When your language routinely obliges you to specify certain types of information, it forces you to be attentive to certain details in the world and to certain aspects of experience that speakers of other languages may not be required to think about all the time. And since such habits of speech are cultivated from the earliest age, it is only natural that they can settle into habits of mind that go beyond language itself, affecting your experiences, perceptions, associations, feelings, memories and orientation in the world.
“Sometimes, while riding the subway i try to look at each person and imagine what they look like to someone who is in love with them. I think everyone has had someone look at them that way, whether it is a lover, or a parent, or a friend, whether they know it or not. It’s a wonderful thing, to look at someone to whom i would never be attracted and think about what looking at him or her would feel like to someone who is devouring every part of his or her image, who has invisible strings that connect to every part of his or her body. I think this is a fun way of cultivating compassion. It feels good to think about people that way and to use a part of my mind that is traditionally reserved for a tiny portion of people I’ll meet in my life to appreciate the general public. I wish i could think about people like this more often. I think it’s the opposite of what our culture teaches us to do. “”—
—Dean Spade, from ‘For Lovers and Fighters.’ (via theredtree)
is there a fuckyeahdeanspade tumblr? cuz there needs to be.
The children conferred: How to tell their parents that the hideous travertine floor had made them social outcasts?
(Photo: Chad Holder; Dwell)
GQMF of the Day: Young Sir Ian McKellen says: “You shall look boss.”
[towleroad.]
| Alexa: | There's no fork in here. |
| Jon: | Of course, why would I put a fork in there? |
| Joshua: | Look what she's doing!! Put her in the bath tub! What could be more messy than a burrito without the tortilla without a fork!!! |
| Alexa: | I'm not a baby. |
| Jon: | HAHAHA! Your face. And your piercing green eyes. |
| Alexa: | AHHHHHHHH!!!! JASMINE, DID YOU HEAR THAT?! |