People often complain about resolutions, or feel like it's pointless to make a particular goal if you know you won't be able to keep it every day.
I'm here to say FUCK THAT.
One of the most valuable things I've learned from my therapist so far is that persistence is a good alternative to consistency. I interpret this to mean: if you can't do something every day, doing it as often as you can is better than not doing it at all.
Trying to improve can take time. Progress isn't linear.
Keeping a tidy living space, working towards fitness goals, practicing a new (or old) skill, changing negative thought patterns to improve mental health, and so on…. none of these goals will be instant changes that you make at midnight and maintain all year, and then you've won the New Year's Resolution Game. That simply isn't how most of us function. And that's OK!
Consistency is still an admirable goal to strive for, if you can manage it. But if consistency is out of your reach, for any reason, then maybe consider aiming for persistence instead. You don't have to work towards your goals every single day. Just return to them as often as you can, when you're ready to try.
I really want to talk about Faustus and Mephistopheles??
I've just read this play for a literature class and the instructor mostly wants to discuss the power of Marlowe's blank verse and why it's so effective, but I really want to talk about the way Marlowe describes damnation and how it's left mostly up to interpretation whether (or how) Faustus might have escaped being literally dragged away to torment in hell.
Could he have repented and been saved by God?? The play goes out of its way to say YES.
BUT ON THE OTHER HAND... could he have been more sincere and thorough in his denouncement of God and then actually been hailed as a hero in Hell?? I feel like that's a solid MAYBE.
Throughout the whole play, Mephistopheles and Lucifer expound on that idea that Hell is the absence of the grace of God. It's not really about the traditional fires and pitchforks that people tend to imagine. Faustus is reminded to never think or speak of God, and promised that if he will put his faith in Lucifer instead, he'll be rewarded for it. But what does he keep doing throughout the play? He KEEPS bringing up God and Christ, lamenting that he's done horrible things that can never be forgiven, and this and that about the 'wrath' of God.
Regardless of one's personal philosophies about religion or the nature of God or the Devil, this situation just reads like...
Mephistopheles tells Faustus "It was a really tough break-up, and we are NOT friends anymore; God has the best house, but since we sided with Lucifer, we're not allowed to go back, not even to visit. So hey, it definitely sucks, but if you want to be friends anyway, we'll do it under one condition. Say you'll never mention God around us, because we really don't like being reminded of that whole thing, and you're in."
Obviously Faustus is like "I've never even met God, and he probably hates me for talking shit about him, so let's do this."
Everyone else tells Faustus, "PLEASE, they're really not nice people over there. Just say you're sorry about the shit-talking, and you can come to God's house."
Faustus gets all caught up in this pre-game party he's having with Mephistopheles, but he's constantly guilting himself about the shit-talking and the betrayal; he regularly talks about how God must hate him, and even when his time is running out, people keep telling him, "you just have to say you're sorry, it'll be fine, God will totally let you come over," but he insists that, no, he was a huge dick, he can't be forgiven, and how tragic it is for him that he can't go to God's house now.
Why wouldn't Lucifer and his friends be mad?? All Faustus had to do was NOT talk about God, and all he wanted to do was... talk about God. Of course they were going to beat him up for coming to the party and dragging everyone down, ruining the vibe, again, just when they were starting to forget the whole thing.
None of this is to endorse the idea that Faustus should have renounced God completely (obviously the play wants you to understand that he just had to repent), but it is fun to think about "what if."
Sometimes I’ll get a bot follow that I have to report/block, but when I go to do it, I’m so appalled by the laziness of the bot’s creative choices that a regular report/block just isn’t satisfying enough.
Where is my function to report that the bot is clearly phoning it in at this point? 0/10 bot. Disappointing.
My wife is visiting her family this week and rediscovered a bunch of old art and is sharing it with me and I’m… 🥺🥰
Most of it is at least a decade old (or more) but it kinda feels like just yesterday that I was first seeing this stuff on her DeviantART page - and now I’m seeing it again for the first time in years. Such a cool rediscovery.
I just finished talking to my therapist AT LENGTH about how much I DON'T want to be vulnerable in the context of the art that I make; even when I know that doing so could make it fundamentally better, the thought of putting myself into my art for real is TERRIFYING.
Something about the commodification of art (and self) in today's online culture is uncomfortable for me but it's hard for me to articulate it, let alone face down the fear that comes with it.
