A man who nearly breathed himself to death
In a book I once read by Peter Freuchen,’ Fanshawe writes, ‘the famous Arctic explorer describes being trapped by a blizzard in northern Greenland. Alone, his supplies dwindling, he decided to build an igloo and wait out the storm. Many days passed. Afraid, above all, that he would be attacked by wolves—for he heard them prowling hungrily on the roof of his igloo—he would periodically step outside and sing at the top of his lungs in order to frighten them away. But the wind was blowing fiercely, and no matter how hard he sang, the only thing he could hear was the wind. If this was a serious problem, however, the problem of the igloo itself was much greater. For Freuchen began to notice that the walls of his little shelter were gradually closing in on him. Because of the particular weather conditions outside, his breath was literally freezing to the walls, and with each breath the walls became that much thicker, the igloo became that much smaller, until eventually there was almost no room left for his body. It is surely a frightening thing, to imagine breathing yourself into a coffin of ice, and to my mind considerably more compelling than, say, The Pit and the Pendulum by Poe. For in this case it is the man himself who is the agent of his own destruction, and further, the instrument of that destruction is the very thing he needs to keep himself alive.
— P. Auster
(Source: metaincognita, via conceptualnudity)
(Source: yimmyayo)
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Opps.. I think I made a mess here!
Rica Wade is a goddess.
(via ethiopienne)
Mumford & Sons - Lover of the Light
You may not trust the promises of the change I’ll show
But I’ll be yours if you’ll be mine
(via handgrenade2)
We’re going to the park! (Taken with instagram)
Did you know you are covering up loctopus perfectly
I love you so much right now
everyday combat
“According to my father, if 19th-century Poland had allowed women to inherit titles, I would be nobility, and could wear black armor.
I take this as conclusive evidence, if more were needed, that the patriarchy has ruined my life in every possible way. […]”
Dear fellow light skinned POC,
Being rejected for your lightness is not nor will it ever be, the same as being rejected for your darkness or visible Blackness.
It just isn’t ever going to be the same.
I need y’all to understand, and I mean understand, the rejection of whiteness and/or lightness by ethnically and racially marginalized peoples is a reflection of learned fear of our/their oppressors.
The rejection by those same marginalized peoples of darkness and Blackness, in specific, is due to the fact that rejecting, harming, disenfranchising, and challenging claims to mixed/multiple identities of visible Black/African Diaspora peoples will always be viewed as an easy route to authenticity/autonomy under white supremacy.
The rejection of visible racial difference, in which racial difference is largely read as darkness of skin (and there are other elements to it, but having skin color that is not pure-as-the-driven-mayo white is the biggie to traditions of white supremacy), is seen as the Get Out of Jail Free pass.
So when we, light-skinned peoples, talk about our difficulties fitting in, we have to really examine what we’re talking about. We have to acknowledge a world system that continually favors us for “not looking Black” (feel free to replace with [X], if you must).
-
So yeah, we may have shit to deal with, and internalized issues in regard to our authenticity, depending on our backgrounds, but it will never be the same as the struggle for identity our dark-skinned peoples work under.
(via ethiopienne)
"I think the idea of a ‘mental health day’ is something completely invented by people who have no clue what it’s like to have bad mental health. The idea that your mind can be aired out in twenty-four hours is kind of like saying heart disease can be cured if you eat the right breakfast cereal. Mental health days only exist for the people who have the luxury of saying ‘I don’t want to deal with things today’ and then can take the whole day off, while the rest of us are stuck fighting the fights we always fight, with no one really caring one way or another, unless we choose to bring a gun to school or ruin the morning announcements with a suicide."
Will Grayson, Will Grayson (via victoriesoftomorrow)
(via justadillyboy)
(via ethiopienne)
(Source: kinkycurlyfro, via whataqueerblog)
do you ever stop and realize that people probably discuss you from time to time when you aren’t around to witness it
not, even in a specifically positive or negative way just like
people mention you, or think of you, you occur to people sometimes
that’s the most unnerving thing that i can think of, that’s so weird, that i exist to people when i’m not even interacting with them
(Source: twinmachines, via phinforthewin)
