The Advocate

(Some Birds Are Not Meant To Be Caged, By Ryger ) When I first started this series, my intention was to balance out the toxicity and bigotry of social media and the internet with words of wisdom. My goal was to put something positive and maybe even beautiful out there into the vast reaches of cyberspace. Now, as we begin our journey into 2022, I believe this will be my last entry in this series for a while as I refocus and reprioritize my endeavors. So, in honor of this particular ending and a simultaneous beginning, here's a quote I hope you love as much as I do. "The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." — Albert Camus Here's to living in collective liberation! Take note and take care.

(Bell Hooks Unscripted, by Apanaki Temitayo) "Sometimes people try to destroy you, precisely because they recognize your power — not because they don’t see it, but because they see it and they don’t want it to exist." ― By bell hooks. Take note and take care.

(Artist and title unknown) "There is no real difference for users between a platform that has no policies against hate speech, incitement, and disinformation, and one which has such policies but does not enforce them." —V. Judah Khaykin. Take note and take care.

( James Goldcrown’s mural #lovewall) "Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love." — Khalil Gibran, The Prophet Take note and take care.

( Attribution )   "Your life has been one long thread of hurt. Now, what will you mend with that thread?" — Paraphrase of @sagescrittore Sorry for the delay in posting! Take note and take care.

(Golden Tears, by Annie Marie Zimmerman) "There is a sacredness in tears. They are not a mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition and of unspeakable love." — Washington Irving

( Maya and the Three poster ) "If it is to be, it is up to me." — William Johnsen. Take note and take care.

(Art by Ashvin Harrison) “Are you happy?” “In all honesty? No. But I am curious – I am curious in my sadness, and I am curious in my joy. I am everseeking, everfeeling. I am in awe of the beautiful moments life gives us, and I am in awe of the difficult ones. I am transfixed by grief, by growth. It is all so stunning, so rich, and I will never convince myself that I cannot be somber, cannot be hurt, cannot be overjoyed. I want to feel it all – I don’t want to cover it up or numb it. So no, I am not happy. I am open, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.” ― Bianca Sparacino, Seeds Planted in Concrete Take note and take care.

(Art by Jason Edmiston) "The monsters were never // under my bed. // Because the monsters // were inside my head. // I fear no monsters, // for no monsters I see. // Because all this time // the monster has been me." — Nikita Gill Happy Halloween! Take note and take care.

(Art by Jonathan Horowitz) "I get along best with people I don't need to explain things to. Unfortunately for me, I tend to work almost exclusively with people who need some explaining." — paraphrase of Kat Blaque Take note and take care.

(Art by Takashi Murakami, Japan Supernatural: Vertiginous After Staring at the Empty World Too Intensely, I Found Myself Trapped in the Realm of Lurking Ghosts and Monsters, 2019) "Some people will never like you because your spirit irritates their demons."  —  Denzel Washington Take note and take care.

( Art by Robert Shetterly ) "To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory." — Howard Zinn Take note and take care.

  "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." - Frank Herbert Take note and take care.

( Credit: Tyler Elise ) "Normalize changing your opinion when presented with new information." — Unknown, inspired by WandaVision Take note and take care.

(Art by Lourry Legarde) "I used to be afraid of the dark until I learned that I am light and the dark is afraid of me." — D.R. Silva Take note and take care.

"The highest good, like water, benefits many things, yet occupies dark places men despise." — Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu. Take note and take care.

(The Island of Procrastination, by Gemma Correll) "If you wait till the last minute, it'll only take a minute. I believe that if anything is worth doing, it would have been done already. I shall never move quickly, except to avoid more work or find excuses. I will never rush into a job without a lifetime of consideration. I shall meet all of my deadlines directly in proportion to the amount of bodily injury I could expect to receive from missing them. I firmly believe that tomorrow holds the possibility for new technologies, astounding discoveries, and a reprieve from my obligations. I truly believe that all deadlines are unreasonable regardless of the amount of time given. If at first I don't succeed, there is always next year. I shall always decide not to decide, unless of course I decide to change my mind. I shall always begin, start, initiate, take the first step, and/or write the first word, when I get around to it. I will never put off tomorrow, what I can forget abo...

( Tree of Hope, by Ashvin Harrison ) "Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. When you recognize uncertainty, you recognize that you may be able to influence the outcomes — you alone or you in concert with a few dozen or several million others. Hope is an embrace of the unknown and unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists. Optimists think it will all be fine without our involvement; pessimists take the opposite position; both excuse themselves from acting. It’s the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand. We may not, in fact, know them afterward either, but they matter all the same, and history is full of people whose influence was most powerful after they were gone." — Rebecca Solnit Take note and take care.

(Art by  Zdzislaw Beksinski) "Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed – in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with...

A while ago I started posting this topic on my other social media accounts to cultivate a healthier and more sustainable social media praxis. But I never thought to share them on here! Well, to correct that oversight, here are all the posts since I started in order from the very first to the most recent. NB: for anything you're curious about, Google is your friend! But I'm happy to answer more in the comments. *** "So yeah, dreams are important. And I think there are more dreamers today than ever before in the history of anything…but…they're so afraid, so many of them. Afraid to lose all their 'manageable misery.' It's all just so…so…pathetic. Pathetic…and selfish. Are you seriously telling me…that you would deny the world an exquisite painting just because the cardboard firm from down the street is hiring? That you'd stay out of politics because your mates would think you a twat? That the greatest secrets of quantum physics would go forever unearthed…b...