There was too much faith in Joy’s family, so she decided to ease up on hers.
At first, it was terrifying. Joy didn’t know how to “stop believing” in baby Jesus and dead Jesus and all the Jesuses in between. But as luck would have it, the age-old question “why do bad things happen to good people” made things a bit easier for her.
She watched as her best friend Gabby withered away after being diagnosed with some child-eating cancer. Gabby, who had been her only friend through Sunday School during childhood and Youth Group during the teens. Gabby, the girl she bunked with every year at church camp, the girl who always won the Bible Verse Challenge at VBS. God saw fit to take Gabby away, and that made Joy realize maybe waiting to meet with Gabby in Heaven after her own death on earth wasn’t good enough anymore.
Next, it was that demon liberal arts college education that drove a deeper wedge between Joy and faith. A thorough history showed a different side of Christianity than Joy was familiar with. Like how “God” didn’t really exist starting at the beginning of civilization. Or how a new religion which focused on crowning a new, merciful king would be well-received by the abused slaves and commoners of the Middle East. Even holiday appropriation to mingle new holy days with the pagan ones. Maybe a true God would work this way, surreptitiously throughout time to weed out the other religions. But it was a whole new concept to Joy who had been taught that God was, is, and always will be.
After college was over, Joy became aware of the world and saw how Christian leaders decided to run the world. Sex scandals featuring frighten children. Unfounded hatred and fanaticism toward other races or creeds. Becoming offended when even a wisp of a threat that God’s name might be taken out of American nationalism. An obsession with Joy’s vagina (not just hers, but you get it). Joy realized that being associated with Christianity meant being associated with these people, and that wasn’t an exciting prospect for her.
Joy had quietly distanced herself from the faith of her childhood. She receded into agnosticism, though she kept her doubts to herself. Joy’s head bowed during family meals. She sat and stood dutifully when she went to church with her family.
But the final feather plucked from Joy’s faith was seeing how blind faith had affected others. She saw her old hometown friends, drunkenly heaving four children on their tits and reeling from their latest drug-induced withdrawal, posting daily Bible verses in one hour and then threatening to beat the living shit out of their enemies in another. How children were being indoctrinated to hate those of other faiths, though it isn’t called “hate” because “hating is a sin.” Banning books, beautiful and mind-provoking in her hometown’s school library because of some slight against the wholesome “Apple Pie” life…
…How it was easier for a Godly family to purge a non-believing daughter from their life when she finally confronted them with her truth than to accept her for what she believed.
Your real friends are the people who feel like family.
They feel like family because you can be honest with them.
You can get angry at them.
You can let them know when you dislike something they’ve said or done, like you would a sibling.
But you love them and you are loyal to them like they are your flesh and blood.
Your real friends are the people who call you out on your bullshit.
They don’t do it because they are trying to one-up you or make you feel terrible.
They do it because you need to hear it especially if you’re on a negative path.
They tell you the truth about yourself in a way that slaps you in your face.
It’s a painful slap but you needed it and they only do it if you need it.
Your real friends are the people who are there when it counts.
They are there when you’re at your absolute worst and you need someone to pick you up off the floor where you’ve been laying because you’ve felt like you can get up on your own.
They are there when you are sick, when you are heart-broken, when you feel unwanted or hated or like everything is going wrong.
Your real friends are there, by your side, holding you up or right behind you, to catch you if you trip.
Your real friends are the ones who deal with you even when you are not very easy to deal with.
They love you despite even when you’re at your most unlovable because they know that’s when you need it the most.
They defend you when no one else will and they stand up for you even when they’re the only ones doing it.
Your real friends give you a break when you need it, and they give you a break for as long as you need it.
Your real friends are the people you may not see in years and yet when you meet up with them, you pick right back up where you left off.
Your real friends are the people who accept that you might be busy and that they might be busy too, but you do try to make time for them because you value their friendship more than jewels.
You real friends bother you even when you’ve told them you want to be left alone, because the know deep inside, you still want them to show they care.
Your real friends are the ones who would be difficult to forget because they are hard to make in the first place.
Should the friendship ever end, you know that you would be heartbroken.
You know this because you’ve been through so much with them.
You’ve seen each other laugh and cry, and together you’ve built a special bond that has contributed to making you the person you are today.
And for them, you are eternally grateful.
Your real friends are the ones who know that you’re changing, and that you’re growing, and growing up.
They know that the friendship may change too this but they’re not giving up because they want to survive all the changes because they believe in this friendship.
So your real friend holds you closely and you hold them closely too; you hold them with both hands.
I’m delighted to announce that we’ve reached an agreement to acquire Tumblr!
We promise not to screw it up. Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going. We will operate Tumblr independently. David Karp will remain CEO. The product roadmap, their team, their wit and irreverence will all remain the same as will their mission to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve. Yahoo! will help Tumblr get even better, faster.
Tumblr has built an amazing place to follow the world’s creators. From art to architecture, fashion to food, Tumblr hosts 105 million different blogs. With more than 300 million monthly unique visitors and 120,000 signups every day, Tumblr is one of the fastest-growing media networks in the world. Tumblr sees 900 posts per second (!) and 24 billion minutes spent onsite each month. On mobile, more than half of Tumblr’s users are using the mobile app, and those users do an average of 7 sessions per day. Tumblr’s tremendous popularity and engagement among creators, curators and audiences of all ages brings a significant new community of users to the Yahoo! network. The combination of Tumblr+Yahoo! could grow Yahoo!’s audience by 50% to more than a billion monthly visitors, and could grow traffic by approximately 20%.
In terms of working together, Tumblr can deploy Yahoo!’s personalization technology and search infrastructure to help its users discover creators, bloggers, and content they’ll love. In turn, Tumblr brings 50 billion blog posts (and 75 million more arriving each day) to Yahoo!’s media network and search experiences. The two companies will also work together to create advertising opportunities that are seamless and enhance user experience.
As I’ve said before, companies are all about people. Getting to know the Tumblr team has been really amazing. I’ve long held the view that in all things art and design, you can feel the spirit and demeanor of those who create them. That’s why it was no surprise to me that David Karp is one of the nicest, most empathetic people I’ve ever met. He’s also one of the most perceptive, capable entrepreneurs I’ve worked with. His respect for Tumblr’s community of creators is awesome, and I’m absolutely delighted to have him and his entire team join Yahoo!.
Both Tumblr and Yahoo! share a vision to make the Internet the ultimate creative canvas by focusing on users, design — and building experiences that delight and inspire the world every day.
— Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!
* The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, and is expected to close in the second half of the year. More information about the news can be found in the press release we issued today.
Does promoting/rewarding the norm or status quo not inherently penalize difference?
The girl tries to cross the street but she just can’t.
Traffic screams by in five lanes of furious river
and she has no boat so she just stands there.
The girl tries to cross the river but she just can’t.
Water rushes past carrying runaway fish
and they turn back with gaping mouths which say
“Go back, go back, these second thoughts are real, trust yourself.”
The girl tries to catch a fish but she just can’t.
She reaches into the koi pond with her bare hands,
fingers writhing, grasping, searching for smooth flesh but
they come up empty and wet and she is still hungry.
The girl tries to eat but she just can’t.
because she has had so many meals
but is never full so
there is no point any more.
She will just swallow gulps of air until she explodes.
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I’ve been so busy/lazy to write.
But Deborah is really so good! Damn I missed the Party Action People performace a week ago coz I just found out. Boo.
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Check her blog out.
A figure in a black tee and navy shorts, sat on the floor, hunched over a gaming console.Deft hands move across the cool metal, as nimble fingers worked, meddling around with it’s innards.
I’d look on with the same bored expression, at the same spot where I’d been for the past hour.
“Are you done?”, I asked detachedly, expecting no answer to the what was plainly obvious.
A quick mumble was my reply.
Ugh. An exasperated gasp. Surely I was more interesting compared to that lifeless object.
I leaned in, arms wrapped around the lean core before as I rested my left cheek on the svelte back.
The sound of the fingers rapid working stopped abruptly.
“I’d listen to every single whim, follow every order exactly.”
“Arch my back when you run those fingers across my skin.”
“Sound exactly the way you want me to.”
“Move exactly the way you want me to - not even a single wasted action.”
“Why don’t you play me instead?”
-
In a swift motion, our positions switched.
“Let’s begin then.”
The devious glint in the eyes sparkled - like that of a victorious predator.
-
This is going to be a long night..
Breathe.
I lean in silently, close to the still body beside. Your essence flood my senses and I take a deep breath, letting you into my system.
I manage to take in your scent, too.
I feel you coursing throughout my body, lighting a fire in it’s wake.
In my imagination, I see you moving…
I’m become too much of a cynic to believe in the idea of falling.
When I see young teenagers engaged in a relationship, I scoff internally when I picture the drama, the pseudo emotions, the lies, the hurt, the tears.
The charades. They all end at some point.
Maybe falling for the wrong ass…
It was at the end of an ordinary Monday, when I again saw my First.
I remembered the moment, the first time, kissing his vanilla lips; it was sweet and it was pure, though in time I think it faded into a yellowish-sepia memory. I think all the Firsts in the world are like that. And that night, I…
And maybe I should delete burgerwee considering that I blog now… If I were wanted to say something super stupid to reply somebody on burgerweehee I could just text right hmmmmm
