Anonymous Activist

With the recent Trump Fallout how could I not make a super political post (crying face emoji)...

Also I read like 4 infertility blogs this week so how could I not update my blog...OMG Did you know the government spends 80 million dollars a year on viagra?!

Bahahahahaha- I looked up on the website how many people serve in the military and according to npr.org 2,666,883 people are serving across all branches. It's a pretty funny disproportionate number. (P.S. I also don't believe numbers because I took 2 stats classes, and the internet is a giant game of telephone.)

Now I'm thinking about the huge amounts of my female friends despairing because of infertility and sounds like most of the dudes serving are having the same issues. (I wish there was a crying face emoji for the men.)

Anyways...

They've brained scanned people talking about their political beliefs and the raging emotional and physiological changes people go through when people talk about their personal "convictions".

I get squirmy when when people talk/post about their unwavering beliefs, whether it's Obama, Trump, Jesus, or *swear by it* fitness routines. It's like the car wreck phenomenon, when you want to look away but you can't. Beliefs are fine, but when they are grabbing and shaking you by the shoulders with their eyes...

Listen to me!!!!!! And be persuaded!!!!

I want to stop reading or listening but at the same time I'm gawking because people are so ridiculous sometimes. And I'm like, "Are you chill?"

When I was in the 5th grade the school made an announcement they were going to ban Harry Potter. (Because it was about magic and witchcraft AGHAST!! We were a good moral community with upstanding values.) I went into full physiological extreme emotional distress and did something I'd never done before.

It's magic and witchcraft.

I wrote a letter, penned with my staunch beliefs about literature.

I made a lovely little list- Grimm's Fairy Tales, Midsummer's Night Dream, The Bible, The Hobbit (we literally watched the animated version that year), Narnia (it's about a freaking magical closet and a witch!) the Secret Garden (because that one scene with the bonfire and the spell to bring Lord Craven home.) Anything that hinted at magic or fantastical themes.

From the Secret Garden Movie-happens in the book too...

The letter-changing my handwriting of course (because I was afraid of getting in trouble), saying if they ban Harry Potter, they have to ban most of the library. 

A more courageous friend anonymously handed off the letter and--- rumor was the letter made it to the principal. I was terrified they'd find out it was me and grab their pitch forks. I knew better than to tell people my true*ness back then ;) and now*ish lol....

I was recently on a walk and this memory surfaced and I had a full physiological reaction. Heart rate increased, I got super angry, and I mind wrote a passionate discourse about the only staunch beliefs I have. 

I knew it was the same feeling partaking in politics on facebook. All my conspicuous activist friends (both sides) go through this at least once a month (some of them multiple times a day)- the full blown physiological and emotional distress, I call raging. 

(If you are unsure if you've felt like this, it's similar to when you are playing Rainbow Road on MarioKart. You've fallen off the road 5 times in a row and you are sweating, snarling, and can't understand why the world is against you and the things you love.) 

That's how I felt in the 5th grade.

Jk Rowling saved us from Ray Bradbury!!!!!

The first Ray Bradbury story we read in school was "Dark They Were and Golden Eyed". That story scared me so bad and gave me nightmares. Which is why I will NOT sign up for the Mars Colonization that "science" is planning.

I wish I could remember other Ray Bradbury stories they made us read about the futuristic breakdown of civilized society. I remember having a class discussion about how "they" - science, sociologists, "experts" predicted books would go extinct.

I believed them, I hated reading. Our go to novel all through elementary school was "Mr. Popper's Penguins." #lifechanging #imbeingsarcastic I guess there was Redwall too, but I didn't really connect with books featuring animals...

Because we were all glued to our TV's, books would die out and we would end up like Fahrenheit 451. The modern day equivalent to the Spanish Conquest of the Yucatan. 

"We found a large number of books in these characters and we burned them all, which they regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much affliction." Wikipedia cited* ;)

My mom consistently read to us growing up, mostly Laura Ingalls- but I would never read on my own. I wouldn't read anything, except torturing myself through required comprehension reading exercises, because those are great to get kids excited about reading. #not #fail #schoolsucks

Side story* Funny story about how schools are stupid that I want to add ... In school we read a story called, Flower's for Algernon. It was packed in this giant literature text book that was brimming with horribly boring short stories. But I liked Flower's for Algernon  enough and found out it was actually a novel. I don't think they expected any of the students to actually pursue any literature outside of class... but it was great and really scandalous. After rereading the good bits a bunch of times, I threw it in the outside bin so my mom wouldn't know I read such a trashy book that the school had introduced me to bahahahahaha. #stupidschool

BACK TO HP

Harry Potter was awful at first, I couldn't understand the vernacular. My mom put down Little House on the Prairie, and read The Sorcerer's Stone to us. Laura Ingalls died that day and Harry Potter was born.

Book 2, Book 3, Book 4 (it was over 600 pages! I read 600 pages!).

Book 5, Book 6, Book 7...

My best friend and I would go to the park and take turns reading the Goblet of Fire to each other. I wasn't an articulate reader out loud but we practiced for countless hours.  Parents, what would you say if your kids spent time reading with their friends??? Wouldn't that be amazing. 

JK Rowling did that.

My life wasn't changed. It was shaped. But I'll get back to it------------------------------------------------ 

Ok now I'm going to aggressively throttle you with my eyes, and list evidence as to why JK Rowling is the hero of modern day society and sent Ray Bradbury to the chopping block.

-According to a new study, published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, young people who’ve read the Harry Potter series — and identify with the main character or protagonist — are less likely to be biased or prejudiced against minority groups.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201505/does-reading-harry-potter-books-reduce-prejudice

I realize people are going to think the article above is propaganda...but it's not. Or my purpose for putting it here is not to propagate. Minority groups can be people with disabilities, people with different income levels, muggles... Harry Potter basically teaches you to be a better human being...

-People are staunch about mindfulness and positive energy and blah blah, makes me uncomfortable when people talk about it aggressively, even though I believe in it. Anyways the article below gives me chills. The good kind that come from Positive Higher Powers.

Juniper was born at 23 weeks old and was not expected to survive the night. Tom, Juniper's dad, that night read to her about a baby who survived the most powerful evil in the world. The positive energy and strength that filled her incubator gave Juniper the fortitude to live and her parents credit Rowling with saving their daughter's life. 

http://www.upworthy.com/jk-rowling-found-out-her-books-helped-save-this-babys-life-her-response-was-magic

I was feeling pretty crummy one day and a video came into my feed. They listed off all these terrible things that had happened to a woman with a big reveal of who it was at the end. Of course I remembered who and I didn't feel so hopeless anymore.

-JK Rowling was a single mother, living on welfare, at the bottom of the bottom and suicidal due to an abusive marriage and writing Harry Potter literally saved her life. There is HOPE... no matter where you are in your life, and you MUST press on. What if you are the one to save the world like Rowling?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7kDmz_JQSQ

And the biggest one of them all. People read. Especially people 
who've read Harry Potter they read more. (Except I have a cousin, who for years mourned the ending of the series. He couldn't find anything to rival Harry Potter and moped continuously. haha)

I didn't have a problem though. There was a literary explosion during the Harry Potter years. I actually get sad in Barnes in Noble because I'll never be able to experience everything in there.

After finishing Harry Potter, I read Twilight. I was hesitant because I was like my cousin. No rivals. But my friends T and R said they were the best, so I read them. 

T and R both vehemently deny ever liking the books. But they're lying.

It used to bother me because my freshmen year roommates would sit around and bash Twilight. They treated Twilight like the Trump of 2009. LOL Twilight got on the banned book list from Deseret Book and I think BYU too lol for being to scandelous... I mean Bella eventually gets married so....

WTH is with all the book banning? Honestly people are so stupid. Literally have entire internet of infinite everything and hurry ban Twilight!!!! bahahahaha 

My sister "A" didn't read until 8th grade. She lived in Ray Bradbury's world of screens and it didn't help when her 1st grade teacher told her she wasn't a good reader. 

Don't worry, she's on track to graduate a year early and currently the front runner for her class as Valedictorian.

This all came to fruition the same time she finished 4,000 pages of Potter in 3 months then immediately picked up Twilight because that's just good flow with the system way to do it. 

JK Rowling did that.

After Twilight, I read Percy Jackson and loved it.

All about that demigod life.

I like it probably a little more than Harry Potter, because even as a kid I knew magic wasn't real and my spells never worked anyways. But how can we be sure the Greek Gods don't live on top The Empire State? huh?

My spells still don't work...

So back to my anonymous note in 5th grade. If all the books had been written I could have added this... Harry Potter is about bravery, loyalty, and sacrifice. Teachers are always trying to get kids to read to more and to be better humans. In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, it ends with Guy Montag looking forward to a time when books and literature can flourish. We have that because of Rowling.