Crumpled page of Poetry

Women's Day has been so heavily co-opted by bourgeois feminism but let's never forget that it originated from the labor movement under the organization of socialists like Theresa Malkiel and Clara Zetkin. It was always meant to be the International WORKING Women's Day.

Theresa Malkiel was a Jewish refugee & sweatshop worker turned head of the Socialist Party of America's Women's National Committee, and Clara Zetkin was a prominent leader of the German socialist movement.

It was a Women's Day gathering in Petrograd that snowballed into the Russian Revolution, a fact often erased.

as long as you smile and nod, people are satisfied. it’s just to show that you are nice and there with good intentions. we’re small in a big world and have to rely on other people to be decent to us. so we do our little human dance to each other to say, “i’m not here to hurt you. here’s something we have in common, like the weather or sports or itchy sweaters, so we both know we’re on the same team. we both agree on a basic fact, like that it is rainy or that being itchy is uncomfortable, and this proves we can get along. i’m being light-hearted and non-threatening right now.”

small talk isn’t to get to know a person. it’s just a greeting to affirm you’re buddies in the universe.

"I truly do not want to go" and

Loads of people in the tags are asking how I do it? I feel this won't be groundbreaking advice, but here is what I have learned:

Previous experience. Really no way around it. Now that I hit thirty, I feel like I have done enough things to know, intellectually, from experience, what will feel nice if I overcome the avoidance, and what won't. For example, every time I go to the beach, I wake up early and would rather eat a tire than get off the bed. But I remember that every time I got up and went to the beach, I was glad I did it. So I just get up, feeling like shit, and get ready, feeling like shit, and I get to the beach and magic!! I feel great, I love the beach!! Sometimes you just gotta do it scared feeling kinda like shit.

Am I avoiding the thing or getting to the thing? I have a lot of demand avoidance around just, y'know, getting up, getting ready and going out the door. Universal human experience. If I notice that doing the actual thing (Swim in the pool!) sounds nice, but I'm avoiding having to rally myself to go do that (Fetch swimsuit! Sunscreen! Towel!), then I know it's demand avoidance and I should just fucking go.

Is the thing making me feel excited at all or just anxious? I have had previous occasions when I did the opposite; I convinced myself it was just demand avoidance when I really just. Hated the thing. And wanted to stop. If you feel a mix of excitement and dread, or excitement and anxiety, that might be demand avoidance. But if thinking of doing the thing just makes you feel actively anxious, then yeah. You don't want to do the thing.

न विज्ञानापेक्षा शशिमुखि सुखेच्छापि न पुनः ।

अतस्त्वां संयाचे जननि जननं यातु मम वै

मृडानी रुद्राणी शिव शिव भवानीति जपतः ॥८॥

Meaning:

8.1: (O Mother) I do not have the desire for Moksha, Neither have I the desire for Worldly Fortune,

8.2: Neither do I long for Worldly Knowledge, O Shashi Mukhi (The Moon-Faced One); I do not have the desire for enjoying the Worldly comforts again,

8.3: Henceforth I implore You, O Mother, May You direct my life towards,

8.4: (The string of Your Holy Names) Mridani Rudrani Shiva Shiva Bhavani; May my future life be spent in performing Japa of Your Holy Names.

- Devi Aparadh Kshamapan Stotra

Happy Durga Navami!!! ❤️