how do you tell someone “i’m not ignoring you i’m just disconnected from reality right now and the days are all blurred together and i feel completely apathetic towards everyone/everything around me so it’s really hard for me to maintain a conversation” without saying that
You’re angry. You should be. You’re scared. You should be.
This is awful. It’s horrifying. It’s deeply depressing. Rage. Scream. Mourn the tragedy we know is coming.
But remember this: what we are about to experience is the world our grandmothers and great grandmothers lived in. This is what they fought against.
Remember that they won. Even if the victory was temporary, they still won.
We can win, too. Prepare yourself. Finish your mourning, and get back to the fight. Yes, it’s awful that we have to have this same fight. It’s frustrating. It’s heartbreaking. But now is not the time to surrender to despair.
I will never understand why this Christmas song goes so hard.
OKAY MOTHERFUCKERS LISTEN UP
BECAUSE THIS SHIT IS NOT CAROL OF THE BELLS
IT IS CHRISTMAS EVE/SARAJEVO 12/24 AND IT IS SO MUCH FUCKING MORE THAN CAROL OF THE BELLS.
so during the bosnian war (which was this nasty-ass conflict in bosnia and herzgovina) there was this badass cello-playing motherfucker named vedran smailovic. He was from Sarajevo, was upset about all the shit and nastiness that came about through this war (this was full-on brother-killing-brother shit!) that he went around to bombed-out, blown up buildings and funderals––where he was at risk of FUCKING SNIPER FIRE––and playing the cello. This guy was so set on providing one tiny spot of beauty in a seriously nasty war he was risking being fucking SHOT OR BLOWN UP.
AND THIS IS THE GUY WHO INSPIRED THIS SONG.
He’s why there’s the calm cello part at the beginning before everything gets all violent-sounding. It’s THEMATIC.
THAT’S WHY THIS CHRISTMAS SONG GOES SO FUCKING HARD.
There’s the wikipedia article about him and yes…true story…
It’s also important to understand that Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 was not originally a Trans Siberian Orchestra song. It was originally recorded by Savatage, a metal band, for their concept album “Dead Winter Dead,” and when some Savatage members formed TSO, they adopted that song as a TSO song because yeah it’s fucking amazing.
Friendly reminder that this exists.
Friendly reminder that Vedran’s performances also included a pile of rubble that used to be a fountain IN THE CENTER OF A TOWN SQUARE WITH NO COVER.
When asked years later why he’d down something so apparently suicidal, he shrugged and replied
that it was his way of proving that “the spirit of
humanity was still alive in that place, despite all evidence to the
contrary.”
May we all be as brave and stalwart in protesting violence and injustice as Vedran “The Most Bad-Ass Cellist Ever” Smailović.
Also, despite what some articles may say, Vedran was not an old man when
this happened. He’s only in his early 60s today, which would have made
him no older than 37 when he was playing in the ruins of Sarajevo.
Never let anyone tell you it’s only old men who can make a difference.
“Every time one of those elders leaves this world, it’s like a whole library, a whole beautiful chapter of our history, of our ceremonies – all that knowledge, gone,” Clayson Benally, a member of Navajo Nation, said. “It’s not written, it’s not dictated, you’re not going to find it on the internet.”
Back in the 1960s, a Harvard graduate student made a landmark discovery about the nature of human anger.
At age 34, Jean Briggs traveled above the Arctic Circle and lived out on the tundra for 17 months. There were no roads, no heating systems, no grocery stores. Winter temperatures could easily dip below minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Briggs persuaded an Inuit family to “adopt” her and “try to keep her alive,” as the anthropologist wrote in 1970.
At the time, many Inuit families lived similar to the way their ancestors had for thousands of years. They built igloos in the winter and tents in the summer. “And we ate only what the animals provided, such as fish, seal and caribou,” says Myna Ishulutak, a film producer and language teacher who lived a similar lifestyle as a young girl.
Briggs quickly realized something remarkable was going on in these families: The adults had an extraordinary ability to control their anger.
“They never acted in anger toward me, although they were angry with me an awful lot,” Briggs told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. in an interview.
Across the board, all the moms mention one golden rule: Don’t shout or yell at small children.
Traditional
Inuit parenting is incredibly nurturing and tender. If you took all the
parenting styles around the world and ranked them by their gentleness,
the Inuit approach would likely rank near the top. (They even have a special kiss for babies, where you put your nose against the cheek and sniff the skin.)
The
culture views scolding — or even speaking to children in an angry voice
— as inappropriate, says Lisa Ipeelie, a radio producer and mom who
grew up with 12 siblings. “When they’re little, it doesn’t help to raise
your voice,” she says. “It will just make your own heart rate go up.”
Even if the child hits you or bites you, there’s no raising your voice?
“No,”
Ipeelie says with a giggle that seems to emphasize how silly my
question is. “With little kids, you often think they’re pushing your
buttons, but that’s not what’s going on. They’re upset about something,
and you have to figure out what it is.”
Traditionally, the Inuit saw yelling at a small child as demeaning.
It’s as if the adult is having a tantrum; it’s basically stooping to the
level of the child, Briggs documented.
Elders I spoke with say
intense colonization over the past century is damaging these
traditions. And, so, the community is working hard to keep the parenting
approach intact.
I don't know what this will be, but i will try to post random vids, and pics when I can, and every once in a while i will post whatever I feel i want to get out there.
