profoundlycolorfulthings

[profoundlycolorfulthings]

to succeed in adult friendship you must remember the key tenets of child friendship:

Play Toys

Play Pretend

Snack Time

[profoundlycolorfulthings]

READ A BOOK ToDAY

[profoundlycolorfulthings]

Crazyheadcomics

[profoundlycolorfulthings]

[profoundlycolorfulthings]

[profoundlycolorfulthings]

This comic was inspired by a post that I cannot find [redacted rant about how much tumblr's search function is the closest there is tho pure evil]. So you know, if anyone has that post hand it I will actually make you a silly litltle doodle.

[profoundlycolorfulthings]

Every time Sean Astin makes a statement on whether or not Sam and Frodo were indeed gay for each other in lord of the rings he’s always like “well we have to acknowledge that attitudes around sexuality have changed dramatically over the past several decades and since authorial intent is only up to speculation, the story is open to multiple readings, some of which might have different significances for different groups of people also they kiss on the lips because I said so”

[profoundlycolorfulthings]

Nothing I’ve read has changed me more than “you do people a favor by accepting their help” like I repeat this constantly to so many people because it’s true!!! People like to feel useful, they like to feel kind, they like to feel like they have an ability to impact people’s lives so just let them!! Not everything is a thing to be owed back — accept people’s kindness without making a competition out of it

[profoundlycolorfulthings]

Whenever you're clashing with some particular system, I've found that though you've got a lot of choices in how you're going to respond to that, they mostly fall under the two categories of "fight from outside" or "fight from inside," and I think that people don't consider/value the latter as much as they should.

While taking a stand against anything takes courage, I think it's a lot easier to encounter something you hate and decide "I don't want a damn thing to do with this," which feeds into the "fight from outside" perspective. That's definitely a valid approach, especially if whatever is going on is so wrong to you that morally, you can't stand to touch it with a ten foot pole, OR you're not super proficient at hiding your emotions (i.e. people within the system would spot you as a dissident immediately).

The idea of "fight from inside" works when you encounter something you hate, and you have the patience/emotional discipline to say to yourself "I want to understand this further," which doesn't always make sense to people on the outside, but it's about information/resource gathering. Ex: When I was having all my conflicts with my college science department, people kept asking me why I was getting more and more involved in the department. Like if you hate it so much here, why did you sign up to work in a lab? Why TA a course you HATED? Why keep arguing with people? Why extend your graduation date? Why take on all these projects while you're stressed to breakdown about class? Just get out!!! And though that was a form of kindness - people trying to illustrate to me that what I was choosing to do seemed like a huge weight for someone already having a bad time - it also has the undertone of "If you don't like it, leave," which is great for situations you can't do anything to change, but I kept getting more involved specifically because I believed in my ability to change things.

I was getting more involved because I felt change was most possible from the inside - knowing more people, knowing more about department culture and resources, knowing how things work. I decided to TA a class I hated because I believed in my ability to make the class better for people. I had control during my section, so I could create a better environment. It resonated with students. They left me stellar reviews, and long story short, a lot of stuff I did to make things easier to understand and less stressful became requirements of TA's the next semester. You can't argue with results; my students were happy AND well prepared for their exams. I proved it was possible.

Additionally, because of my involvement, I got benefits that helped me a lot with other projects - like 24 hr swipe access to two whole buildings that allowed me to come in and start projects when there were fewer people around to question me before I was finished (ex: I installed house plants and blankets in the department to make the place less sterile, and I felt most comfortable doing that when everyone was gone for the day so that they'd just come back and react to it when it was done instead of raising a bunch of objections before even seeing the full effect).

"Fight from outside" and "fight from inside" are both valid and essential approaches to activism, but you have to make the personal judgment of which one best fits your skills, emotions, and particular fight. Like joining the police to try to fight them from the inside? Probably not going to work even if you're great at concealing your feelings and could get more information this way. On the flip side, if I'd changed my major and tried to fight the science department from an entirely different department, I probably would have had much less success just because I wouldn't have had the level of knowledge and access that I gained by getting more involved in things.

Also to be clear, when I say that "fight from inside" requires more emotional discipline, I'm not trying to imply that that's the approach that a more mature or "better" person will take. Sometimes if you're super passionate about something, you're not going to be able to hide that for the purpose of information gathering, and you just need to know which issues that applies to for you. Ex: I could keep my head down long enough to get deep into my department and degree before launching my efforts to change the culture, but I probably would not be able to keep up the facade necessary to join the Republican National Committee, no matter what kind of useful info I could obtain from that for activist purposes. It's just about knowing the limits of your patience.

[profoundlycolorfulthings]

[profoundlycolorfulthings]

Why did you give the last of your food to that poorly disguised mimic? You were finally at peace with letting go, but now this odd thing won’t leave you alone and is even turning itself into various items in an attempt to aid you.

[profoundlycolorfulthings]

During the 2008 recession, my aunt lost her job. Her, her partner, and my three cousins moved across the country to stay with us while they got back on their feet. My house turned from a family of four to a family of nine overnight, complete with three dogs and five cats between us.

It took a few years for them to get a place of their own, but after a few rentals and apartments, they now own a split level ranch in a town nearby. I’ve lost track of how many coworkers and friends have stayed with them when they were in a tight spot. A mother and son getting out of an abusive relationship, a divorcee trying to stay local for his kids while they work out a custody agreement, you name it. My aunt and uncle knew first hand what that kindness meant, and always find space for someone who needed it, the way my parents had for them.

That same aunt and uncle visited me in [redacted] city last year. They are prolific drinkers, so we spent most of the day bar hopping. As we wandered the city, any time we passed a homeless person, my uncle would pull out a fresh cigarette and ask them if they had a light. Regardless of if they had a lighter on hand or not, he offered them a few bucks in exchange, which he explained to me after was because he felt it would be easier for them to accept in exchange for a service, no matter how small.

I work for a company that produces a lot of fabric waste. Every few weeks, I bring two big black trash bags full of discarded material over to a woman who works down the hall. She distributes them to local churches, quilting clubs, and teachers who can use them for crafts. She’s currently in the process of working with our building to set up a recycling program for the smaller pieces of fabric that are harder to find use for.

One of my best friends gives monthly donations to four or five local organizations. She’s fortunate enough to have a tech job that gives her a good salary, and she knows that a recurring donation is more valuable to a non-profit because they can rely on that money month after month, and can plan ways to stretch that dollar for maximum impact. One of those organizations is a native plant trust, and once she’s out of her apartment complex and in a home with a yard, she has plans to convert it into a haven of local flora.

My partner works for a company that is working to help regulate crypto and hold the current bad actors in the space accountable for their actions. We unfortunately live in a time where technology develops far too fast for bureaucracy to keep up with, but just because people use a technology for ill gain doesn’t mean the technology itself is bad. The blockchain is something that she finds fascinating and powerful, and she is using her degree and her expertise to turn it into a tool for good.

I knew someone who always had a bag of treats in their purse, on the odd chance they came across a stray cat or dog, they had something to offer them.

I follow artists who post about every local election they know of, because they know their platform gives them more reach than the average person, and that they can leverage that platform to encourage people to vote in elections that get less attention, but in many ways have more impact on the direction our country is going to go.

All of this to say, there’s more than one way to do good in the world. Social media leads us to believe that the loudest, the most vocal, the most prolific poster is the most virtuous, but they are only a piece of the puzzle. (And if virtue for virtues sake is your end goal, you’ve already lost, but that’s a different post). Community is built of people leveraging their privileges to help those without them. We need people doing all of those things and more, because no individual can or should do all of it. You would be stretched too thin, your efforts valiant, but less effective in your ambition.

None of this is to encourage inaction. Identify your unique strengths, skills, and privileges, and put them to use. Determine what causes are important to you, and commit to doing what you can to help them. Collective action is how change is made, but don’t forget that we need diversity in actions taken.

[profoundlycolorfulthings]

Just want every young person terrified of becoming older than 23-25 to know that I'm currently 32 and my 20s were fucking miserable and while life isn't wholly perfect right now I wouldn't trade my 30s for my 20s for the LIFE of me. The idea feels as ridiculous as trading my 20s for being in high school. FUCK no. And I'm sure at 42 I'll feel similarly to my 30s and so on and so forth. Embrace the passage of time and be grateful that you get the privilege of growing old, bitch. Life's sooooo much better past your mid 20s.

[profoundlycolorfulthings]

close-ups of a commission i did a while back! 🌱

instagram | shop | commission info

[profoundlycolorfulthings]

"If the Hargreeves had phones every season would end in two episodes!" Babe if there were cell phones in the Umbrella Academy it would be so much worse. Not a single person in that house is capable of conveying information in a coherent manner. Diego has them all blocked. Viktor only listens to his voicemail in bulk once a month. Five developed his own shorthand during the apocalypse that he truly thinks is coherent to other human beings (it is not). Luther, by nature of who he is, absolutely Does Not Text for any reason and keeps calling the others. Klaus is carrying at least four conversations in the same thread at any given point in time. Even if they all managed to remember that they owned phones (unlikely) and then proceeded to convey relevant information in a timely fashion (even less likely), not a single one of them would figure it out. Allison could probably muster the braincells necessary but would not under any circumstances manage to stay on task long enough to do anything about it. Phones would absolutely not help with anything at all.

[profoundlycolorfulthings]

kinder than man, athea davis

[profoundlycolorfulthings]

Ao3 is actually massively culturally important and very very good at being what it is. I’m so serious when I say that ao3 needs to be protected as the anti censorship, by fans for fans, nonprofit, volunteer run, expertly designed archival site that it is. You don’t have to read or like fanfiction to understand that on principle, ao3 is a site that should be defended.