatments for cancer are hitting clinical trials and WORKING.

- Dentists are once again providing free care to veterans who need it.

- The Anglican bishop on the Islands made an Eastern pilgrimage walking from Alert Bay to Victoria to stop at every First Nations community and personally, unequivocally apologize for his church’s involvement in fucking them up.

- Canada is actively attempting to increase and improve refugee resettlement.

- It has been determined that the manatee population has bounced back so much (500%) that it can be moved from “endangered” to “threatened”.

- This guy got to see his kids again.

- The Orlando Shakespeare Festival showed up with angel wings to block funeral-goer’s view of hate group so they wouldn’t be disrupted.

- Net Neutrality has been upheld by the appeals court. (No that fight isn’t over BUT THIS IS STILL A FUCK OF A GOOD THING.)

- We may have cured MS. (LET ME REPEAT: WE MAY HAVE CURED MS.)

- New short-treatment-period cure for HepC is huge success.

- Rise Women’s Legal Centre opened.

… . and this is just what I came up with in a pretty lazy google search in an hour, including distractions where I went down the research rabbit-hole for a bit because holy crap some of that stuff’s NEAT, guys!

And I know I’m missing stuff, because I wanted a citation for every single thing I put on there.

Yes, there have been some really bad things that have happened in 2016. There have also been a number of huge fucking miracles, and SIMILAR bad things have always happened, just about every damn year - maybe not to you, or maybe they didn’t make the news, and maybe you just don’t remember any of the good because of that whole massive Negative Bias problem that human brains have, but?

A lot of good shit happened. A lot.

And like I do actually get the sudden overwhelmed feeling of EVERYTHING SUCKS? but that mindset is, at this point, literally our worst enemy. “Everything is terrible somebody do something” helplessness is what will in fact consign us to everything BEING terrible. 

Everything is not terrible. In fact there are new ways, every single month, wherein new opportunities and miracles are happening and no that does not balance out the bad shit but it gives every reason to FIGHT the bad shit, and to get past the bad shit, and to make sure the bad shit ISN’T the overwhelming stain.