Eyebright

A radical feminist Mormon. Who'd have thunk it?

[terf420-deactivated20160121]

[ghostbrother2]

if this 5000 year old tree isn’t too old to realize that its trans neither are you

[judgiethewhale]

If it was "trans" it would just hang red hots all over itself and say "seeee? I'm a girl treeee!" What this tree is doing is way cooler than the fakeness of human trans rhetoric.

[uncannycory]

Someone: points out that wtnv is purple prose and fluff from the point of writing

Me: still enjoys it but now a little more guilty

[judgiethewhale]

Don't let anyone make you feel guilty for liking something. Form and proper prose and all that is fine as a guideline but what's really important is how a work connects to its audience. If you like it, if it makes you happy or sad or excited, then it's worth 10 of something that was written "perfectly" but didn't make that connection.

[judgiethewhale]

Soooo, I put together my own little personal closetplay of gender-swapped Cecil from Welcome to Night Vale, to wear to work on Halloween. The badge image was made by tumblr user idiopathicsmile and found via google search, with some stickers/enthusing about “Charlotte” added by me (and of course, glittery lanyard and gay pride buttons. :))

[longlivethebloodiyield]

Almost two years ago, I made one of the best decisions of my entire life. That decision was to become vegan. It was definitely one of the easiest and most rewarding changes that I’ve ever committed to. With all the alternatives to animal products that are about (yes some are bad and some are good, in exactly the same way it is with animal products), it’s easier than ever to adopt a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle. If you need/want any information or convincing that adopting a vegan diet is beneficial to your physical health, mental health and the earth itself, then check these documentaries out.

Happy world vegan day mates xoxo. #vegan #worldveganday

[judgiethewhale]

Watching these documentaries doesn't put money in your pocket to buy entirely different food than anyone else in the house, nor does it make vegan food less expensive (and don't say I could just eat all rice and beans; I'm not a bad person and don't deserve a punishment diet).

[isohels]

Apparently America is only just getting chip and pin machines????

[judgiethewhale]

Yep. At the store I work in, they replaced the pin pads a while ago but they still haven’t turned on the chip reader.

[isohels]

So like, how do u pay

[judgiethewhale]

You just swipe the magnetic strip still.

[isohels]

But what if someone steals your card?? All they gotta do is swipe??

[judgiethewhale]

Well, if they use it, it can be tracked, and if the purchase is over a certain amount (different at every store) the cashier is supposed to check ID, and you aren't liable for the fraudulent charges once they determine they really are fraudulent -- but yes, all they have to do is swipe.

[isohels]

Apparently America is only just getting chip and pin machines????

[judgiethewhale]

Yep. At the store I work in, they replaced the pin pads a while ago but they still haven’t turned on the chip reader.

[isohels]

So like, how do u pay

[judgiethewhale]

You just swipe the magnetic strip still.

[isohels]

Apparently America is only just getting chip and pin machines????

[judgiethewhale]

Yep. At the store I work in, they replaced the pin pads a while ago but they still haven't turned on the chip reader.

[ryanslds]

[judgiethewhale]

This song had a big part in me finally deciding to get baptized, after months of studying with the missionaries. <3

[radicalfeminisms-blog]

the trans delusion makes it out so that those who do not buy into gender are delusional

[sisterdata-deactivated20251028]

[We] say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say 'Let me have but this and I’ll take the consequences’: little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man’s past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man’s past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why…the Blessed will say 'We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven’ and the Lost, 'We were always in Hell.’ And both will speak truly.

C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (via sisterdata)

This is all very nice but is dangerous to me -- it seems like a path toward saying that the Church and its doctrines and policies can cause as much temporal agony as they like, because oh, later it'll be turned to joy. It's a license to be cruel to women and gay people, because the pain will be erased later if they are obedient -- and if they're not, then the pain the Church caused them is their own fault. It removes all culpability from the Church. (And also, c.s. Lewis is just a guy, so there's no comfort in it because it might not be true, since he's not a prophet and can't speak for God.)

[seekinguncertainty]

My God (or my blasphemy for the day, whatever)

What good is a sunset if it’s not so painfully awesome that it brings you to tears? I think sometimes we want God to be our idea of perfect. Sunshine, rainbows, cupcakes, and world where no one ever dies, no one ever suffers. Yet every truly beautiful moment comes from some source of pain, some kind of identification. Every great work is derived from a brokenness… and every work of complete beauty, such as is only found in the “perfection” of Nature, or of Love, is so beautiful that it brings pain. I think what I am trying to say is that there is no such thing as perfect—not really. There is no such thing. It is a figment of the human mind, which ever strives to better itself and can only do so when it has something to strive for… such striving is easier when we have a rigid definition of perfection—blonde hair, blue eyes, size C, 95 pounds, never letting a cuss word slip out, eating a balanced diet, raising 2.5 children with Mr. Tall-Dark-and-Handsome. It’s easy to strive for perfection when you can define it (so why is everyone’s definition different?). If there is no perfect, if perfect is as absurd an idea as I think it is, then what am I really trying to get at? What should I be striving for? God. God is not perfect. If you can excuse how blasphemous that sounds, I think it is real. Perfect is an absurd idea (in the true meaning of complete absurdity) which is truly meaningless in its purest form. If we could truly define beauty, it would be a completely un-unique concept. It is the diversity of creation that gives it beauty. Beauty cannot exist within lines of a standard—it exists in its ability to stop our minds for a moment and stupefy us. Beauty, at its best, makes us strange and uncomfortable in its presence… in our surprise and inability to react appropriately… and then submerses us in comfort as we understand the ways which beauty completes us and we it. If a tree falls in an empty forest, does it make a sound? Does it matter? If a tree falls in a forest, the sound only matters if there is someone there to hear it. Nothing can ever be beautiful on its own. “Perfection” is a meaningless idea, ultimately. What is perfection compared to an awkward first kiss or chordal dissonance that captures an emotion you didn’t know you had? God is Creativity, and Life and Love and those things which can never be perfect because it is their messiness that brings passion. I want a God who spins in circles with me in my moments of joy and cries with me in my moments of sadness. I want a God who was in the pain of Christ at the crucifixion. I know that God exists because I feel God in those moments. That is why I love God so much. If God were not in every ounce of pain and joy that all of us feel, God would be cold. A promise of “dessert later and brussel sprouts now” that is so simplistic a two-year-old understands it? That is not the God I know—not a God that lets suffering happen, that hands out “justice” as if it is black and white, but a God that suffers with me, laughs with me, bleeds with me, sings with me, Loves with me, Lives with me, and says “It is good.” God knows the pain and joy of everyone and everything and knows that it is good so long as we understand that God is living in ALL of us and part of serving God is understanding that… it is bringing laughter, health, happiness to people… keeping in mind the greater good… understanding that serving God is serving Humanity because God is alive in all of us and feeling all of us. Oh my goodness, I don’t understand God; Oh my goodness, that’s a beautiful thing. The profundity of existence is more than we will ever be able to wrap our heads around… and yet trying is part of what makes it so beautiful.

[judgiethewhale]

I don't think I'm really interested in a God who thinks it's "good" that I suffer and bleed. That sounds cruel and horrible.

[gloamglozerglam-deactivated2022]

You know what’s a major pet peeve for me when it comes to arguments against raising the minimum wage? All the references to food service workers as “burger flippers”. Burger flippers are not a thing. You’re never going to see a restaurant post a sign that says “help wanted: hiring burger flippers.” “Burger flipper” is a term used pretty much exclusively to condescend to food service workers and downplay the real work and stress that goes into food service. It makes out like minimum wage workers are lazy people who are literally just standing at a grill, occasionally moving a spatula, all day, mindlessly, and that is their one and only responsibility, which anyone who has ever worked in food service can tell you is not what that job entails. It’s rhetoric used solely to designate them inferior. It doesn’t reflect the reality of minimum wage food service work. It’s annoying.

[judgiethewhale]

Also, as a former fast food employee, being on the grill cooking the burgers was the hardest job in the place -- the smaller patties were so thin that they cooked in seconds, you were constantly flipping and trying to keep them from sticking to the grill, it was hot, miserable and hectic. Big respect to all the "burger flippers" out there -- your job is hard and you deserve better than to be treated like a joke.

[mcdyke-deactivated20171112]

too much “let everyone identify as whatever” and not enough “words have meanings”

[words-have-meaning]

I really identify with this post.

[uss-kelvins-deactivated20150814]

being gender critical and not buying into identity politics doesn’t equal thinking trans people shouldn’t have the right to live their lives safely and with dignity.

[virginiaisforhaters]

Wow it’s almost like most of human history has been about controlling women… or something…

[southernpecan-deactivated201507]

What exactly is a patriarchal blessing? An ex-mormon friend of mine described it to me, but since he's ex-mo I'm guessing he was probably not the best source for understanding what it means to mormons.

Sorry for the late response! I was in line for the Winnie the Pooh disney ride when I received your message! 

A patriarchal blessing is described by the President of the Church, Thomas S. Monson, as a Liahona of Light: a beacon and a compass, activated through prayer, faith, and good works following the receipt of that special and personal revelation from a Patriarch ordained to the priesthood. 

A Liahona, in the Book of Mormon, was an instrument given to the family of Lehi and was for the purpose to leading them through the wilderness (1 Nephi 16:10). 

The wilderness is a common ground for Christians who strive to live like Christ- spiritual wilderness, emotional wilderness, and sometimes interpersonal wilderness. Christ was a homeless Palestinian with “no place to lay His head” (Matthew 8:10). As members of the body of Christ- His Church- we often experience typologies of this unfamiliarity day-to-day and year-to-year and a patriarchal blessing is said to be the tool to guide us in the paths unfamiliar, if we keep to our covenants and live lives that invite the Spirit to inspire our decisions made through free will. 

Patriarchal blessings have been said to contain uncanny resemblance to a person’s unique and intimate struggles, in spite of having never communicated with the Patriarch translating the spoken revelation from our Heavenly Parents. I often see others read their Patriarchal blessing during the reverent silence while waiting to receive the Sacrament, as a reminder of the promises they have from their Creator for their goodness, joy, happiness, and ability to fulfill their purpose for others. It is a respite and a reminder for the sacrifice that many Mormons make in order to stay authentic to the faith.

In the words of the Prophet living today, it is a “precious and priceless gift” that is a “passport to peace in this life”.  

I haven’t received mine, and am probably months away from being ready to receive it, but I realize the importance and I hope this explanation helped a little! Thanks for asking!!

[elegy-of-the-elephants]

Don’t get your hopes up. It’s just like a horror scope. The words said don’t actually mean anything, but the way they’re worded is meant to be relatable, and the legends where it freakishly happened to be especially accurate shut up the people who know it’s all fake.

[southernpecan-deactivated201507]

Okay, so here’s another perspective and we are basically guided by two different ones. You either:

Believe that modern revelation can be received on your behalf to help guide you, and the “generalized” language is primarily meant to provide a broad-spectrum of interpretation and discovery as you read it for the next few decades of your life until you die… or….

You don’t believe that revelation can be received for you in this way

And you resolve your perspective on this through prayer. I’m not pressuring you to believe one or the other either way, just presenting the ideology of the patriarchal blessing in the way that I have learned it. 

[judgiethewhale]

Well said, southernpecan :) mine has been a source of strength to me, not because it's full of some whizbang miracle stuff but because it helps assure me that the Holy Spirit sees me, sees my strengths and talents and is pointing me to a place in the church, even if it's not the traditional place.