One of the biggest issues of moving to England as a person who is Ukrainian AND neurodivergent is not knowing how to answer the small talk question of “how are you”, but today I was reminded that Ukrainian blessed me with the phrase that roughly translates as “living is hard but dying would be a pity” and can we please naturalise it so I can use it all day every day
Okay so this post breached containment I think so I feel the need to clarify, because the vibes in the notes seem to suggest that people see this as an inspirational quote bestowed onto someone to help them soldier on. That’s not how Ukrainians do it. Rather, imagine a person that looks like they haven’t slept in three days and also hiked up a mountain. They are asked “Hey how you doing buddy”, and in response they let out the deepest, most done with this shit sigh you can imagine, mutter their favourite curse word and THEN they say the phrase (which, by the way, is four words in Ukrainian – тяжко жити, шкода вмерти/tyazhko zhyty, shkoda vmerty). It’s said as if they’re trying to convince themselves that dying would, indeed, he a pity. The other person looks at them, their eyes full of understanding, sigh also and then say “well at least we’re not russians”.
And THAT is what helps a Ukrainian soldier on.
Okay so uh this double breached containment and I’m really really scared because this was my second post on Tumblr dot com out of the two I made in total and now it has like 650 notes so I hope it’ll make you guys happy to see my flatmate’s mug that has The Phrase on it.
Bonus: the other side that says “what did I do to deserve this”.
The tragedy of my life is that I keep acquiring and displaying fetish art and having to be corrected by my friends.
Most recently, a friend came over my house and saw my computer background and went, “Wow, um, I didn’t know you were into that.” To which I look at the picture of the well drawn muscular female minotaur in historically accurate Greek clothing and I start geeking out about how I love the detail the artist did with the clothing and I point out the period appropriate folds and pins, how the artist even inserted the native plant that was used to dye the clothing this particular shade in the background, and even how the belt has technology AND historically accurate weaving patterns on it.
Then I start explaining how I love the muscular choices of the minotaur, that I was so impressed with the artist’s anatomically correct depiction of the muscles converging into the neck. That many people get an upright cow’s neck wrong because cow’s don’t have collarbones, so it can be very difficult to merge the upper arms and a chest of a human with a cow’s body. I draw her attention to the beautiful way they’ve merged the pectoralis major so smoothly while also staying true to how muscular they’ve depicted the rest of the body.
I finish up with my thoughts on the artist’s bold choice to depict the minotaur as a female, and despite the underlying themes of a minotaur being violence, child murder, strength, and muscles. I segue into how unlike bulls, cow are perceived as mothers. That they are the major source of milk in human culture, and that idyllic depictions of them in a field usually depict calves frolicking nearby, yet the minotaur kills and eats children.
I finish and there is a long pause.
“Urban, this is fetish art.” and she takes me to the artist’s twitter and god dammit it’s fetish art, not a bold statement on cultural perceptions of women and violence throughout history. I have been tricked again.
You know it can be both, right? The fact that it is fetish art doesn’t take away all of the beautiful thoughtful details that they chose to put in the art.
I mean, they didn’t illustrate all those pins and folds and muscles and shit correctly on accident.
And like, y’all. So much art is, on one level or another, about somebody’s fetish. So. IDK.
The federal government is about to get useless for at least a bit. This is a GREAT time to get involved in state level environmental orgs. That’s where you’re gonna be able to do the most for the next few years. Even a bit of casual volunteering can make a big difference.
I’ve done this off and on for years and when we go local we WIN. And friends winning feels good. This is how a lot of progressive agendas have won in this country. The whole US isn’t out of this. People ARE still fighting climate change all around you.
You could be one of those people, in community with other people who are doing something.
doom and gloom “oooh everything is pointless oooh I’m so deep and edgy because I love trying to be the death of hope” people will just get blocked. I’m not talking to your crab-bucket ass.
I like this post because it makes getting involved seem positive and fun. So many of these are like ‘you MUST do the hard work of stewarding your local government! I don’t care if you don’t like it!’ And I think that’s just as demoralizing as saying you can’t do anything.
I think you WILL like it. If you don’t, you don’t have to be married to it. You can check out several places and see what sticks. Make an event out of it! Bring cookies! If we work together, we win! We have so much to look forward to!
amhrancas 