From The Oatmeal, titled “America, you got this!”
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The gods demand sacrifice - and sustenance.
Ich kann gar nicht soviel fressen wie ich kotzen möchte.
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. Ich seufze.
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A friend posted this…oh, roughly 8 years ago.
Oh, my dear ones.
I know you were hoping
For a once-and-done.
For an earthquake,
A tidal wave.
Hoping that if we gave it our all,
A single push would be enough.
That after this, we could
Sink
Back into complacency,
Back into the comfort of our privilege.
I confess, in the secret corners of my heart,
I wanted to believe it could be that easy
That justice would emerge as from an egg
Fully grown
Not with wet down and weak wings…
But beloveds,
We are chipping away at a mountain,
Not a boulder.
Calcified structures
Created to oppress,
Control,
Kill.
Thousands of years with this stupid idea
That some are more worthy,
Some deserve power by virtue of who they are
What they look like
Which tribe they claim.
Erosion is slow work, sweethearts.
Celebrate the progress
The triumphs.
Celebrate also the heartbreaking almosts.
Breathe.
Rest for a time.
Then get up and turn again toward kindness,
Toward your neighbor in need,
Toward those who are still trapped in the stone.
Tell them, “I won’t give up.”
Tell them, “I am with you.”
Tell them, “For you, I will learn to eat rocks.”
"For you, I will keep chewing, keep grinding,
Until the mountain crumbles to dust."
(Elizabeth Stevens)
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Thanks for posting this. This may become my new mantra.
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Some days you’re the bug, others, the windshield.
Just keep on keepin’ on, regardless.
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I am continually amazed at the number of people who prefer quantity over quality.
It could be (and usually is) about food, such as Olive Garden’s give me ALL THE PASTA IN THE WORLD FOR $10!, or a massive chicken parmigiana the size of your head drowned in sauce and cheese that will feed a family of four. A calzone that is the length of my arm, or a massive 2 lb. Tomahawk steak with a baked potato the size of Rob Gronkowski’s hand (which is why he was so good at catching Tom Brady’s passes!) Ummm, yeah - that’s no from me, dawg. The older I get, the more I prefer much much MUCH smaller portions, or tapas-style when I eat out. Let me try different tastes of things. Also, a personal bugaboo - slow the hell down when you eat - it’s not a freaking race!
It could be having the most number of friends on social media. People you don’t actually know. Yeah, no thanks. I’ll keep mine culled to a nice small number - people I actually know, online friends I actually like from various food groups or other places where I’ve met them IRL or online and I trust them.
It could be having their kids participating in seventy-leven different extracurricular activities. And yes, I’m aware that some of those activities are good for the kids, building confidence and enhancing their self-esteem, as well as amping up their “resume” to get in to college, but there are those that do so to the extreme and schedule every hour of every day. Just allow the kids to sit and read (and get them loving reading early on in life!) or just let them be kids and play and think for themselves.
It’s sometimes about marketing - you hear on the radio (if you still listen to it, which I do) the same…damn…ad every commercial break OR see the same damn medication commercial every commercial break on TV. STOPPIT. But that’s marketing for you - repeat it so many damn times, people will think of it or believe it’s what you need. We just went through a spate of that with other types of ads, didn’t we?
Or constant posts online about everything and nothing, just to post. It’s not a contest. Yeah, I get it - I post here and on FB, but some people (seem to) post constantly and I have to minimize their comments for awhile. Who knows - maybe this post is one of them for other people. LOL
I’ve picked up reading a LOT more since COVID, so I went the exact opposite as so many others who were watching countless hours of shows on TV; I stopped watching TV and got back to an early love of reading. I sit in silence - no radio, no background TV. I read.
There seems to be a FOMO if you’re not participating in every thing at every moment of every day. Sometimes shutting off is the way to go.
Less is more.
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Quality > quantity for me, in all regards.
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Ima fast eater, I’m afraid to say 
I prefer my hot foods hot and my cold foods cold, so it’s a race against time for optimal eating temp 
I’m more talking about shovelers. There’s one here at my workplace. He literally leans over his plate or bowl and shovels the food in to his mouth and barely takes a breath. It’s exhausting to watch.
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Oh. Ew. I relish every single, yet lightning-fast bite 
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I frequently eat fast because I’m still in “rush mode” from wanting to get food on the table. If I serve but walk away for a couple of minutes to slow my pace down, I eat more slowly.
Envy is the sincerest and saddest form of flattery.
Envy is a huge waste of time.
Couldn’t agree more.
Amen, sista!
My two adult children are ‘fast eaters’, still. Their father and I must have totally disturbed them at the dinner table with our deliberate and leisurely eating style.
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While this is happening more so ATM than usual (to distract from the world or what have you), I often get the impression that some folks use the internet as a type of online journal.
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