Two Journeys, Together

Two journeys, together

People travel to India and China to "find themselves", convert to neo-pagan religions filled with stolen deities and traditions, wave around "smudge sticks" and go on "vision quests", all in an attempt to find some sort of cultural connection and spiritual meaning in the gaping void that colonialism and white supremacy left in them.

And they always fucking fail because they're looking for meaning in other people's lives, other people's cultures, other people's heritages. They try to build connections with things that they don't understand, that hold no personal meaning to them, and it shows in how shallow their own interactions with those traditions end up being. They cover themselves in hamsas and worship Lilith and Amaterasu-Omikami in the same altar and give themselves "spirit names" and they just keep looking and they just keep taking because none of it feels right and none of it fulfills them the way they desperately want.

And I feel bad for them because it does fucking suck to feel that way and to feel so incomplete, but it's hard to hold onto that sympathy when they just keep approaching things with the same colonalist entitlement and ignorance and they refuse to understand that that is part of the problem.

when ao3 is back up i want all of you to leave comments on the fics you were interrupted from reading, the fics you were looking to find, the fics you were thinking about re-reading, and the fics left open in your tabs for months now.

when ao3 is back up, i want you all to show some love to your favourite writers, favourite fics, or even just the 600 word one-shot that brought a smile to your face that tuesday three weeks ago.

when ao3 is back up i want you all to remember that comments and explicitly voiced appreciation are what keep writers going.

If ur drawing the arachkids having a sleepover and they're not all squeezed into one bed like sardines ur doing it WRONG

Spider-Verse spoilers sorta