Petition To Start Referring To Susan Pevensie's Arc As "The Tragedy Of Susan" Rather Than "The Problem

Tired of stories where the author worldbuilds a whole religion only to chicken out at the last moment by making the main character a skeptic. You mean to tell me that there’s all this richness in lore and culture, but you’ve trapped me with the one person in this society who doesn’t care about it? So bland. I could meet an agnostic easily enough by walking down the street, but your story is my one chance to hear the perspective of someone who follows whatever religion you’ve contrived. You made this whole world; convince me that your character really is from there.

“Some people read with their feet,” is a quote that’s been relevant since the day I heard it (and before that, to be so honest), and something else that’s rattling around in my brain is some post (I’ve got no hope of finding the original as I can’t even recall what website I saw it on) saying something along the lines of “it tracks that the Pevensies are British and that the moment they found themselves in an unfamiliar place they declared themselves its royal family.”

If you want to talk about colonialism, talk about colonialism, but it does frustrate me to see a point missed so thoroughly. I hate to see it missed and I love this particular aspect of the series, so I’m going to take a moment to talk about it.

The Pevensies did not declare themselves royalty. Becoming kings and queens was not their idea. This was an expectation that the people of Narnia had for them, and when the kids were informed of this expectation, they found it daunting, to say the least.

This theme recurs almost beat-for-beat with Caspian, who is very openly unsure of himself and his ability to rule Narnia. It evolves with Eustace, who begins his arc unable to even consider the possibility of himself doing something important for Narnia or vice versa. It returns with Jill, who gets angry at being saddled with a mission that feels altogether too big for her.

The premise that keeps coming up throughout the series is this concept of worthiness and capability. The takeaway is not that some people are made superior or that people can make themselves superior. The takeaway is that you will feel inferior. In fact, if you feel superior, you are probably delusional: a danger to yourself and others. You will feel inferior, but that is neither a sentence to accomplish only little in life, nor an excuse for only accomplishing little in life. You will be afraid and insecure and uncertain and embarrassed, but you can and must do great things nonetheless. We are, all of us, made for greatness.

Radium Girl

Say it again for the people in the back: If you think your religion can change, you’re admitting you believe it’s made up. Or, at the very least, that its source was flawed.

Laws of secular governments are 1) made for specific times, places, and people, and 2) made by people, and as we all know from bitter experience, people often make mistakes. This is what makes man-made laws changeable, to correct and update them as needed. Having a system in place to continually test and revise such laws is good and necessary.

The external trappings of religion are somewhat like this. How should a monk dress? This varies by the order, and it’s a decision made by people; it can change. It’s not an immutable truth about reality. The moral law of the Church, on the other hand, consists of immutable truths about reality that are as real and unchangeable (if less easily observable) as the laws of physics.

If you saw God Himself descend from Heaven, with all His omniscience and omnibenevolence which makes it unthinkable for Him to make a mistake or act maliciously, and personally lay out a code of conduct meant for everybody’s use until the end of time, you would never dare change a single aspect of that code.

He did, and we don’t.

Now, if you don’t believe that God descended from Heaven, or that He’s omniscient, or that He’s omnibenevolent, or that He’s omnipotent, etc., then naturally you won’t believe in His promise of an institution founded by Him (Matthew 16:17-19), guided personally by Him (Luke 24:49, John 16:7-8, John 14:16-20, Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8), and which cannot be defeated by any power of evil (Matthew 16:18). In that case, Christianity would be of human origin (or worse: founded by an imperfect and unreliable god) and we would be free to edit it as we pleased.

The whole Good News™️ shtick of Catholicism, though, is that although humanity is fallen and we cannot achieve perfection by our own merits, it’s not all on our shoulders and we have a God who can and did and does and will help us. One of the most notable ways He’s done this is by providing us with a Church to safeguard His teachings for us as a reliable reference point. Changing said teachings is more than inadvisable; it would be totally contrary to the God-given mission of the Church.

Alright, everyone, say it with me: The Catholic Church Has No Power Or Authority To Change Her Doctrines Or The Moral Law

It’s an epic false dichotomy we’ve got in the US and the hope that we’ll escape it is what keeps me going.

Realizing that you can (should! must!) have compassion for everybody and you needn’t (shouldn’t! can’t!) pick and choose who to look out for based on what’s popular or who you personally like or any other qualification other than who happens to be existing in your sphere of influence and who needs your help can be a tough pill to swallow in today’s political scene. May God provide all of us with a big sip of water to get it down.

The thing about political polarization that really gets me is what do you mean I have to pick between caring about the unborn and the elderly, or minorities and the poor??? Sounds like a totally made-up rule to me. Skill issue. I CHOOSE ALL.

"If you’re going to care about the fall of the sparrow you can’t pick and choose who’s going to be the sparrow. It’s everybody, and you’re stuck with it." - Madeleine L'Engle

Your life is such a beautiful story. You were made to overcome the specific challenges you’re facing. You and your circumstances are a match made up in Heaven. I wish you wouldn’t talk about yourself like someone who’s not interesting, not inspiring, not worth watching. I wish you wouldn’t spend your whole story waiting for the happily-ever-after. The part you’re at is just as lovely, just as touching, just as momentous.

One thing that bothers me about the ending of the Lilo and Stitch remake (among the other things people have already rightfully complained about) is how it acts like Nani has to go to college NOW or she's lost her chance forever.

As someone who was raised by a young mother that didn't get to go to college, because she got 2 kids at 18-20, but then went to college in her early/mid 30s when me and my sister were old enough to be left home alone, it just feels really insulting.

It really adds to the harmful mindset that someone's life, especially that of women, is over if they haven't "got their life together" yet before the age of 25.

There would've been no harm in Nani delaying college for like 5-10 years, instead of abandoning her sister during the most vital years of her development only 2-3 months after already having lost her parents. Animated Nani would never.

Reading book two without first reading book one:

Countless children’s media misled me with their emphasis on the dangers of quicksand, but VeggieTales was spot-on with their emphasis on the danger of the public veneration of material goods.