Today I'm here to traumatize you with something probably not so groundbreaking but!! It broke my mind!! So I'm gonna share
I've been thinking about the sentence "you said 'trust me'" and why it felt a bit strange. Like, sure, Crowley trusts Aziraphale. We know that, we know Aziraphale knows that, they say it explicitly for once, so what is the matter
Well, the matter is that Aziraphale asked Crowley to trust him, like it was Aziraphale shooting the shot, but in reality we know it was Crowley the one with the loaded gun
So what was Crowley trusting?
Well, Crowley was trusting Aziraphale, who in return was trusting Crowley with his - technically only corporal - life.
Now, aside for the entire ordeal of not being actually dead only discorporated and ecc ecc, let's speak symbolism
Because in my humble opinion, this is the closest thing we have to an admission of feelings from both of them.
On one side, we have Aziraphale - who is having a quite exciting night between the nazis, the show, the miracle not working, the hots for his knight in a shining armor - who is saying "I know for sure you will never hurt me, you'll find a way, everything will be fine"
If we ever gonna get Aziraphale admitting he's lost his faith, I believe he's gonna recall this moment. He's not praying God, he's on his own, and he's not afraid
(what was it? Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me)
On the other side, Crowley is just having a nightTM: saving their angel in distress (nice), him being grateful (NICE), contraband gone wrong (less nice), flirting with the angel (I don't know how else to call it)(niiice)
A normal tuesday.
Then, the miracle stopped working and they are on their own and they're pointing a loaded gun to their angel and oh boy things are going south fastly. The camera does a great amazing job in expressing how stressed Crowley feels with the trembling and the movement, just right on the spot. It starts trembling from the moment the gun is passed to Crowley, and its underlined when they cut to Furfur and it's perfectly stable, and stops only when the trick is done (amazing I love it)
Crowley is terrified, but Aziraphale said "Trust me" and he did. Only, it's not Aziraphale who is doing the risky part in theory, by shooting and aiming while never firing an arm before. But in practice? He totally is.
From facts, it's not news for us that they'd do anything to keep the other safe, but they can never acknowledge it, right? But here he is, entrusting his very own existence in Crowley capable hands and not only it's risky for a number of reasons, no, that's straight away nuts from any point of view. And it's even nutter (ehehehe like Agnes) when you realize he's doing the very same thing in the 67 by gifting him holy water.
I've always found odd that change of heart by Aziraphale. I couldn't only be because he found the entire heist thing silly, but it's not like they gave us more material to work with.
But in the light of what we saw in the 41 I feel a little bit more certain to say that Aziraphale is moving on the same feeling he moved in the bullet catch.
"I trust you to not hurt me, I trust you to not kill yourself because you know what it would mean to me"
Of course, they cannot speak of it. Of course, all they have is flirty banter and Crowley hyping Aziraphale up for his show. Of course, when Aziraphale gave them holy water, he nearly couldn't stop their feelings from coming to the surface and Aziraphale needed to be the one to put a break on it. They had one (1) public appearance and it took an earthly miracle to not get discovered.
All they had, for so much time, was those silent confessions and those candle light lit and glasses of wine shared. Someday, tho, they will dine at the Ritz (metaphorically, too). (And maybe have some go--sat--damn explicit conversation about their mutual feelings towards each other)
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yes, doctors suck, but also "the medical ethics and patient interaction training doctors receive reinforces ableism" and "the hyper competitive medical school application process roots out the poor, the disabled, and those who would diversify the field" and "anti-establishment sentiment gets applications rejected and promotions requests denied, weeding out the doctors on our side" and "the gruesome nature of the job and the complete lack of mental health support for medical practitioners breeds apathy towards patients" and "insurance companies often define treatment solely on a cost-analysis basis" and "doctors take on such overwhelming student loan debt they have no choice but to pursue high paying jobs at the expense of their morals" are all also true
none of this absolves doctors of the truly horrendous things they say and do to patients, but it's important to acknowledge that rather than every doctor being coincidentally a bad person, there is something specific about this field and career path that gives rise to such high prevalence of ableist attitudes
and I WILL elaborate happily
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listen. i know it's not 2014 anymore and i know it's just a throwaway line and that the russo brothers didnt intend for marvel action blockbuster captain america the winter soldier to become the tragic gay love story that never was but man. having steve say "it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience" in a conversation about romantic relationships right before the bucky reveal is so cruel. it's not just about steve and bucky obviously having the shared experience of being "out of time," it's the fact that they've both been stripped of their humanity in opposite directions. steve is a legend, he is an american hero and a national icon before he is a human being the same way that bucky is a weapon and a killing machine before he is a human being. steve knows that anyone who falls in love with him in the 21st century fell in love with captain america first, and that's just not him. but then the one person who knew him first and knew him best and loved him (not captain america, that little guy from brooklyn) so much he died for it is alive, impossibly. and it's a miracle because he's back and it's horrific because he's back under the worst possible circumstances. but to steve, the winter soldier is worth tearing the world apart for because he's always been bucky first. they find each other and suddenly they're human again. and maybe, despite it all, being "out of time" becomes a blessing, because in this century they'd finally be allowed to love each other the way they've always wanted to. like real people do.
like. no. the captain america trilogy isn't about two queer men traumatized and alienated by war and modern life rediscovering and reclaiming their humanity through their love for each other. but. i mean. it couldve been
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i love when words fit right. seize was always supposed to be that word, and so was jester. tuesday isn't quite right but thursday should be thursday, that's a good word for it. daisy has the perfect shape to it, almost like you're laughing when you say it; and tulip is correct most of the time. while keynote is fun to say, it's super wrong - i think they have to change the label for that one. but fox is spot-on.
most words are just, like, good enough, even if what they are describing is lovely. the night sky is a fine term for it but it isn't perfect the way november is the correct term for that month.
it's not just in english because in spanish the phrase eso si que es is correct, it should be that. sometimes other languages are also better than the english words, like how blue is sloped too far downwards but azul is perfect and hangs in the air like glitter. while butterfly is sweet, i think probably papillion is more correct, although for some butterflies féileacán is much better. year is fine but bliain is better. sometimes multiple languages got it right though, like how jueves and Πέμπτη are also the right names for thursday. maybe we as a species are just really good at naming thursdays.
and if we were really bored and had a moment and a picnic to split we could all sit down for a moment and sort out all the words that exist and find all the perfect words in every language. i would show you that while i like the word tree (it makes you smile to say it), i think arbor is correct. you could teach me from your language what words fit the right way, and that would be very exciting (exciting is not correct, it's just fine).
i think probably this is what was happening at the tower of babel, before the languages all got shifted across the world and smudged by the hand of god. by the way, hand isn't quite right, but i do like that the word god is only 3 letters, and that it is shaped like it is reflecting into itself, and that it kind of makes your mouth move into an echoing chapel when you cluck it. but the word god could also fit really well with a coathanger, and i can't explain that. i think donut has (weirdly) the same shape as a toothbrush, but we really got bagel right and i am really grateful for that.
grateful is close, but not like thunder. hopefully one day i am going to figure out how to shape the way i love my friends into a little ceramic (ceramic is very good, almost perfect) pot and when they hold it they can feel the weight of my care for them. they can put a plant in there. maybe a daisy.
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Today my therapist introduced me to a concept surrounding disability that she called "hLep".
Which is when you - in this case, you are a disabled person - ask someone for help ("I can't drink almond milk so can you get me some whole milk?", or "Please call Donna and ask her to pick up the car for me."), and they say yes, and then they do something that is not what you asked for but is what they think you should have asked for ("I know you said you wanted whole, but I got you skim milk because it's better for you!", "I didn't want to ruin Donna's day by asking her that, so I spent your money on an expensive towing service!") And then if you get annoyed at them for ignoring what you actually asked for - and often it has already happened repeatedly - they get angry because they "were just helping you! You should be grateful!!"
And my therapist pointed out that this is not "help", it's "hLep".
Sure, it looks like help; it kind of sounds like help too; and if it was adjusted just a little bit, it could be help. But it's not help. It's hLep.
At its best, it is patronizing and makes a person feel unvalued and un-listened-to. Always, it reinforces the false idea that disabled people can't be trusted with our own care. And at its worst, it results in disabled people losing our freedom and control over our lives, and also being unable to actually access what we need to survive.
So please, when a disabled person asks you for help on something, don't be a hLeper, be a helper! In other words: they know better than you what they need, and the best way you can honor the trust they've put in you is to believe that!
Also, I want to be very clear that the "getting angry at a disabled person's attempts to point out harmful behavior" part of this makes the whole thing WAY worse. Like it'd be one thing if my roommate bought me some passive-aggressive skim milk, but then they heard what I had to say, and they apologized and did better in the future - our relationship could bounce back from that. But it is very much another thing to have a crying shouting match with someone who is furious at you for saying something they did was ableist. Like, Christ, Jessica, remind me to never ask for your support ever again! You make me feel like if I asked you to call 911, you'd order a pizza because you know I'll feel better once I eat something!!
Edit: crediting my therapist by name with her permission - this term was coined by Nahime Aguirre Mtanous!
Edit again: I made an optional follow-up to this post after seeing the responses. Might help somebody. CW for me frankly talking about how dangerous hLep really is.
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