There's Beauty in the World

Gandalf: *hurriedly glances at Thranduil. the king of Mirkwood’s eyes shine with curiosity and greed, but not recognition, nor the terrible lust that overtook Feanor and his sons. right, right, he was never in Thingol’s court while the jewel that Luthien and Beren took was there. we’re good. we’re good for now*

Gandalf: [mental image of a goddam Silmaril in hobbit hands, labelled “thisfuckingrockagain.jpg”]

Galadriel, who watched 95% of her family slaughter everyone within 100 miles for several thousand years over these things, including each other and themselves: no.

Elrond, who was very nearly one of those people slaughtered, and did watch most of his town be killed before he and his twin were kidnapped for a while: Absolutely Fucking Not.

Gandalf: Apparently fucking yes. The legendary Arkenstone-

Galadriel: You’ve got to be kidding me.

Elrond: Thorin Oakenshield has a Silmaril right now?

Gandalf: No, no.

Gandalf: Bilbo stole it.

Elrond: *wordless sputtering*

Gandalf: @Galadriel [information packet: BilboBagginsoftheShire.pdf]

Galadriel: Oh yes, Belladonna’s boy, you were telling me about him last winter. 

Galadriel: Btw, orc+warg army probably coming your way. Spotted it in the mirror last night. Thank goodness we dealt with Dol Goldur at least, huh?

Gandalf: [thisfuckingrockagain.jpg]

Gandalf: [oncomingorcwargarmy.jpg]

Like.....

Like he genuinely does go through this fun little progression. Season 4 kind of surprised me on rewatch because I didn’t remember how much Cas just kind of, doesn’t register the (to him) weird incomprehensible shit Dean says. He does not engage with it, it just kind of slides right off him as he keeps trying to have the conversation he’s supposed to be having. He engages a little bit with metaphors and mirroring Dean’s language in moments of connection (”I am not a hammer as you say”) but mostly you just hear a faint wooshing noise as things sail over his head and he studiously ignores him. In season five when he’s actually all in on team Winchester, that’s when he starts actively questioning them and trying to understand them. He tells them when he doesn’t know what they’re talking about (”I don’t understand that reference.”), asks questions (”Who’s Glen Close?”), and tries to interpret them to the best of his ability, which often involves taking things very much at face value because he has no other option (”God’s not on any flatbread.”)

Season 6 is an extension of that, he’s getting better at understanding and communicating with them and he’s clearly making an active effort. Coming to head with the Superman going Dark Side line which is expertly designed to punish me specifically and make me feel bad and terrible and have to pause the episode and go do something else for a while. (He’s making a JOKE! He’s ECHOING THEM! He wants to Understand and be Understood by them so badly that it undoes everything he worked for!!! Kill me!!!)

Season 7 has Honey Cas who is no longer making any effort to be coherent even to himself. He is speaking nonsense and I love him, and this is kind of something that ends up carried forward a little bit in Cas’ characterization even after this era is over. This is when Cas starts Really starts just saying stuff and he never really stops. It’s not all about trying to fit his mode of communication to other people’s anymore, now people have to make the effort to understand Cas because he has got shit to Say.

Which brings us to season 8, he is now familiar enough with human interaction to participate casually and easily and he is also always doing it wrong. It’s amazing. He understands human connection but not human convention. A waitress comments that he likes coffee and he just starts telling her about when humanity first discovered it. This is a bizarre conversation for the waitress but also totally normal in terms of the broad strokes of how conversations work. The waitress makes small talk about the food and you chat back about your meal, maybe you tell her where the best version of it you ever had was, or why it’s your favourite, or how someone you know makes it in a real specific way.

This is diner small talk, Cas is following the social convention perfectly except that he’s an immortal being who does not eat and so his anecdote is off the wall bizarre. But he’s never going to be anything other than completely genuine about that because the whole point is being genuine! The whole point is he is sharing something about himself with this stranger, he’s not going to make it up, he’s going to tell her about how early humans chewed on the berries to get their caffeine, and they learned it from watching goats.

You're not alone...

Let’s imagine labor in exchange for value that increases our life span, our joy, our humanity. Working because the work is GOOD and the work makes GOOD and does GOOD. That every job has dignity and value, and is treated with respect. 

Let’s imagine systems in place judged by how they serve EVERYONE, not on how much profit they generate. 

Imagine Amazon’s infrastructure dedicated to thrifting, warehouses filled with closed-loop clothing and repairable technology, warehouse workers’ labor treated as skilled and respected as stewards of our resources. 

Let’s imagine infinitely accessible public transportation. Municipal fleets of electric vehicles in the rural areas and far suburbs, trams and trolleys and buses closer to urban centers, trains crossing swaths of country to connect people across the land. Every mile of road or track there’s a wildlife crossing, no more deer or raccoons or rabbits dead on the side of the road. 

Let’s imagine no landlords. Let’s imagine housing as a DIGNITY rather than a luxury. 

Let’s imagine people amassing too much wealth by mistake and being EMBARRASSED about it, because it is embarrassing to have so much, like a child who won’t share their toys. They hurry to give it away, they compete to build libraries and better schools and erase medical debts and fund arts initiatives. 

Let’s imagine kindness. Let’s imagine every parent attending their trans or gay child’s wedding. Let’s imagine disabilities honored, space made for different needs and abilities and preferences. Let’s imagine apologies, and reconciliations, and new understanding, and deep breaths and long hugs. 

Let’s imagine accessible playgrounds at every train station. Solar panels on every roof. Community gardens on every block. 

Let’s imagine learning things because we want to learn them, and honoring knowledge because knowledge is good, not because it’ll make us money. It is good to know that our bones are made of carbon, which is the same thing as stardust, or that the mantis shrimp can see colors that I can’t, or that wolves love their grandparents, or that whales mourn, or that trees talk through lightning sent underground through mushrooms, even though none of it will ever make me a dime. 

Let’s imagine teaching gardening, beekeeping, animal husbandry, forestry, sustainable materials, and responsible stewardship of resources as classes in school. You learn math, and language arts, and music, and also how to plant a raspberry vine, find a queen bee, feed a baby goat, identify sick and healthy trees, fix your clothing, and carefully use and reuse things, from kindergarten until you’re 18. 

Let’s imagine countries competing to GROW and EXPAND their rainforests. 

Let’s imagine whole species coming back, raising our children to know and love the sea turtles, the rhinos, the tigers and the condors. 

Let’s imagine every human fed, no child knowing the sound of a gunshot indoors, and every need met.