The Sun is Rising

You are a person who covers your counter space in clutter and inadvertently makes a shrine to a long forgotten god who shows up to thank you.

The pepper grinder is small and copper with a brass knob at the top that allows you to hand-turn the grinder. You’re never sure where you picked it up – it’s not a gift or a purchase, otherwise you’d have the saltshaker to match – but it feels right sitting next to your fruit bowl. Logically, it should go by your stove where the rest of your spices have congregated in a misshapen mob, getting stained by Bolognese and fry oil. However, your fruit bowl is a stoneware behemoth you found in the crawlspace under the house, and the shine of the copper next to the earthen tone reminds you of spending long hours excavating in the Italian countryside as an archeology sophomore in college (about two years before you became an English major), so it stays.

Then, of course, you’re too busy to eat fruit before it rots and the bowl sits empty- barring a lemon or lime here or there-  and that’s no good either because it takes up over half of the counter to the right of your sink and backs up against the blank wall at the end of your galley kitchen where you can’t hang anything because both the fridge door and the pantry door swing into it.

So when your mother gives you another worry stone for your birthday – rose quartz this time, which means she thinks if you’re not worried about being single in your 30s, you should be – you hold it while staring out the kitchen window, drinking coffee over the sink, and when you finish the last sip full of grounds you toss the mug in the sink and the rose quartz in the bowl. It clinks loudly and then settles between those two lemons that you need to find a use for before the weekend, lest they go hard and unusable except for cleaning your sink.

After that, belated birthday wishes show up in the mail, and you can’t bring yourself to throw them out. Your Aunt Sylvia sends a postcard from Peru that she’s been holding onto for “a special occasion” for the last five years and, -aren’t you lucky?- you’re the special winner of a National Geographic photo of Machu Picchu. And you’re not a monster. The card may not hold the same significance to you as it did to her, but the thought does and so tucked between the bowl and the wall it goes where the very tippy top of the ruins rise over the brown rim, as if from the depths of a valley.

Then your college roommate (the archaeology one who made you want to do the study abroad program in the first place), Audra, sends you a shard of Roman pottery and a note in Latin that you can’t read but understand perfectly by the coffee stains littering the edge of it. The sight of the coffee stains warms your heart more than the pottery shard, so both go in the bowl where you can occasionally glance at them as you drink your own coffee over the sink and reminisce over study dates and the few regular dates you shared before her passion stole her abroad.

(And if the clay and the rose quartz lie next to each other and you suddenly think of marriage and nostalgia and her stoneware eyes that led you to save the same-colored fruit bowl from the depths of your house in the first place, it’s a natural series of associations and doesn’t prove your mother right at all.)

The driftwood isn’t from anyone. Your agent calls to tell you that you won an award for one of your books. The driftwood is in your hand, scavenged along the Potomac from amidst the pebbles deposited by the last storm, and it’s suddenly your only tether to reality as she explains what this means. It means reviews and author readings and an interview - of you! – and a guaranteed sequel. The stick is smooth under your fingertips and you wave it in the air is if it’s a wand in an attempt to burst your bubble.

Only you’re home the next moment and you’ve still got the driftwood in your hand and your bubble is unburst. It feels significant that you brought it back with you so you put it across the top of your fruit bowl as if it’s the award itself. You have a decaf coffee to celebrate that evening and see that stick guarding your rose quartz and your pepper grinder and your pottery shard and you think, I’m doing okay. And the joy you feel from that is so powerful that your next thought is, I’m happy.

Which is, of course, when the power goes out.

Outages happen all the time in a block as old as yours. Before, you’d see it as free time and go lay down in bed and wait for the world to relight or for morning to come. But you don’t have time now. Your agent is planning to call you soon. You are an award-winning author and you have things to do before your 42% battery runs out.

You make your kitchen your base and set the six pillar candles on your counter, lighting them one by one. They’re the rainbow ones from last June your mother bought you in a sweet yet confusing show of support and you’ve never found a special enough occasion to burn them. You smile at Machu Picchu peaking over your fruit bowl. Your aunt is the one who taught you about special things.

Then your agent calls and, while you’re hammering out the details, you see that the candles are about to drip colored wax onto your white, plastic countertops and even though you really want to replace them, you can’t afford to (at least until you sign a contract). You snatch up your driftwood and use it to scoop the wax from the sides until a kaleidoscope of color is collected and you have to keep spinning it to keep it from dripping.

You blow on the hot wax, thinking of Audra and your family and the future your agent is painting for you until it cools. Then you place the driftwood over the bowl where it belongs.

 It’s just a bowl. Of course, it’s just a bowl. It does a good job of taking up a huge amount of your counter and of holding onto things you’d forget in a junk drawer. It looks good in the candlelight, warm and earthy and welcoming with the three bright lemons scattering amongst your treasures. It’s nice to see reminders of your loved ones every morning from the summit of Machu Picchu to your worry stone to that shard of pottery, but it’s not anything more.

At least it’s not until you put your driftwood, wax-covered wand back and think, I wish I could see her.

The flames of the candles sputter and turn gold, radiating a pure and steady light that could never come from a mundane fire. Your agent stops herself midsentence, apologizes, promises to call you back when she has a better connection, and hangs up. The bowl rattles and shivers and you take a step back as your copper pepper grinder tips over. You must not have put it together correctly because it spills when it does, little peppercorns that roll across your counter towards the edge.

You expect to hear the dried pepper hit the ground, but it doesn’t.  Each peppercorn stops unnaturally.

G…

R…

A…

N…

T…

E…

D…

What?

The candles splutter and return to normal flame. Your bowl is still. The lemons seem less appetizing than they had a moment ago, but your treasures are still there and lovely.

You pick up your Roman shard.

Your phone rings. Audra. Although you can’t imagine talking to anyone after what you’ve just witness, your body isn’t on the same page. Muscle memory and association has you answering before the second ring.

“Mal, I got the job!”

“…The job?”

“Oh, I didn’t tell you. Not because I was hiding it! But nobody ever gets it and I didn’t want you to get your hopes up and then my hopes up—”

Her rapid-fire word is grounding. You laugh. “Because my hopes are your hopes.”

“Obviously,” she says. She takes a deep breath. “I got the Smithsonian. The curator role. The job.”

She’s coming home. The realization hits like electricity, raising all the hair on your arms and almost making you drop the shard. You blink quickly to stop the automatic tears.

“Mal?”

“I’m here,” you say. You go to put the pottery shard back with more care than you ever have, as if it’s Audra herself. She can probably hear the way your voice trembles, but you can’t compose yourself. “Oh, I’m so happy. When?”

“In a month. I have to hand over some current projects, which should only take a week, but finding someone to take over my classes might take a little longer, but not too long! I promise. After that it’s packing—”

You put the pottery shard back in the bowl as gently as you ever have. Audra’s voice is the sweetest music as she says goodbye, in a hurry to start packing. You hear that music long after she hangs up. Your knees are weak. She’s coming home. She’s coming home. Thank whatever god, she’s coming home—

Your fingers touch something coarse and feather-light. Your brow furrows as you pull a scrap of ancient paper from the fruit bowl.

You’re welcome.

“Oh,” you breathe.

The lights flare as the power returns.

---

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Thanks for all the support! Excited for another year on this blog. I'll probably make a mushy post about it at some point, but...EIGHT years! And counting! What an amazing time this has been :D

Oooo

ITALY:

Here is a zoomed-in version of surveillance video showing a migrant brutally beating an elderly man and then a disabled woman in a wheelchair.

The migrant reportedly has no legal residence in Italy.

@CherokeeOwl 🦉

@PVTredfoxSC 🦊

If a dog had attacked someone like this the dog would be put down.

It is a symptom of cultural mental illness to not immediately kill a person who does something like this.

I believe the Mafia is still in existence in Italy. I wonder what their stance on this is.

beat that prick's teeth in with a tire iron.

Why the hell are the passersby just gathering around and toothlessly conversing with this creature.

Because 1. He'll do the same to them if they try to intervene 2. If they intervene, the authorities will go after THEM, not the "culturally-enriching immigrant." 3. They're not yet ready to beat the cops to death if they try to arrest people for defending themselves or their neighbors.

you're unfortunately right, but I don't have to be happy about it.

What's going on in Africa

Honestly it goes kinda hard

If I wanted to be a jackass I could make a comment about cultural appropriation, but that would be idiotic and this is pretty dang rad and should be encouraged. So long as the lyrics aren't mean that is.

This was part of the translated lyrics I think

Oh that's the good stuff right there,

Is it just me, or does country music in Kenyan almost have Hawaiian vibes?

No, I hear it everytime I play it

That is so very cool.

hell yeah

crisp glass of water moodboard

legit got me feelin thirsty fr fr

Part 1/6

Part 2/6

Part 3/6

Part 4/6

Part 5/6

Part 6/7

Part 7/8

Part 8/9

Part 9/10

Final Part

Finally a poll for me

No on the dictionary

No for everything except a Faerie. Depending on the type, I'd potentially be down to clown.

Wish there was a more extreme "no" option for Elves though.

ITALY:

Here is a zoomed-in version of surveillance video showing a migrant brutally beating an elderly man and then a disabled woman in a wheelchair.

The migrant reportedly has no legal residence in Italy.

@CherokeeOwl 🦉

@PVTredfoxSC 🦊

If a dog had attacked someone like this the dog would be put down.

It is a symptom of cultural mental illness to not immediately kill a person who does something like this.

I believe the Mafia is still in existence in Italy. I wonder what their stance on this is.

beat that prick's teeth in with a tire iron.

Why the hell are the passersby just gathering around and toothlessly conversing with this creature.

oho

For the purposes of this poll, do NOT include the following:

DO include credit card balances, student loans, medical debt, etc.

We ask your questions anonymously so you don’t have to! Submissions are open on the 1st and 15th of the month.

Only over 1000 cuz I recently got my car repaired and put the bill on my credit card. Will be below 500 by the end of the month.

hmmm

i know i said that i wasn't going to talk about it anymore but holy fuck

triple whammy of new dehumanizing terms for people, slavery mention, and blaming public school. all used to justify putting the responsibility for men's hygiene on women.

"penis haver"

I always feel weird talking about myself as a white person, not because I'm not white but it feels like such a dumb way to identify myself, it means nothing to me, I don't feel kinship with other white people because they're white

You're a Snow Elf

I agree. If you're of a particular people, it makes more sense to identify as one of them rather than with a skin color.

As for me as an American white man whose lineage is unclear and mixed, I tend to identify more with my nationality as an American rather than my race, since that's where my language, culture, and outlook come from: the English language and traditions.

For me it was never really an issue until I started interacting with Americans and the politics over there. Like I'm a Pole, "white" means literally nothing to me since pretty much all enemies of my country have been white so nationality and ethnicity is important rather than race.

Exactly. That sort of distinction only makes sense in a place like the Americas, where the descendants of European settlers are so mixed that national distinctions have broken down over time and the biggest differences are between settlers, black, and native populations.

I'm an American and honestly I never actively considered myself as "white" when it came to identity.

That was a title imposed upon me by politicians, activists and census-takers.

Here's an Example as to why Donald Trump is fascist

Donald Trump wants Concealed Carry Reciprocity.

What is that?

"Here's an example as to why the man who appoints racial and religious minorities, including Jews, to positions of high power follows an ideology that calls for the subjugation of racial minorities and the extermination of all Jews."

Yeah. Sure. It's all a big conspiracy, and I'm sure all the Jews and blacks and Indians and Asians who ran on the Republican ticket in the election are planning to help him begin his reign of white supremacy. Tulsi Gabbard will be the new Heinrich Himmler, and Vivek Ramaswamy will be our own personal Albert Speer. Maybe he'll bring back Steve Mnuchin to oversee the roundup of all the Jews-he'd be good at that, since he's a Jew himself. All perfectly normal things here.

I've found the mythical pro-diversity Republican! Seriously though, you need just a few looks at what MAGA people say all the damn time to know that what you just brought up is semantics.

So the existence of Menachem Raitport, Republican candidate for New York's fourth district, is semantics?

The existence of Burgess Owens, incumbent Republican representative for Utah's fourth district, is just semantics?

The existence of Seth Alan Cohen, Republican candidate for Illinois' ninth district, is just semantics?

Rajesh Mohan, Republican candidate for New York's fourth-is his existence semantics?

What about Young Kim, sitting Republican representative for California's 40th?

Perhaps David Kustoff, Republican representative for Tennessee's 9th district, is merely an illusion of words.

I have literally dozens more examples, purely for the House of Representatives. So why don't you try and tell me again how all these people are fascists, huh? And how Trump is also a fascist because he wants these people dead

Again, take a look at the grand majority of Trump supporters. And if you're someone who values ethnical and cultural diversity, idk what you're doing, supporting Trump.

You are literally telling me to ignore the minorities. You are saying "don't pay any attention to these black people and Jews, don't care about that Asian, care about all these white people instead." Well, I refuse. I'm going to care about the 54% of Latino men who voted for him. I'm going to care about the 39% of Latina women and 21% of black men who voted for him. I'm going to care about the 68% of Native Americans who voted for him. Because I'm not gonna let you erase their existence.

Check my blog and you'll find me insulting him repeatedly. I'm not supporting him by pointing out that you're wrong, I'm simply stating a fact. If "I don't believe x is a literal fascist" amounts to support then I support every communist government in history, since I'd call you wrong for calling them fascists too, because they aren't. They were all oppressive, one party hellholes just like fascist states, but they were not fascists themselves.

LOL, what a cheap role-reversal!! Hilarious!

There's a difference between ethnic/cultural minority and voter/political supporter minority, which you've omitted for the sake of your role-reversal.

POC, Jews, Hispanics etc. are ethnic and cultural miniorities in the US population.

By 'majority of Trump supporters', I obviously did not refer to the ethnic and cultural majority in the US population, but to the majority of people who support and vote for Donald Trump. You cannot convince me that, out of the 77 million people who voted Trump, 37,5 million or more are POC, Jewish, Hispanic etc.

This is also a typical Right-wing tactic, to put token minority members in high places, to deflect accusations of bigotry. I've been following this shit since 2016, and I already saw (and believed) this token shit back then. Yeah, I used to be a Trump supporter. I learned since then.

Oh and if you want to bring up POC/Jewish/Hispanic etc. voter districts where Trump won, I suggest you learn what gerrymandering is.

Nice try though.

And this is a typical left-wing tactic, to remove the agency from any minority they disagree with and reduce them to "tokens" who're either too stupid or too loyal to their masters to realize what's supposedly happening to them. With one magical word, you can simply ignore the existence of any number of people whose said existence directly contradicts your claims, so long as they aren't the majority. But I am not you, and I am not going to insult these people like that. So, I ask again: are these racial minorities supporting a fascist? Are Seth Alan Cohen, Menachem Raitport, and David Kustoff supporting a man who wants them genocided?

And I suggest you figure out the idea that maybe, just maybe, minorities can make their own decisions and not just vote how you think they should. And I literally never said anything about voter districts where he won. I gave you a list of candidates, some of whom won and some of whom lost(because that's how democracy works) and a list of overall voter demographics that were for the entire election. Also, again because we live in a democracy where people think for themselves, it's not always synonymous that a district votes for a representative and president of the same party, but I'm sure someone as obsessed with nullifying the agency of wrong-thinking minorities as you couldn't understand the idea of independent thought like that.

Laaame

So, just to be clear, you have no answer for why all these Jews and other minorities support a supposed fascist who, if he were a fascist, would want all of them in camps? All you had was to say the word "tokenism" and hope that I somehow accepted that as an explanation?

Well, A, I don't care if you accept tokenism as an answer. I don't care about you so much that I couldn't live with myself if you disagreed with my opinion.

And B, have you heard about the concept of "A shitload of money"? Something the Republicans are good at. I never said Trump wouldn't spare those he can profit from. Since fascists are at their core hypicrites, that is plausible.

And ultimately, I really don't understand why you defend Trump with your pro-diversity mentality. Unless, of course, you argue in complete bad faith and just say this to 'own the libtards', as is to be expected.

Are you implying Bribery?

No, I'm saying that Trump can probably put his racism aside if he thinks about the fat stacks of cash that a black congresswoman whom he's supporting has.

That explains why your (hilariously inaccurate and based on shit that's been proven false or has no evidence beyond "trust me bro") vision of trump would play at supporting these folks, but its ignoring the question asked which is why these people would actually support Trump if he is actually what you claim he is.

I'm going to take a stab at guessing that your explanation is either "They're too stupid to realize he's these horrible things" or "They're all just different kinds of fascists and hope to use Trump to get what they want" or a mix of both.

Meanwhile I'm just noting the fact that the original post is nothing more than insane conspiracy theory bullshit.

Because EVERY STATE allows for Concealed Carry, just that some states require certification to have it, and that certification is state specific. Reciprocity means nothing more than 'if you got a certification to concealed carry in one state, it counts for other states that also require a certification'

It's essentially applying to concealed carry certification the same rule that allows you to drive in another state if you have a licence to drive in your home state.

But somehow OP has spun it into secret armies (who are KNOWN TO THE GOVERNMENT) of republicans acting as roving bands of jackbooted thugs because...

Because OP is a nutter who has decided that everyone who isn't them is evil, I suspect.

And yes, I HAVE met MAGA dipshits. They are just as annoyingly idiotic as avowed communists, and I see them daily as well.

No secret armies, violent MAGA cultists who WILL become brownshirts. If you dumbasses took my post as a conspiracy theory, that's on you. Because that was never my intention. I said that this WILL happen, not that it's currently happening.

But I guess, since most of you argue in bad faith, you expect it from others as well. Disgusting.

Also, this is literally true. I won't make a secret out of the fact that I think this way. If you had my mind and the trauma I was put through for 22 years, you'd also be insane.

Chuckles, you presuppose the concept that the ability to conceal carry over borders will somehow turn gun owners into brownshirts.

That's a fucking conspiracy theory.

It's not bad faith when you state, as an absolute, that there will be roving gangs of angry conservatives enforcing fascist rule just because they can LEGALLY carry a firearm in one state using the licensing they got in another state.

The thing is, loosening gun control won't be equally applied under Trump. Concealed Carry Reciprocity for citizens today, gun bans for everyone except "GREAT MAGA PATRIOTS" tomorrow. One absolutely MUST assume the worst of everything Donald Trump does. In and for itself, Concealed Carry Reciprocity isn't that bad, but since Trump is the one who wants to implement it on a national level, one must assume that he wants it for the worst possible reason, because that's what he is: The worst possible.

Conspiracy level thinking.

And now we're at the third order of conspiracy theory, spinning the original bad faith claim (Allowing a national database of gun licencing will create armies of nazi's walking the streets) to a further bad faith claim (if we DO get said database, somehow anyone not part of TRUMP will be denied guns somehow!) to further justify the end goal (the claim made is not insane, because something something this justifies the prior, non-rational position).

You are delusional, mainly because you can't help but constantly look at the world through a bad faith position. And when that bad faith position is pointed out, you have to shift things to reframe yourself as the only one acting in 'good' faith.

It's really fucking easy to show, because your initial posit is 'gun reciprocity is evil because trump' and it was never framed as anything else until I pointed out how fucking STUPID that claim is.

a government giving you more rights and a greater access to firearms can safely be assumed to NOT be fascist.

@konigstigerr (?)

It's ok you can say Warhammer Fantasy