one of the best ways i’ve found to combat that inherent depressive pessimism without veering into toxic positivity territory is simply the phrase “i’m open to the possibility”
this particularly works with anything negative i’ve forecasted. “i woke up feeling like shit today, so my day is gonna suck” isn’t a particularly helpful thought, but “it’s a great day to be alive!!!!!” feels hollow and insincere when i have a pounding headache & am running on three hours of sleep
instead i’ll tell myself, “i really don’t feel good right now, but i’m open to the possibility that coffee and breakfast might perk me up a bit.” or “i’m in a lot of pain today, but i’m open to the possibility that my workday might still have fun parts despite that”
sometimes, when your impulse is to slam the door on anything good, but you’re not exactly up to going out & hunting it down yourself, leaving the door open just a crack makes all the difference
Always remember you don't know the future! Things could suck even worse than you expected, but they could also be much better, and you can't make up your mind what it'll be like before you see for yourself.
"I'm open to the possibility this won't entirely suck."
"This sounds awful but I could be surprised. I'd love to be proven wrong."
"My hopes aren't high but I guess we'll see."
This is the mentality behind "expect the worst but hope for the best," behind cynical optimism. It's being prepared for everything to go wrong, but keeping that door cracked with a spark of hope in the back of your mind that—you know it won't happen all the time, it doesn't change your expectations, but hopefully sometimes you'll be pleasantly surprised. And when opportunities happen, you're less likely to pass them by, and more willing to see where they go.
tgcf inspired thingy. launches it at u and runs away.
Ken is not freshly ascended, but she is foolish. This, she has been told since before she was a god, and she is stubborn enough to never change her own foolishness. And while she has no real reason to pick bones with Calamities, this purple flower guy or whatever his name is, is really fucking with her style.
A god of clever escapes and path forging, bleeding believers to a ghost! She really, really is going to kick his ass about it. What can a ghost do for humans anyway? She mulls over it as she descends to the earth, cheeks reddened with frustration. She picked through a few human dreams to figure out where this guy hangs out, and the answer she got was some cave.
Really!? Ken feels like she’s losing her mind as she finds the entrance. Stupid cave. Stupid ghost. Stupid Calamity that does nothing but vex Ken.
She enters the cave.
So, the cave might not actually be just a cave. It weaves in endless tunnels and paths that leave Ken dizzy. Her memory is sharp, so she takes careful note of every turn she makes.
"Little god," a shadow whispers. Ken jumps out of her skin, turning around sharply. "You should leave here. It's not safe."
"Who's there?"
A boy walks out of an alcove, pale skinned and skinny as a twig. He looks like he's been lost in there for a long time.
"What are you doing in here?" Ken asks, patting over the boys shoulders and cheeks. He's taller than Ken, but she doubts he's even close to beokg older than Ken was when she ascended. "Let's get you out of this place."
“I’ve been lost for weeks. . .” the boy’s eyes seem hollow, and Ken clicks her tongue. “I came to ask for help from the ghost that lives here, but I wasn’t smart enough to make it through his maze.”
“There’s no need to look towards a ghost when there are hundreds of temples who will take you in” Ken scolds, taking the boy’s hand and tugging him. “Come, come, let me get you out.”
The boy follows diligently, footsteps airy behind her.
“The temples. . . they don’t take kindly if you’re empty handed. The ghost here, he doesn’t ask for much.”
“What? What could he ask for? Anything is too much when it's to a ghost from a human.”
“Just a love story.”
Ken pauses, and the boy stumbles and crashes into her back. She turns to give him an incredulous look.
“A love story.”
“Yes. This ghost, he is a ghost of love.”
“A ghost of love.”
Ken doesn’t mean to parrot back everything the boy says, but the boy smiles a bit, clearly amused by Ken’s obvious befuddlement.
“That’s what everyone says.”
“That’s dumb,” Ken starts to walk again, finally seeing the light of day squirm its way into the paths. “Who ever heard of a ghost of love?”
“That’s what everyone here says. That he was very in love, and that he is very clever, and he can solve any problem as long as you tell him a love story.”
Stupid, Ken thinks, but she keeps her mouth shut. The sun feels like a kiss to the face when they exit together. The boy looks no less pale in the light, but he basks in it all the same.
“Thank you for your help, little god. I can find my way home now. But you should be careful here.”
A cold seeps out from the mouth of the cave. Ken shivers. Something heavy lays just at the borderline of the entrance, something that wasn’t there before, and she recalculates her choices. She has to come more prepared than this, considering that it took her hours and she still failed to find the ghost she was trying to curse.
“Thank you for your advice.”
Ken escapes back to the heavens.
Wifies watches the little god return to the heavens. This juvenile form is one of the better disguises he has, and it has worked once again beautifully. He stretches out, black veil unfurling over his face once more. Better to keep meddling gods out of his business as much as possible.
He flexes his hand, still warm with the residual heat from the god’s grip.
“Indeed, who ever heard of a ghost of love?” he chuckles.
terrifying when you watch a movie or a show or whatever & youre like that was fun but it felt a little redundant they didnt need to hammer the point home that much & then you go online & theres thousands of people going that was so weird i did not get it what did that mean google.com ending explained please?
It's easy to forget that media literacy IS a skill. Like, its not something that you just have or you don't, you absolutely can improve your ability to pick up on metaphors and literary devices etc if you actually care to, it just takes practice (ie: watching things through a critical lense and stretching that muscle).
Along the same line of thinking I don't think people who lack media literacy are stupid. Even people with high media literacy tend to forget it's a such valuable skill, but if it wasn't valuable and wasn't something that takes practice and effort there wouldn't be so many literary breakdowns and explanation videos and reviews that get into authorial intent.
More people WANT to understand the deeper intent behind art, but a lot of people never bother to try stretching that muscle because they're convinced that they're just stupid and can't interact with media in that particular way, that that's the job for the brainy reviewers and critics.
All it takes is a little nudge and some encouragement sometimes; There was a time in our lives where none of us knew what a metaphor was. Ultimately if it's someone you care about who "misses the point" of something you like, you COULD be upset that they're "not smart enough" for it or whatever, or you could break down exactly why the point is what it is, and encourage them to look for those literary devices in other things they watch.
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