Alright, bottom edge of the stomach has firmed up enough. Some at like the 4:30 and 7:30 positions still feels a little watery but I realize that’s just that the skin hasn’t shrunk taut yet.
So, that was the last flabby part of my body left and I now leave “the fat edge of overweight” for
I remember being young, uh five years old in fact, and my father mentioning that while I was oh-five he was five-oh, which is how I’ve always known he was exactly 45 years older than me
Occasional reminder I’ve only seen one movie in theaters twice and it was Waterworld and I’ve only seen one touring band (uh… greater than the nightclub level, or else probably some Spaceland Tuesday residencies) twice and it was Belle & Sebastian
(debut night/drive-in double bill with The Phantom)/(Dear Catastrophe Waitress tour at the Wiltern/Hollywood Bowl with the LA Phil)
Used to think riding with my parents over southeastern Pennsylvania highways through the fields and woods listening on the radio to ‘70s adult album contemporary and 90s country while thinking about what this meant re: the gestalt of America made me unique, but then Taylor Swift, biggest celebrity in the firmament, wrote some songs about same and it’s like hmm
Also hilarious personality change memories: how my entire concept of “self” was tectonically shifting but that included how I relate to not-selves so I found it hard to talk about with others, but I was severely disinhibited and forgot “coming out to your parents” was supposed to be a big deal so when I suddenly noticed I was bisexual I casually told both of them in passing
Oh god and if we’re marveling at the personality change, how wild was it that I realized I’d been living my whole life with an anxiety disorder in the context of suddenly becoming incapable of feeling anxiety at all?
Thinking about how as “random effect, probably odd and bad but there are some real winners”, Covid has been like a Genesis side-scroller power-up to me
One nice thing is when you’re 40 and your mom is talking to you about a life milestone you honestly handled a lot better than her, but she’s still talking like that, you can accept that’s apparently just the way she is and retroactively not take it seriously as a judgement every time before that
Their cult teaches them that the world is full of scary monster people who hate them for being so good and loved by god. If you swear at them and call them names or get in their face you’re just doing the cults work for it.
I’m not saying you have to listen to their presentation or try to debate them (and really getting into a debate without thoroughly understanding what they’re being taught will just make things worse)… I am just saying to be polite and say no thank you like if they were trying to hand you a flyer for something you don’t care about.
It’s easier for them to see the world outside their bubble as less scary if they see everyday people just going about their business and being as nice to them as you are to everyone else. This goes doubly for anyone who happens to dress modestly, not swear, and not drink or smoke because whatever you believe, they’ll see you as a “good” person who happens to strangely have no interest in their “message”, and that might be enough to get some curious about the possibility of themselves living in the real world.
It’s sometimes hard to be nice to people who seem to represent something you dislike. Just remember these “elders” are sheltered young men, some of which are getting their first real contact with people of other/no faiths.
They are not your enemy. They are victims.
They aren’t being sent out to actually convert people, they are being sent out hoping that they will be harassed and treated poorly so they view those outside the cult as dangerous and evil and stick to the safety of the familiar group.
You being mean to some teenager isn’t sticking it to anyone, you’re doing exactly what their church elders want to happen.
Like, it’s great we’ve picked up on the “indiscriminate proselytizing yields much rejection which solidifies connections with community of origin” trick but performed at scale it really does draw converts too. At a small but regular rate that’s pretty independent of any content, and seems to correspond to the rate of people in the world looking for a major life change, though the relative wealth/quality of life of the target and missionary may matter.
Christian churches, Scientology, and the Mormons really do gain converts in proportion to the efforts they put into seeking them.
