Escapes For When You Feel Anxious

“Sometimes I think of you, Medusa. Inside your temple, mournful, surrounded by a hundred stone statues. The men who came to kill you and never left were named lost heroes, warriors, demigods whilst you were called monster, gorgon, terror. (Because the stories were always written by men) But this was never a story about a monster. It was always about a woman burned for a Sea God’s sin, a pawn in an ancient game the fates would never let her win. You did not desecrate that which is sacred, it was him. (But your story was always written by men) You begged him not to visit you, you pleaded with every God. But the Gods turned away when you needed them. You did not want to be remembered this way. And then one day, whilst you slept, a son of Zeus came. And killed you before you could even look his way. (And he too was named hero because the stories were always written by men) Someone once said, words cut deeper than a knife. That history is told by the victors. That he who tells the story is the one who controls the world. Women did not get to write your story, Medusa. Because if we did, a very different tale would be told. (And in our tale, you would not be Monster. But Priestess. Goddess. A maiden who once had a heart of gold.)”

— Nikita Gill, Excerpt from Maidens, Myths and Monsters

covid19 is exposing that everything we think is real like money and politicians and celebrities is totally made up and the things that actually are real like human compassion and social consciousness and love are genuinely necessary for survival

just humanities student things

getting overly defensive of your favourite historical / literary / classical figure

suddenly remembering how much knowledge there is to acquire and getting stressed about the overwhelming amount of stuff you don’t know

roman numerals: you either love them or you hate them

when your teacher is obsessed with one bit of the course and teaches you that for weeks then breezes over the rest

anachronisms

you’ve listened to so many in our times that melvyn bragg is basically your internal monologue

waking up in the morning with a desire to know everything about one specific thing that’s totally unrelated to everything you’re studying

‘ooo i know this word!’ she did not know that word

muddling up the actual history, the fictionalised versions of the actual history, and the fanfictionalised versions of the fictionalised versions of the actual history

‘what can this cartoon / movie / song / art tell us about x’

history students are over prepared for politics and classics students are over prepared for english lit

reading aloud in terrible accents in english lit

j s t o r

i just want to work in a small museum in italy where i translate latin manuscripts and talk to college kids about the ancient world before walking to my little apartment by the sea to drink tea and watch the sunset while chopin plays in the background. is that too much to ask?

Donna Tartt with her Pug, Pongo.

“My dog has a number of acquaintances of his own species — as do I — but it is abundantly clear to both of us that there is little company in all the world which we enjoy so much as each other’s.”

Polly Florence

How to feel like an ancient empress

*Wear velvet, silk, fine fabrics

*Take long baths with milk, honey, and olive oil

*Wear perfume with frankincense or rose or myrrh or neroli

*Wear gold and pearls and precious stones

*Paint your nails red or gold

*Put lavender satchels in your drawers

*Have good posture

*Give yourself a facial massage

*Speak with confidence–no one has the right to overpower your voice

*Rub a body oil into your skin when you get out of the bath

*Use a face oil with your moisturizer

*Wear a watch and be punctual

*Listen to those in need

*Clean and declutter your space

*Smile–but only when you want to

*Braid your hair

*Read novels or folklore/myth or poetry

*Be kind to children–have no sympathy for those who would hurt them

*Use cosmetics with pearl powder

*Go to bed early

*Eat well

Let’s watch.

(C.B)(5.19.18)

when oscar wilde wrote “there are moments when one has to choose between living one’s own life, fully, entirely, completely-or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands” i felt that