january 7 nbd
Last month I wrote a post that included this thought:
My partner's family plays games after dinner and I really like it. Like really. I've always wanted to be around people like this, family or otherwise. When I was growing up I wanted to play games all the time but my family wasn't really about that life, which is okay, people are different, but, also, I was kinda sorta led to believe that it was foolish and selfish of me to assume that other people on earth would, if they had their druthers, want to play games every day.
A handful of people wrote to me after reading it and communicated something similar. "Many, many times have I visited friends’ or partners' families, and they do all this fun stuff," one friend told me. "My house wasn’t like that growing up."
I took a lot of television a bit too literally when I was growing up. I thought life really was like that, just not in my house. I thought some people's parents literally said shit like "we're not mad, we're disappointed" or like, the big conflict was that one kid wasn't getting enough attention and was articulate enough to explain that need to their parents/siblings, who were themselves smart and emotionally intelligent enough to understand what was required and empathetic enough to do or give that thing.
Sure, some people's parents are like that. Some kids were articulate enough to communicate complex emotional thoughts and grew up around people with deep, thoughtful inner lives and their homes were bastions of psychological safety and understanding. But most of us grew up in the actual world.
I don't mean to talk shit about my family. Most of them are fine. I only mean to say that it's really easy to want something that you're not getting and especially cruel if the thing you want doesn't really exist and moreover is based on unrealistic expectations that were like, installed on your hard drive against your will when you were a kid (who didn't ask to be born). Life is one big psyop, but, also, of course life is one big psyop. I bet Nestlé runs it.
I swear I'm fun to hang out with. There's just also this stuff.
Also also also:
Also also:
Also:
As regular readers know, I co-host a podcast largely about the Toronto Raptors and the Portland Trail Blazers with my buddy Jon in Portland. As such, I watch a lot of Trail Blazers games, and, because I do, I just noticed that the five guys they currently have on the court (while I'm writing this, that is) are from five different countries: Israel, China, Belgium, France, and the United States.
The way that the NBA is a truly international league these days never ceases to amaze me. When I was a kid, almost every player was American. Today? Not so much.
🌲 gonna slep
🌼 go slepp
🌱 touch sleppp
🌳 grass slepppp
🌷 now
Be good to yourself. This is a threat.
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