Well... My name is Alexandra and welcome to my Mind Palace!
It may contain but is not limited to:
Harry Potter
The Lord of the Rings (and The Hobbit of course)
Sherlock
Merlin
Starkid
Nerdfighteria
Doctor Who
Note: Currently at season 8 of supernatural...
This time of year is always very nostalgic for me bc I used to be the Token Gentile at an office and every few months there’d be a Jewish holiday and my friend would be like “Hey, I need you to do Gentile things for us” and I’d be like hell yes dude. Gentile Things often meant I’d sign things in exchange for a few dollars on venmo but Pesach was a special time for me because it meant everyone gave me boxes of pasta, cereal, and other baked goods. The first time my friends were like “Hey for reasons we won’t bother getting into we’re going to give you all of our bread” I was like, it is a powerful responsibility but as an Ally I cannot refuse. Best time of the year, frankly
Reminds me of the year I spent in a house with a Muslim housemate, and he ate nothing during the day throughout Ramadan - then of course he would be hungry af and buy a fuckload of food as soon as he got off work in the evening. Around midnight, he’d realize he just couldn’t eat everything he’d bought on his own, and come knock at my door to ask if I felt like having dinner again.
I always felt like having dinner again.
I misread that as ‘Tolkien Gentile’ and felt let-down by the post.
On the contrary, it feels very Tolkien for people with unfamiliar customs to show up and give you a bunch of their food with barely an explanation. Like a reverse of the opening of The Hobbit where the dwarves show up and eat all Bilbo’s seed cake, or something.
And in these next 50 years you will eat so many delicious meals, laugh so many times with so many people you love, shout and scream and sing and cry and smile so hard your face hurts. And you will see such beautiful sunsets and feel fresh cold air on your face and feel warm and safe wrapped up in your favourite winter coat.
The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001) dir. Peter Jackson
“With a lion as its crest and Professor McGonagall at its head, Gryffindor is the house which most values the virtues of courage, bravery and determination.”
My dad and I once had a disagreement over him using the adage “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
I said, “That’s just not true. Sometimes what doesn’t kill you leaves you brittle and injured or traumatized.”
He stopped and thought about that for a while. He came back later, and said, “It’s like wood glue.”
He pointed to my bookshelf, which he helped me salvage a while ago. He said, “Do you remember how I explained that, once we used the wood glue on them, the shelves would actually be stronger than they were before they broke?”
I did.
“But before we used the wood glue, those shelves were broken. They couldn’t hold up shit. If you had put books on them, they would have collapsed. And that wood glue had to set awhile. If we put anything on them too early, they would have collapsed just the same as if we’d never fixed them at all. You’ve got to give these things time to set.”
It sounded like a pretty good metaphor to me, but one thing I did pick up on was that whatever broke those shelves, that’s not the thing that made them stronger. That just broke them. It was being fixed that made them stronger. It was the glue.
So my dad and I agreed, what doesn’t kill you doesn’t actually make you stronger, but healing does. And if you feel like healing hasn’t made you stronger than you were before, you’re probably not done healing. You’ve got to give these things time to set.
