hold on

a heart's a heavy burden. / fawz, 25

[milodrama]

reimagining shame, on writing and being seen

[milodrama]

jaipur, rajasthan

[abogwitchnamedsage]

I don't know who might need to hear this, but I wanted to share something beautiful I had the opportunity to witness.

In the chaos and uncertainty around us, there is still so much love and hope.

A few weeks ago, a local international student nervously approached me and asked if I could photograph his wedding reception. We barely know each other — so much so that the only real thing he knew about me was that a) I was a graphic designer and b) he had seen me hold a camera. And the only thing I knew about him was that he came from overseas to study engineering in the U.S.

He explained that his friend (and expected photographer) couldn't make the trip. I sympathized and told him I had a similar situation with my wedding, but then he said something that made my stomach churn.

Almost all his family and friends overseas can't make it. So can't the bride's, as she's studying abroad as well. With the warmest smile, he says while he wishes his family could be there to celebrate, he's so lucky to have great friends who are helping them put on a small reception.

I told him I had it covered and I wouldn't accept payment. Photos like this will be invaluable over time, and I wanted to pay it forward as the volunteer photographer at my own wedding did.

The wedding was this weekend. I cried during it.

His fellow engineering students became wedding planners. A church opened its doors free of charge. Families of local students caught wind of the event and handled the food, learning cultural dishes from the bride and groom's home countries. A mom group banded together to make table centerpieces. A recently married couple donated their leftover decorations. There were almost one hundred guests. Most of us didn't know each other.

It was the most beautiful wedding I've ever seen. Not just because the bride and groom were so deeply in love with one another, but because strangers saw an opportunity to be kind. In a community where hate of anything 'foreign' seems to fester, a bunch of people saw two lovebirds separated from their families, stepped in, and said, "how can we celebrate love today?"

All I saw was love. Maybe we're not as doomed as we think we are.

[electricheart]

moe nakamura, quiet quest

[icouldwaitforever]

Kaveh Akbar, “Rimrock” in Calling a Wolf a Wolf

[firstfullmoon]

https://www.instagram.com/subwayhands/

[blanchebees]

Tender knights

Tip jar

[soracities]

"Absolutely no one comes to save us but us."

Ismatu Gwendolyn, "you've been traumatized into hating reading (and it makes you easier to oppress)", from Threadings, on Substack [ID'd]

[luthienne]

updated link

[dogrotpdf]

how’s that house that raised you?

[milodrama]

the use of generative ai in books and movies is so disappointing. and this being lauded as some form of great feat and pursuit of artistry is even worse. there is no space for ai in art. there should be no space for efficiency in a medium that should inspire feeling. our need for authenticity shouldn’t come in the expense of sanitizing human artistry. to refine your craft takes time and it is precisely this time that helps you understand yourself better as an artist and the work you want to put into this world.

[funeral]

Byung-Chul Han, Capitalism and the Death Drive

[heavensghost]

I keep making the same mistakes!

[elizabethanism]

ok well this blew my mind

Mirror Life by Kamran Javadizadeh | Poetry Foundation

In Pilgrim Bell, Kaveh Akbar reaches across languages to write "documents of barbarism."

This is also true with filmmakers. Western filmmakers pan their cameras mostly left to right and Iranian filmmakers do right to left.

[mindfulnesspoet]

Time seems such a universal concept and then I find out the different ways people perceive everything and remember “it’s all appearances to consciousness”

[glamourweaver]

But the coolest part of that time-direction study, was there didn’t seem to be a consistent pattern to how aboriginal Australians arranged the images, until it was realized that the issue was where the participant was sitting, because they were consistently arranging them East to West.

[petaltexturedskies]

Here are my resolutions for the next 3 months; the next lap of the year. To have none. Not to be tied. To be free and kindly with myself, not goading it to parties: to sit rather privately reading in the studio. To stop irritation by the assurance that nothing is worth irritation. Sometimes to read, sometimes not to read. To go out yes—but stay at home in spite of being asked. As for clothes, to buy good ones.

Virginia Woolf, in a diary entry dated 2 January 1931, featured in The Diary of Virginia Woolf Vol. V 1936-1941

[heavensghost]

There were times I was kind when I should have been cruel and times I was cruel when I should have been kind.

[isletic]

[theotherkingdoms]

— Megan Fernandes, “Do You Sell Dignity Here?” from I Do Everything I’m Told