tricksters and villains apply within

"Alternate Universe" is a strong poem. It speaks to the nature of emotional investments not just in relationships but in ourselves and the effects of misogyny on both. It's simple, it's funny, and Olivia's performance of it is awesome. I think my favorite line is this: "I have so much beautiful time." I found Olivia's poetry through this TedxABQ talk she did about finding each other in the details. Personally, I'm a big believer in small moments. Small moments where we give thanks, or love, or support or just memory to someone or something. She speaks there about a simple interaction between her and her best friend that she turned into a poem, and uses it to show the audience how she teaches others to write poems too. In this, she tells us it's about the details. We can tell stories about small things that are also about big things too. How a story or a poem about a bikini can also become a story about fat-shaming or body positivi...

A content warning , I suppose, is in order for this. At least if it were me, I'd want to know that I'm about to talk a whole lot about some specific [if nameless] shitty Christians. Also, a trigger warning for abuse of a minor (it's an extremely brief mention). I'm working on a story -- well, a novel, maybe -- and for that, I need to do a little bit of research. I want to build a framework around some old church sermons with a pretty specific theme. Thankfully (or not so much since there's a whole lot of things I'd rather have stuck in my head) I used to go to the kind of church that espoused the kind of ideologies and doctrines this story is going to feature. This means I know pretty easily the kind of people to look up who might have sermons online to listen to. Specifically, I found sermons from a travel ministry my old pastor taught around the country in the years long after he was the pastor. I listened to one tonight, just one, and I had to skip ahead...