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art health joy The Imaginary

Surviving Intact

In periods of difficulty, when I achieve a little distance from that difficulty, I start thinking in more hopeful terms. I start thinking about joy and humor and hope, and how they are magnificent stars that can keep me oriented towards the things I wish for in life.

So I’ve been thinking about moving towards, as opposed to moving against. And I’ve been thinking about what grounds me, moves me and inspires me. And this is my little blog tribute to some of the forces (or google searches) for beauty and joy in my life. Because keeping your sense of humor is the best revenge. And keeping my hope intact (from time to time) is one of the more challenging aspects of adult life.

As Jodie Foster put it so beautifully: “Often people think of strength as surviving. But I think it’s surviving intact, and there’s a big distinction.”

So here are a few of my sources of joy, humor, beauty (wholeness and strength will have to wait for their own blog post):

Beauty:

NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD)

See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap161023.html

Music videos with awesome dancing. Here’s Sia’s Chandelier.

In less dazzling news, I’m a sucker for a beautiful gown. Throw in some celebrity gawking and I’m a little obsessed. Google image searches for the Met Gala always pay off. But let’s get you started with some Vogue Magazine coverage of the 2016 gala.

Humor:

Hyperbole and a Half has my favorite comic for bad days: The Sneaky Hate Spiral.

David Thorne is a hilariously cruel and witty person. Missy Missing is my favorite of his blogs. But there’s also the Ten Formal Complaints filed by his coworker in six months, which makes me really glad I never shared an office with this gentleman.

The Oatmeal, for example this post about the mantis shrimp, or ten words you need to stop misspelling. Or this terrifying and informative bit about cats. Here’s a small taste of his coverage of fear of missing out (fomo):

JOMO

Celebrities reading mean tweets, always a good youtube search. Here are movie celebrities reading mean tweets.

Some other fun blogs:

  • http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/ (self explanatory)
  • http://thebloggess.com/ (funny lady blog)
  • http://iwilbloom.tumblr.com/ (blog written by an angry and intellectual baby)

(This post is really making me ponder what I find funny after a day of reigning in my sharp wit.)

I’d love to hear what media keeps you going, please share in the comments below.