Month June 2018

Where differences matter the most

Elle Reverie Leave a comment

Don’t you just love the meme parade on social media following all tragic events of late? And by “of late” I mean every damn day!

I can’t wake up to good news lately because, well, it’s all awful 24/7 in Orange Tweet Land but it’s the, “let’s be fair” or “let’s love everyone even though they don’t share your political beliefs” bullshit that fans my fire of dislike for humankind the most.

Y’all just don’t get it!

Or, maybe you do and you just don’t care. I’m thinking it’s this one because caring takes effort and, WOMP-WOMP it’s becoming more and more apparent that “say it like it is” is really code for SHOW US HOW MUCH OF AN ASSHOLE YOU REALLY ARE! It’s okay, really, the Orange Anus in the White House will praise and excuse you and then pardon you if need be. That still doesn’t take away any of the stink…just so we are clear.

*Click the Womping link above and just read the vile comments from American citizens that feel pretty righteous typing away on their computer keyboards and phones in their non-cage homes.

Come on out you constitutional experts! You barkers of propaganda designed to do the very thing your memes and psshh comments are trying to wave off: Separate us even further. Do you really not see this? To condescendingly say: “I don’t hate people who don’t believe the same way I do” while posting obvious untruths and purposely incendiary links to articles, videos, and memes that drip of every ism around is gas lit Hamburger Helper. It’s not even the foie gras of propaganda. It’s the cheapest form of party line gruel.

It literally makes me both cry and laugh to see how well psychological warfare has worked on the very people whom I have heard say, “I don’t believe in that psychobabble, mumbo-jumbo!” Yeah, you may not BELIEVE in it but it still exists and its effectiveness has never been more evident than now based on how many families and friendships social media has torn apart since the Age of Orange began.

*I use derogatory nicknames for Tiny Hands 45 because:

#1) He set the example so if it’s good enough for him then it’s doubly good enough for regular folk! And,

#2) I fear saying his name 3 times in a row, like Beetlejuice, because, well, we know how that went and I don’t like sandworms or zombies.

Anyway, getting back to the topic at hand; in short, some differences really do matter. Like the difference between people who are and aren’t horrified with government sanctioned child abuse. I get it, shit has been going down for a long time and very little was done BUT, we are in the HERE AND NOW. It is in our fucking faces non-stop and the fucking tweets keep coming and the fucking asshole talking heads, oh sorry…apologists, well really, justifiers for the shitty behavior of a goddamn sitting US president all find great glee in this situation.

Hear that? THEY APPEAR TO BE OKAY WITH THIS SHIT!!!!!!!

Gotta secure the border. Gotta take back American jobs. Gotta, gotta, gotta….uh, how about gotta stop abusing children, period.

We all know the government doesn’t give a shit about the abuse of American children or THAT would have been taken care of long ago but to now turn that stern hand on children from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, you know, the countries Grand Poobah Cheeto deemed “shithole countries” is pretty telling. For a country with a massive Orange Talking Head that touts how great he is, THIS ain’t so great.

And Y’all wonder why people hate us? Really? You wonder?

My point here is this; don’t tell me to respect your beliefs if one of them includes justifying the abuse of children. On that, we will remain very fucking different. On that, we will remain in constant disagreement and on THAT we will remain extremely distant. Count on it.

 

© 2018 L.A. Askew
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to “In the Land of Reverie” with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
To steal the creative work of another to use as your own is the grand height of laziness.

On pain, suffering and depression: How to tell the arrogantly insensitive to shove it.

Elle Reverie Leave a comment

Seeing all of the abject pain and utter suffering of human beings lately, whether they are friends, family, strangers or even celebrities, makes me search for the proper words to describe how it makes me feel.

In short, it makes me feel angry but also hopeful that I and many others can and will tell those who have no interest in understanding or helping to stop being a roadblock. Stop being patronizing. Stop being arrogant. Stop being ignorant. And, stop lying to yourself. I know you feel some of the same things I have…I know you feel unsure about how to own those feelings.

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FEEL..a word that I was taught to fear and avoid at all costs.  While I can’t say that I am a “typical” depressed person (whatever that is) I can say that I have felt that removing myself from the world would make life easier for others. I entertained this thought because of negative things I was told and after that further negative things began to cultivate in my brain until I believed them to be the only solution. I don’t know now. After reading what I just wrote maybe I am a typical depressed person. I’m okay with that label.

The belief that checking out would be for the greater good of those in my life was all I had since I had no support from family. I was too afraid to tell anyone I knew that their supposed strong friend was actually racked with doubt, fear, and anxiety. When we FEEL we tend to care more about others and ourselves and when we share those feelings, well then, that just makes many people fucking uncomfortable. And, we certainly don’t want to make assholes uncomfortable right?

Wrong.

My new goal in life is to take uncomfortable subjects and smear them right in the faces of the willfully cruel and self-centered pricks of the world. A massive glob of feelings-filled reality jam if you will. Except there is nothing sweet or enjoyable about it, unlike real, fruit jam which I love!

The point here is to expose the “selective feeling and lack of understanding” or self-deceiving crowd to the inner workings of the true human experience in the hope that they will either learn something and grow from it or they will shut the fuck up and crawl back under their rocks. Pretty simple I think. You either give a shit and try to help or you close your excrement filled mouth and stay the hell out of the conversation until a proper education occurs.

Mean? Maybe, but guess what? I’m done caring what others think of my empowerment goal and it’s not like that sentiment isn’t felt in a reverse fashion by the current hate mongers that claim to be in “charge.” There is nothing inclusive or understanding about what the Orange Anus is crop dusting all over the reasonable citizens of this fine country so to think any of his followers don’t wish ill on anyone not like them is naive and dangerous.

It’s a modified “kind but cautious” approach. I can empathize and help but I can also unleash a verbal blowtorch along with an ass-kicking if needed. Reasonable doesn’t mean weak or pacifist.  It means I will listen to reason and weigh the facts but if you give me a reason to believe that you wish me harm?  IT IS ON!

I write all of this in the wake of numerous reports of the uptick in suicides in America, the deaths of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain and also the increase in human slugs inciting the vulnerable to possibly consider or complete suicide because of horrific and vicious things they post online while trolling.

Why do you assholes do this? I can ask the question but I know I will get vague spittles of bigger lies that cannot be admitted because trolls do not possess the courage to be open and honest.

So, now, the movement I want to start is one of speaking, out loud, about pain, fears, anguish, hurt and loneliness. Ask about it if you are unsure and your gut says something is wrong. ASK. When we ask questions we learn a lot about others and ourselves. We learn that we are both alike and not alike at all. We learn about our capacity to help others and, most importantly, we learn that we are not alone. There are many weird, scared, anxious, insecure yet wonderful people out there just like us.

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Listen to others when they reciprocate in kind. Listen to understand and not to reply. If you are thinking about what you will say in response before someone has even finished sharing their deepest pain with you then go back to the beginning because you aren’t helping anyone.

What if you have no reply? What if you have no common experience to offer? Listening is just that, silent concentration on the speaker and if there is no common experience to share then please do not try to make something up.  They will know you are lying and for what? We all don’t have to live through similar things in order to give a damn about one another.

It truly isn’t that hard!

Speak out. Ask questions. Listen. Learn. Love.

Repeat until there are more kind people than assholes in the world. Hear that, assholes? Your days in power are numbered.

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© 2018 L.A. Askew
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to “In the Land of Reverie” with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Moving on

Elle Reverie Leave a comment

I moved.

Both physically and mentally.

It was time.

The house I lived in for 18 years, a house filled with good ghosts and bad ghosts, the specters of a past I have both hated and loved. So what now? The answer to that is this; I finally get to go to a place I am wanted, loved and respected. And, it feels nice.

Some people are miserable after they move…I was not!

I’m not saying that no one has loved me in my past. My grandparents loved me, aunts, uncles, cousins and I’m sure, somewhere deep in the cortex of their brains, my parents and siblings loved me at one time. They had an odd way of showing it but I am sure a small sliver of like, if not love, was there briefly. And if not, I am not going to lose any sleep over it.

Bye, bye, bye…

The stories my former house can tell are a mixture of hilarity, aggravation, joy, anger and finally, resignation. Some I recall with relish and others I wish would slip quietly from my mind, never to be replayed again.

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I feel the same way about most of my childhood homes as well and we moved around a lot! But, none of those homes had my name on the deed nor did I pay the mortgage. This house was paid for not only with my hard-earned wages but also a pound of flesh here and there combined with nearly every ounce of my self-respect.

And now, its sold. A done deal. A new start for someone else and I am glad.

My only hope is that the bad juju does not stay attached to either the house or myself.

Release, restore and relax!!!! It’s over woman. You are finally free!

© 2018 L.A. Askew
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to “In the Land of Reverie” with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.