decisiontoleave:

Atonement (2007) dir. Joe Wright

Although another way of making the point that giving up hope doesn’t kill you, as Jensen points out, is that in a certain sense it does kill you. It kills the fear-driven, control-chasing, ego-dominated version of you—the one who cares intensely about what others think of you, about not disappointing anyone or stepping too far out of line, in case the people in charge find some way to punish you for it later. You find, Jensen writes, that “the civilised you died. The manufactured, fabricated, stamped, moulded you died. The victim died.” And the “you” that remains is more alive than before. More ready for action, but also more joyful, because it turns out that when you’re open enough to confront how things really are, you’re open enough to let all the good things in more fully, too, on their own terms, instead of trying to use them to bolster your need to know that everything will turn out fine. You get to appreciate life in the droll spirit of George Orwell, on a stroll through a war-dazed London in early 1946, watching kestrels darting above the grim shadows of the gasworks, and tadpoles dancing in roadside streams, and later writing of the experience: “Spring is here, even in London N1, and they can’t stop you enjoying it.”

The average human lifespan is absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short. But that isn’t a reason for unremitting despair, or for living in an anxiety-fuelled panic about making the most of your limited time. It’s a cause for relief. You get to give up on something that was always impossible — the quest to become the optimised, infinitely capable, emotionally invincible, fully independent person you’re officially supposed to be. Then you get to roll up your sleeves and start work on what’s gloriously possible instead.

Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks

leluxemannequin:

Lagerfeld’s Studio 54 Versailles Party

jamllasic:

“We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains,” Le Guin said. “That’s what I want — to hear you erupting.

“You young Mount St. Helenses who don’t know the power in you — I want to hear you,” Le Guin tells the all-female graduating class.

So what keeps girls from knowing the power in them?

[…] we leave girls wholly unprepared for the crisis to come as they grow up. What is particularly cruel is that, especially in the West, society increasingly feeds girls “you can do anything” lies while the patriarchy remains intact. They can’t. And they have to know why.“

Mona Eltahawy, What the world would look like if we taught girls to rage

paperclowns:

sunshinae:

i think reading together is one of the loveliest things two people can do. reading out loud to each other, or reading two different books while lounging on the floor seems so dreamy.

dailyflicks:

You sold your soul to the devil when you put on your first pair of Jimmy Choos, I saw it.
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA (2006) Dir. David Frankel

Why focus on time management in an era like this? It might seem like the height of irrelevance. But as I’ve sought to make clear, I think that’s mainly just a consequence of the blinkered focus of most conventional time management advice. Broaden your perspective a bit, and it’s obvious that in periods of anxiety and darkness, questions of time use take on fresh urgency: our success or failure in responding to the challenges we face will turn entirely on how we use the hours available in the day. The phrase “time management” might seem to render the whole thing rather mundane. But then a mundane life — in the sense of the one that’s unfolding here now, in this very moment — is all that we have to work with.

Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks

detailedart:

1. Joan of Arc, 1865, by John Everett Millais.

2. Kate Bush in Joanni

Most children’s spontaneous love of science fades by adulthood. Is it a problem with science itself? Does increasing familiarity with science and technology lead to disenchantment? Despite some claims to that effect, the real cause is a decline in wonder. Wonder is the engine that drives exploration and discovery, and, when it disappears, an infatuation with the workings of the world melts away.

We are all born with many essential ingredients of wonder—with inquisitive minds, fascinated by the world around us. Young children and even infants are naturally engaging in intuitive science every day, often with sophisticated methods. But that early bonfire of inquiry can shrink to a tiny flicker. This loss of wonder is not because we suddenly understand everything — we don’t — but because distrust, disengagement, and denial can become embedded into many aspects of our lives.

The consequences of this loss of wonder are profound. Because impoverished wonder can lead to especially poor understandings of underlying mechanisms, we become vulnerable to misinformation and manipulation by others. Even worse, abandonment of wonder deprives us of the intensely rewarding joy of discovery. This loss of wonder, however, is not inevitable.

Frank C. Keil, Where Does Childhood Wonder Come From - And Why Does it End?

lelaid:

Sasha Pivovarova by Craig McDean for W, June 2006

vampyr3wife:

“Act ladylike” how about I kill you what then

oldfilmsflicker:

Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold, 2017 (dir. Griffin Dunne)