Patron Saint of Struggle

had to look this up bc I thought it was a joke

I love the Google Doc Callout because it's such a delightfully stupid modern day phenomenon borne not merely from inability to hash out interpersonal disputes in private but the cloying need to have an entire audience on one's side to validate one's feelings. Months and months of pent up anger and insecurity finally exploding in one cathartic, incoherent 200 page document where you have to simultaneously contextualize your friendship and defend your position because somehow this is easier than you and another person just sitting down and going "Hey. This made me uncomfortable, can we talk about it?" (And of course nowadays, disagreements are a numbers game. The correct party is whoever has the most people in support of them)

I also feel like this is a natural byproduct of what happens when you and your friendship gets publicized even within a small online sphere where interpersonal disputes aren't allowed to remain private, because everybody feels bafflingly entitled to knowing the details (specifically, who is The Bad Guy in the dispute, because there must be one). I understand that when you have a spotlight on you, no matter how small, there is a pressure to vomit out an explanation about why you are no longer talking to this person and why you're in the right for it. And when both of you have access to the same free Google Suite, obviously there's a need to rush and get your own document out asap because God forbid the other person pulls the trigger first.

This tradition of depicting Hercules as Buddha’s bodyguard started in the Greco-Bactrian kingdom of Gandhara, a part of Northern India conquered by Alexander the Great. This is important because Gandhara just happens to be the place Buddhism spread to the far east (it’s “the west” in the famous Chinese novel Journey to the West). 

Hercules acquired a scary, bestial mien and thunderbolt swords in Asia via association with Buddhist guardian monsters, the Vajrapani, who had the traditional job of protecting the Buddha. Hercules and the Vajrapani were confused with each other and traits of one rubbed off on the other. This slowly transformed him into a thunderer all the way to Japan and Vietnam.