imo we need to swap the phrase “no one will love you until you love yourself” with something to the effect of “if you dnt recognize your own value, you’re a lot more likely to put up with mistreatment that you dnt deserve”
it’s not rly a matter of self-love as much as it is being able to stand up for yrself when you need to, and even though the latter is part of that process, it’s still not the same thing
Rewatching Truman Show for the first time in a long time, and the detail that’s stuck with me this time is the set design.
The characters drive modern cars and hock modern products, but it’s all presented with a veneer of 1950s wholesome applecheeked Americana. Truman’s life is presented as an escape for the audience from the drudgery of the modern day, and the aesthetic they’ve chosen for this is the post-war economic boom. This is the simple time, the movie says. This is the good time. Doesn’t the modern day suck? Let’s go back and see our friends from the days when life was good.
And it’s a lie. Truman’s life is a lie, and the image of white picket fenced suburbia they’ve presented is a lie. It’s an elaborate construction to recreate a false memory that’s comfortable for advertisers. The movie is a satire, but it’s also a very blatant statement against the nostalgia for a golden age which never existed. It’s a lie. It doesn’t exist.
I don’t know. I’m spitballing. I’m biased because I despise mid-20th century Americana and I naturally treat it with hostility, but it’s very gratifying to see a movie kind of agree with me.
Let me tell you a story.
Earlier in the summer, I went to Florida with my friend. We decided to visit a town nearish to where we were staying called Seaside, as we had heard it was a cute place. What I did not know at the time was that Seaside is the place where they filmed The Truman Show. It was a “master-planned community,” constructed in the 80s to be the perfect beach town.
Seaside, FL
Seahaven
And yes, it really does look Like That. Not just in their tourist-agency photos, in real life it looks like that. Arguably the irl Seaside is even prettier than movie Seahaven, because the the office buildings where Truman works don’t exist; the town is 100% cutesy homes and little shops.
planting trees in densely urban areas will lower the urban heat-island effect on the ground and reduce the number of heat-related illnesses and deaths over time.
trees also help pull pollution from the atmosphere and fix it into their wood and bark. did you know trees life spans can be shortened by being closer to roads/polluted air? they serve us and die for us and we don’t even notice.
trees protect us and we should really respect them more as the globe warms. In the USA, if you’re wealthy/lucky you will have many trees in your neighborhood. If you are in a low-income area they are rarer. this directly correlates to heat deaths.
so if you see a tree dying from drought in your neighborhood…. maybe give it a hand if you can. that tree may very much pay your community back years down the line
Shout out to people with incredibly nasally voices, shout out to people with lisps, shout out to stutter-ers, shout out to people who can’t say certain words “correctly”, shout out to people who can’t pronounce certain letters and syllables “right”, screaming and hooting and hollering for people who’s speech is impacted by neruodivergence or disabilities!
if anyone has approached you at any age about speech therapy, if you’ve ever been made fun of, just know I love you from a very respectful distance, I’m waving at you from across the street, and you’re my cup of tea and also you inherently deserve respect!!!
