stripytights

Day 1-3

Day 4: Comment to someone you haven't ever interacted with before or introduce yourself to someone you've interacted with and friend/follow them. Afterwards, leave a comment in this post with the equivalent of "I did it!"

I did this one, commented on several things that I'd been meaning to. I'm not great at actively friending people though, mostly because I feel very shy about putting myself out there. It makes no sense because I love it when other people introduce themselves to me.

Day 5: In your own space, talk about a creator. Show us why you think they are amazing. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I'm saving this one for a separate post and also because it'll take more time than the rest to marshal my thoughts and organise them into something coherent.

Day 6: In your own space, share a book/song/movie/tv show/fanwork/etc that changed your life. Something that impacted on your consciousness in a way that left its mark on your soul. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I had a lot of options in mind for this one, some runners up included The Lord of the Rings (book), From the Other Riverbank by Dwimordene (fanfic), Supernatural (tv show) and Dog Day Afternoon (film.)

Eventually though I picked 'The Evil Cradling' by Brian Keenan for a lot of reasons (quick rundown: it's a memoir by one of the Beiruit hostages in the '80s). I first read it when I was pretty small, and I suspect it shaped a lot of the way I thought about the world in a way that still has an impact on me. It's a book that at its heart is about the good in people, not the bad, and while terrible things happened to the author, he overcame them all with a considerable amount of grace and humanity. It's about friendship and relying on someone else, and being there for someone else at the same time. It's also one of the only books that made me think twice about poetry as an art form, when it's not something I generally enjoy. Brian Keenan writes beautifully and I must have bought the book five or six times because I keep lending it to people and they keep being struck in exactly the same way, and never giving me the damn things back!