Internet Inspiration – November 29, 2013

If you need it, here’s a template that can help you write a deliciously effective online dating profile. Or, you could use this to articulate these thoughts to yourself.

29 Dumb Things Finance People Say. True. A lot of these are just sensationalist for the news, but they’re still true.

Powerful essay on Why Poor People’s Bad Decisions Make Perfect Sense.

You grab a bit of connection wherever you can to survive. You have no idea how strong the pull to feel worthwhile is. It’s more basic than food. You go to these people who make you feel lovely for an hour that one time, and that’s all you get. You’re probably not compatible with them for anything long-term, but right this minute they can make you feel powerful and valuable. It does not matter what will happen in a month.

My friend’s sister wrote this awesome piece for Gawker. I (fortunately) have no personal experience with cancer, but I do have experience with depression, both mine and that of other people. I don’t want to diminish the importance of wanting to live, but there’s also validity in meeting yourself where you’re at, and not telling other people (or yourself) how you’re supposed to feel. Sometimes sickness makes everything you thought was true about life and the world crumble down. The entire point of the phoenix rising from the ashes is that it burned first, so this purging, these low points, are necessary to life.

Cancer patients are expected to be poster children of a movement, meant to reassure the masses that this plague, and even imminent death, can be overcome with positive affirmations and attitude adjustments. We are a society that believes in control, to the point of delusion. We are a nation founded on the idea that any obstacles can be surmounted and dreams reached through hard work and self-control. I am the unpleasant face of cancer. I am not accepting pain and loss gracefully. I am a disappointment.

Everyone needs their Move-A-Body friend that they can rely on in times of peril, shame, fear, and emergency. And joy, celebration, love, and hope.

I’m completely intrigued by this alternative cancer therapy: inject HIV into a cancer patient.

Ashley Ann is the best of all time in the history of ever at wrapping gifts. I think it’s amazing that she can be so caring and mindful about the wrapping that’s going to be ripped away. Makes me think about how attached I get to my creations.

I needed this reminder this week that not having a particular “reason” for traveling is beautiful in and of itself.

Therapy Rocks. Truth.

I really like these NFL logos reimagined as European football patches. [via Life as Me]

The Art of Becoming Beautiful

Attention isn’t really earned. It’s invoked, it’s manipulated, it can be heady and make you feel powerful but it isn’t something you accomplish; you get it or you don’t. You learn to see yourself from the outside-in: through the eyes of whomever you are relying on to provide it; through the culture that rewards or punishes you for being a certain way.

So when a culture values women primarily for youth and sexuality, women learn to see themselves accordingly. The problem is that when you see yourself outside-in, you’re always looking to external sources for validation. Sometimes you get it. Sometimes you don’t. Since you never know for certain, you’re insecure, on your toes, trying to please.

Recognition happens – at least for some – when you do something exceptionally well, when you do what others can’t, when you solve a problem or create something from nothing or perform a difficult skill or educate or enlighten or improve the lives of others or even just make them laugh (repeatedly).

Recognition happens when you see yourself from the inside-out: as someone who can make an impact on the world, instead of navigating the impact the world has on you.