the man who owns and runs the thai restaurant in my town knows me by name. he is one of the kindest and most thoughtful men i know. i started ordering from his place back in january, which was when i got my fibromyalgia diagnosis. back then i was using a walker, had limited mobility in my entire body but especially my hands, and was very visibly in pain. i always ordered the same thing: yellow curry with no meat, potatoes and carrots only (i have texture and other dietary issues). he always made it a point to make sure i could get out the door and carry the food safely. he had his workers package the food so that it was easier for me to open. as i kept coming back and i told him a little bit about my health status, he would always encourage me to keep going. he told me about how the spices he used were good for inflammation and began to edit the recipe just for me so that spices that were even better for fighting inflammation were used. he’d give me extra portions and despite the fact that i would tip every time, i realized later that he never charged my card for them. as time went on and my condition began to get better, especially with the help of a physical therapist, he would make encouraging remarks and tell me how happy he was for me. the day i came in without my walker, he practically jumped for joy, and despite my insistence, he gave me my meal for free that day. i continue to make progress with my conditions and i continue to go to the thai place. this man who does not know me personally and who i hardly know anything about is one of my favorite people. it’s interactions with humans like these that make loving life easier. and his curry really does help my chronic condition. it’s comfort food taken to the next level.
Travis really has me in a tight spot because if Chetney ever dies due to a random dice roll started as a bit I would be genuinely crushed and feel a gaping hole in the party left behind but ALSO it would be the funniest shit that’s ever happened in 8 years of Critical Role. Hall of Fame goof.
Like imagine the three perma-dead PCs of CR:
Vax'ildan - Disintegrated and forced to fulfill a life debt to a death god made in exchange for his sisters safety
Mollymauk - Simply in the wrong place at the wrong time (in game and above table), re-animated as an evil power hungry villain and then re-re-animated as someone almost entirely new
Chetney- honk shoo’d too hard may he rest in peace 😔
everyone says ‘prioritize your health’ 'look after yourself’ until they realize that making your wellbeing your first priority means making everything else a lower priority. and yeah, that’s sometimes ok if it’s temporary, but if those health issues are chronic? oh boy do they not like it when you actually take their advice. sometimes prioritizing your health means neglecting your work, your household chores, your social life. 'looking after yourself’ means not putting your energy into looking after everyone else first. and the same people who tell you to prioritize your health will get upset with you when they realize it means you’re no longer priorizing them.
if you have disabled or chronically ill people in your life and you extend them sympathy and tell them to look after themselves when they’re feeling sick, but then you get upset at then because they keep canceling plans. please. reevaluate.
I really need to do more studying and write an essay on how Americanism is a genuine folk religion which reveres capital and the vague concept of “the free market” as a god of providence to be pleased in order to lead a prosperous life, also that the founding fathers are prophetic, perhaps even messianic figures who basically gave birth to this god through the revolutionary war, and that the vast majority of conservative Christians in America revere capital more than the god they claim to serve in an ironic sort of golden calf situation.
There is a trend amongst depictions of the founding fathers to show them as literal christ figures, a trend that started very early in the nation’s life.
I’d also like to point out Washington & Lincoln Apotheosis, artist unknown, about 1865, the same year as lincoln’s assasination
The personification of America in the form of Columbia, a goddess of both the land and the concepts that America tends to inhabit. A pre-anime Hetalia. She was often used in depictions of Manifest Destiny, a religions ideal that stated that America, by God’s will, must go from coast to coast.
American Progress by, John Gast, 1872. Note the indigenous people cast in literal darkness, away from the light. The religions deification of America relies upon colonialism and white supremacy
Like, there are actual studies on this stuff. Look up “American civil religion” if you’re struggling for search terms. Or “American founder worship.”