tongue tied I can't get it right

Cat Comes to University Every Day So She Can Rescue Students with Cuddles

For years, the University of Augsburg in Bavaria, southern Germany, has played host to a very special visitor: a little ginger cat whose only mission is to give students soothing snuggles. She started popping on to campus when she was one year old, realised she liked hanging around with students, and has been paying the university a visit every day since then. Her owner lives just nearby and has no issue with the cat spending her days helping out the students, who call the cat Sammy or The Campus Cat. Sammy now knows many of the students, and will always run to them to sit on their lap and cuddle up. During each daily trip to the campus, Sammy enjoys lounging outside in the sun. But her favourite spot in the library, where she can check in on stressed out students revising for exams and offer support.

Photos by CampusCat Augsburg

shinysherlock:

So, my Dad is a 73-year-old Mexican man who has lived here since he was 16. He was in Watts during the riots in 1965; in 1992, when I was in LA, as soon as the Rodney King verdict was announced, he called me, told me what was coming, told me how to stay safe. He has survived horrible living conditions, being kidnapped, physical abuse, prejudice, discrimination. He learned English, got his green card, pays his taxes, works hard, and has three daughters. 

I thought he would be devastated today.

But he wasn’t.

He saw that I was sad and angry, and he asked me why, pretending he had no idea. I almost started crying. And then he said, “no se me chicopale.” 

It means, don’t lose heart. Don’t give in to despair.

I asked him why he wasn’t upset.

He said, basically, “The world has always been this way. There are always people who are afraid, who are racist, who are awful. This is not new. And it will never go away. He won. We can’t do anything about that. All we can do is what we can do. Fight for what matters to us. Take care of each other. And don’t lose heart. And here, I got these unsalted cashews for you and a bag of jamaica drink mix and can you show me how to use the new washing machine because it’s not working.”

And, for reasons I can’t articulate, I feel a little better. 

As a Jew who just spent two hours talking to a rabbi for the first time in thirty years, please give your dad a hug from me.

Tikun olam, the rabbi reminded me. Literally, it means world repair. It means we live in an imperfect world, and instead of looking to the Heaven of the next world, it’s our duty to be a light in THIS world – to protect those people who need our protection, to work for social justice, and to improve the world as a whole.

and finally after a series of unsuccessful and generally unmemorable clumsy pikachu ripoffs, nintendo comes out with a pokemon… whose entire concept is boldfacedly, ‘clumsy pikachu ripoff’

Figures dancing gracefully