In loving and honorable memory of Nathan Hale, American patriot, son, brother, friend, schoolmaster, and spy, who was hanged on this date, 1776, at the age of twenty-one, and whose body lies buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in Manhattan.
Rest in peace, Nat.
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When I was small,
I was told I laughed too loudly.
That the joy that erupted from my chest poured too chaotically.
My father would tell me to be quiet when I would tell him to look at the stars.
He would say they’re just stars.
It was stupid to linger in them too long.
He would tell me to shut up when I would list facts about sea turtles or whatever the hyperfixation of the week was.
I always knew too much about things of little importance to him.
I was told that I was strange for greeting the trees before entering a forest.
But still, I would come home with snakes in my pockets
Leaves in my hair,
Cuts and mud on my bare feet,
Dirt on my perfect pink dresses,
And stories of the trees I met that day.
My mother would call me her princess, with the best intentions.
But heart would sink every time.
I did not want to be a princess.
I did not know how to be a princess.
How to sit still,
Talk politely,
Or enjoy silly dresses.
I wanted to play in the forest.
I wanted to climb the trees.
To sit quietly in the branches and listen to the world around me.
This world made sense to me.
The birds made sense
The squirrels
The deer
The bears
Nature made sense to me
Life grew,
Changed,
Died,
And was reborn
All in balance
Without hesitation
Without fear
Without resentment
There was a peace here in the trees.
A calming sense of home.
Like I had always been here
And could always return and be met with open arms.
In my life I have always looked for this sense of home.
To find it somewhere else.
I never expected to find that in a person.
But there was a moment.
When I had two paths to take on a trail
You were behind me
Watching to see which I’d choose
So I danced my way along my choice
And you laughed and pulled me in close
You said you could learn everything about a person by the path they chose.
You looked into my eyes and said you knew everything about me
It was a playful tease
Maybe even a joke.
But you see,
That moment there
Looking into your eyes
Hearing the sounds of the forest around us
I remembered sitting high up in the trees
When the world was large and I was small
When I didn’t care if anyone thought I was weird
When I always stopped to look at the stars
Study a rock
Or a slug
Make friendship with a crow
And for that moment.
Looking at myself in the reflection of your glasses
I recognized the face looking back at me.
You do not know all of my trauma
Or my pain
Or my sorrow.
But you do-
Undoubtedly know the person I am underneath it all.
there are days where I do not even know that person.
So you were right.
You know everything.
You are everything
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I like you a lot, I like you a lot
by 4elver
Quick drabble of David finding out Louis and Harry are dating, plus a little surprise
Words: 2339, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English
Series: Part 4 of girlrry
Fandoms: One Direction (Band)
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Categories: F/M
Characters: Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Anne Cox, The Styles Family
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Additional Tags: Cis Female Harry Styles, Babies, Thanksgiving Dinner
via AO3 works tagged 'Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson' https://ift.tt/HSZl5uj
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i got rickrolled today but it didn't work because i have adblocker installed, so youtube just told me i violated the terms of service. yesterday i was trying to edit a picture as a joke for my girlfriend, and google made me check a box to prove i'm human because i wasn't "searching normally".
it isn't just that capitalism is killing fun and whimsy, it is that any element of entertainment or joy is being fed upon by this mosquito body, one that will suck you dry at any vulnerability.
do you want to meet new friends in your city? download this app, visit our website, sign up for our email list. pay for this class on making a terrarium, on candlemaking, on cooking. it will be 90 dollars a session. you can go to group fitness, but only under our specific gym membership. solve the puzzle, sign up for our puzzle-of-the-month-club. what is a club if not just a paid opportunity - you are all paying for the same thing, which makes you a community.
but you're like me, i know it - you're careful, you try the library meetings and the stuff at the local school and all of that. the problem is that you kind of want really specific opportunities that used to exist. you are so grateful for libraries and the publicly-funded things: they are, however, an exception - and everything they have, they've fought tooth-and-nail to protect. you read a headline about how in many other states, libraries have virtually nothing left.
do you want to meet up with your friends afterwards? gift your friends the discord app. you can choose to go to a cafe (buy a coffee, at least), a bar (money, alcohol) or you can all stay in and catch a movie (streaming) or you can all stay in bed (rent. don't get me started) and scream (noise complaint. ticket at least).
you want to read a new book, but the book has to have 124 buzzwords from tiktok readers that are, like, weirdly horny. you can purchase this audiobook on audible! your podcast isn't on spotify, it's on its own server, pay for a different site. fuck, at least you're supporting artists you like. the art museum just raised their ticket price. once, they had a temporary exhibit that acknowledged that ~85% of their permanent art galleries were from cis white men, and that they had thousands of works by women (even famous women, like frida! georgia o'keefe!) just rotting in their basement. that exhibit lasted for 3 months and then they put everything away again.
walmart proudly supports this strip of land by the street! here are some flowers with wilting leaves. its employees have to pay out-of-pocket for their uniforms. my friend once got fined by the city because she organized a community pick-up of the riverfront, which was technically private property.
no, you cannot afford to take that dance class, neither can i. by the way - i'm a teacher. i'm absolutely not saying "educators shouldn't be paid fairly." i'm saying that when i taught classes, renting a studio went from 20 bucks an hour to 180 in the span of 6 months. no significant changes to the studio were made, except they now list the place as updated and friendly. the heat still doesn't work in the building. i have literally never seen the landlord who ignores my emails. recently they've been renting it out at night as an "unusual nightclub; a once-in-a-lifetime close-knit party." they spent some of those 180 dollars on LEDs and called it renovating. the high heels they invite in have been ruining the marley.
do you want to experience the old internet? do you want to play flash games or get back the temporary joy of club penguin? you can, you just need to pay for it. i have a weird, neurodivergent obsession with occasionally checking in to watch the downfall and NFT-ification of neopets. if i'm honest with you all - i never got into webkins, my family didn't have the money to buy me a pointless elephant. people forget that "being poor" can mean literally "if i buy you that toy, i can't afford rent."
you and i don't have time to make good food, and we don't have the budget for it. we are not gonna be able to host dinner parties, we're not made of money, kid. do you want some kind of 3rd space? a space that isn't home or work or school? you could try being online, but - what places actually exist for you? tiktok counts as social media because you see other people on it, not because they actually talk to you.
there was a local winter tradition of sledding down the hill at my school. kids would use pizza boxes and jackets and whatever worked, howling and laughing. back in september, they made a big announcement that this time, rules were changing, and everyone must pay 10 dollars to participate. when im not scared shitless, i kind of appreciate the environmental irony - it hasn't gone below 40. so much for snow & joyriding.
i saw a bulletin for a local dogwalking group and, nervous about making a good first impression, showed up early. the first guy there grimaced at me. "sorry," he said. "there's a 30-dollar buy-in fee." i thought he was joking. wait. for what? the group doesn't offer anything except friendship and people with whom to walk around the city.
he didn't know the answer. just shrugged at me. "you know," he said. "these days, everything costs money."
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