8.1.2014
Internet Inspiration – August 1, 2014
August 1, 2014
my-faith-in-humanity-never-left
My Faith In Humanity Never Left
August 20, 2014

Internet Inspiration – August 15, 2014

Oh, Sally. Taking the words right out of my mouth.

When you feel good about your physical form, some of those negative, manipulative messages will start to bounce off of you. You’ll hear them and think, “Nope, I’m just fine, thanks,” and you’ll move on. And depending on how you’re wired, gaining ground on body love and acceptance may empower you to be more visible in your daily life, family life, professional life, artistic life. When you’re able to let snark slide off of you, you aren’t as leery of speaking in front of a group or offering to lead a team. You’re bolder, braver, stronger. When you aren’t worried about how others will look at or think about your appearance, you’re free to make bigger choices.

Your body is not your masterpiece.

Stop spending all day obsessing, cursing, perfecting your body like it’s all you’ve got to offer the world. Your body is not your art, it’s your paintbrush. Whether your paintbrush is a tall paintbrush or a thin paintbrush or a stocky paintbrush or a scratched up paintbrush is completely irrelevant. What is relevant is that YOU HAVE A PAINTBRUSH which can be used to transfer your insides onto the canvas of your life — where others can see it and be inspired and comforted by it.

All the sparklepoints to this post on “weighting.”

“Weighting” shifts our attention away from our highest goals. The gym trumps our social life. Weight loss becomes the first necessary step to a better life. The dieting cycle puts our creative ventures on hold. It feels like focusing on weight loss is the right thing to do, and everything else is secondary. How many times have your plans for weight loss taken priority over your plans for your life?

Shedding Light on Collective Beauty.

I’m more and more loving Russell Brand, and I find myself, when bad things happen, waiting for him to weigh in. Here’s a really nicely edited compilation of some of his speeches.

I am affected. Thank you, Karen.

I don’t generally write about race here on Chookooloonks, if only for the reason that there are other people who write about it far more eloquently than I. People like the incredible Jay Smooth, as well as friends of mine like Kelly and Kristen, but there are many, many more. I try to reserve Chookooloonks as a place of peace and beauty, and if I discuss race and culture here at all, it is generally through that lens. But after watching the events unfold last night, I couldn’t continue writing here in this space without making it very clear that I’m affected.

Ads that say what we’re really thinking.

It’s been a tough news week, so I want to make sure I share a little levity. Who said it: Oscar Wilde or the Golden Girls?

Don’t drunk text a Doctor Who fan. Amazing.

And Tom Haverford’s business ideas.

Thank you, Reddit. You can have anything in the world, but the next commenter gets to condition it.

It’s almost hard to believe that this report was written by James Baldwin in 1966, but it serves as a great reminder.

Now, what I have said about Harlem is true of Chicago, Detroit, Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco—is true of every Northern city with a large Negro population. And the police are simply the hired enemies of this population. They are present to keep the Negro in his place and to protect white business interests, and they have no other function. They are, moreover—even in a country which makes the very grave error of equating ignorance with simplicity—quite stunningly ignorant; and, since they know that they are hated, they are always afraid. One cannot possibly arrive at a more surefire formula for cruelty.

This is why those pious calls to “respect the law,” always to be heard from prominent citizens each time the ghetto explodes, are so obscene. The law is meant to be my servant and not my master, still less my torturer and my murderer. To respect the law, in the context in which the American Negro finds himself, is simply to surrender his self-respect.

The law is meant to be my servant and not my master.