Torchbearer. Light is your calling, fire your weapon.
Torchbearer. You walk in front, showing the way. In the darkness, you shine like a star. Your fire burns away fog, leaving clarity in its wake.
Dune 2 Review – Women’s Roles
Chani – and the actress who played her – were done *wrong*. Fremen weren’t equal. They were survivors. And survivors in desperation don’t have time for androgyny. Men are needed to do man things, and women are needed to do women things. Those things are equally important, equally needed. The women in Dune weren’t weaklings. They weren’t soft. They weren’t lazy. They weren’t one-dimensional. Androgyny isn’t feminist. Repeat after me, please. The women of the Fremen had power. Influence. My head hurts.
Women’s Work vs. Deep Work
In all but the most modern of times, men and women have had very different work. There is, and was, a varying degree of overlap. “Women’s work” is something that the group could rely on being done while child care happened. But what makes up “women’s work” is what will always get done while the…
Wardrobe Foundations
Wardrobe Foundations means the building blocks of your wardrobe. These items are likely to be boring and/or invisible and some of your more expensive items.
Bra: Buy one that fits. Be fit, quite probably. Skin tone and smooth. If you haven’t replaced your bras in a year, this may be what’s meh-ing up your wardrobe. Bras stretch, and they have a short life-span. You will be hand-washing this bra and air-drying it in order to have it last for you as long as possible.
Shoes: Buy a pair of shoes that are fit-for-purpose (comfortable enough to do life without thinking about your feet) in your base dark color. This is likely to be your largest foundational investment.
Bottoms: Buy a pair of pants or a skirt in a basic color for you, in a fairly durable fabric.
Why You Don’t Know How to Plan Your Wardrobe
Why don’t you know how to plan your wardrobe? Because you’ve never been taught. And not only have you never been taught how to plan a wardrobe, you haven’t been taught any of the sub-skills you’d need to get there. Since you can’t plan your wardrobe, you can’t budget your clothing expenses. Since you can’t plan your wardrobe, you’re at the mercy of snap decisions. Since you haven’t planned your wardrobe, you spend money on clothes that don’t fit in with your lifestyle or goals. Your lack of skill in this area makes you a great consumer – from the vendor’s point of view.
The Marginalization of Productivity
The marginalization of productivity is a feature of our modern world. It keeps us good consumers, because we can’t make the things we use on a day-to-day basis. If we can make them, making them is seen as low-status, and/or the things we make are seen as low-worth. ”Bought” things are better. At least, that’s how it’s been. We are seeing a turn-around as, to cut prices, the “bought” things are being made so cheaply that their quality has dropped below middling-well-made home items. How did we get here?
Daydreaming of a New Life
Why would you want to leave your home? I was born here, raised here, I married here, raised a family here, my parents are here. I know the pathways and the taste of the wind after a good rain.
A change of location would mean that I would have to build new community networks. It would mean learning the land, the people, the weather, and their ways. In daydreams, everything goes perfectly. In reality, there is no such thing as a ‘perfect place’.
Daydreams vs. reality – there will always be a tug-of-war.
Main Character Energy
But what if we stepped up and decided to embrace that main character energy? If we slapped on our tiaras and got on with the business of being beautiful, got on with the business of being kind, got on with the business of doing the -whateverthings- we know we have been called to do in this world, if we got on with the business of creating change. Our main character energy might move mountains, if we showed up.
If Your Possessions Could Talk…
I heard someone (speaking from the minimalist point of view) say that all our possessions are chattering at us all the time. I’d agree with this. I certainly feel much more at peace and ready to create in a clean, orderly space. If your possessions could talk, would they make you give them away?
I *love* books. One of my dreams is to have a home big enough to put all our books out in a central location and have a proper library. My books don’t say, “you’re stupid, why don’t you read me”, my books say, “Look at all this lovely knowledge! Right at your fingertips… and remember the good times we had together, when you wandered through my pages?”
Preparing for the End
Preparing for the end of 2023, I’m getting my ducks in rows for Christmas and reviewing my past year-end posts and Deep Thoughts. 2023’s “word of the year” was transformation. 2023 has definitely been transformative. Where do I find myself, at the end of all this transformation? Struggling to walk forward instead of back. And that, my dear friends,…