Fortune Favors The Bold

Capitalism can still thrive with recycling in the mix. You buy Plastic Thing 1, throw it away after one use, and they take that and recycle it into Plastic Thing 2 and sell it back to you. All while continuing to harm the environment.

Reusing puts a damper on things. They can't sell you Plastic Thing 2 when you're still using Plastic Thing 1. Plastic forks, for example- there is literally no reason why you can't reuse plastic forks more than once (aside from maybe microplastics, but it's too late for that)

Reduce what you can

Reuse everything still in working order

Recirculate what you don’t need by sharing or selling onward

Refurbish what’s fallen out of good condition so it lasts longer

Repair what’s broken altogether

Repurpose what can’t serve its original function

Recycle what is unsuitable for repurposing

Growing up as an American who went to public school, my classmates and I were always taught the "peer pressure" and "social pressure" are overt. It's someone at a party holding a red solo cup saying "you're not cool unless you drink like the rest of us" or someone behind the bleachers with a join saying "you're a looser if you don't smoke weed".

And yeah, I'm sure this does happen sometimes, but in my experience peer pressure and social pressure is so much more subliminal, and in that way so much more insidious.

(I'm going to circle back around to spirituality, just lemme cook for a minute)

In college no one ever told me I should smoke cigarettes, but my roommate and friends always made time to take smoke breaks together and socialize. If I wanted to be as close to those friends, I either needed to smoke with them or to tag along on their smoke breaks - and if I tagged along, it was pretty noticeable that I was the only one not smoking or vaping.

No one ever told me I should smoke, no one ever told me that I couldn't hang out with them if I wasn't smoking, and no one ever pressured me to smoke in any way. In fact, when/if someone would occasionally offering me a cigarette, whenever I said no it was immediately respected and no one pressured me to say yes.

But all of this can still be seen as, however unintentional, peer pressure!

Because the smoking was so prevalent, so normalized, and also an activity shared by 90% of my social group at the time - it would've been very easy (and honestly very understandable) if I had started smoking.

Thankfully I have, to this day, never smoked a cigarette - and have only ever vaped a singular time with a non-nicotine cartridge. How did I manage this? I decided, long before I went to college, that I would never put nicotine in my body (how I got this strong conviction is a long story for another time).

BUT THE POINT IS (circling back to spirituality) - that no one has to outright tell you "You should do XYZ" or "your relationship with your gods should look like XYZ" for you to be surrounded and affected by subliminal peer pressure. If you're in a social space (whether digital or IRL) where 90% of the people around you are doing or saying the same thing, you're going to feel some kind of pressure to follow suit; even if you never actually do.

So with the internet soup that we are all swimming in, when something is popular or trendy or visible - that peer pressure is going to be there, even if no one is directly trying to influence you.

However - something that is so so important, is to remember how many pagans and witches don't post online - or don't even regularly use social media. What we see online is a very limited view of the wider community and culture that exists for pagans and witches.

I used to have a t-shirt as a kid that read "why fit in when you were born to stand out" - and honestly I think internalizing that sentiment can be pretty useful. At the end of the day you don't have to be like everybody else; you can appreciate the beauty of another person's practice without needing to change your own.

my hands only halfway remember the notes and patterns. it makes sense that, not two clunky songs in, my fingers begin to bruise from where her metal strings bite at their tips. there’s a shame there, and i wonder if Apollon would look down at my lack of practice— and at the weakness of my flesh.

it’s your nature. constantly renewing, constantly regenerating. a natural, mortal process.

you’re not disappointed that i’ve lost my callouses?

you won’t get them back by lamenting.

that much is true.

still, the guitar doesn’t leave my lap for another ten minutes, only two of which are actually spent creating any sound. mainly i just hold her. does she need to get used to my touch again, like i do hers? i named her thresher, like the shark; long and sleek and an iridescent deep blue. she could be brighter, so i’ll give her a cleaning soon.

the gods have had chronically ill worshippers for as long as they’ve had worshippers.

the gods have had neurodivergent worshippers for as long as they’ve had worshippers.

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: 1588, 1581, 1576, 1558

Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1972.118.178, 2000.346