Stressful dreams are my new normal.
I don’t often have pleasant dreams. The bulk of my dreams involve some sort of death, being assaulted, or some other crisis. But now and then I get gentler dreams, usually of socialising with other people. I’m also lucky enough to sometimes get real songs playing in the background.
Those less action-packed dreams have become more frequent, but they’re being perverted by COVID-19. I didn’t even realise it until this morning when I was having a conversation with a friend about dreams and our lockdown mindsets. I’ll explain just what I mean by how COVID-19 has affected my dreams.
In…
This ability to freely abuse workers was always part of the point of Brexit.
Recently, as part of what I assume will be a growing number of harmful initiatives that will be introduced while we’re all obsessing over the failed coup attempt in the United States, I saw an article that a Tory politician is urging for the stripping away of worker and consumer protections.
His argument, which holds about as much water as the Atacama, is that removing regulations designed to stop employers treating their employees like chattel will make the UK more competitive since it decided to shed the one advantage it had in favour of blue passports and bendy bananas.
I…
A golden shovel poem, after Theodore Tilton
And until it is, here’s some good news coming from the election.
Like me, you probably didn’t get much sleep last night. Instead, you watched votes pour in across the United States and learned what it’s like everyday for people who live with anxiety disorders.
And believe me, I know it’s not looking good unless you’re into spray tan and tiki torches. But it’s not all bad news, and it’s not over til it’s over. So while we wait to see whether mail-in ballots get counted or tossed, and results get finalized, here’s a selection of good news from state-level ballot measures:
I Prefer ‘They’.
Utah voted to replace gendered language in its state constitution…
I woke up in a haze of navy blue with a large, ugly fish gaping stupidly at me. But the strangest part was that nothing hurt. The familiar itch to light up, to get high, to do anything to immediately escape reality was…missing. Did everyone wake up each day with so little direction, so little motivation?
More fish swim past. It’s like being in an aquarium. I’m not breathing. Frowning, I finally rise to my feet, and look around. An unnecessary breath catches in my throat.
I’m staring at myself.
It’s like having an out of body experience. There I…
A year in verse.
The concept of the TV Licence isn’t without merit. But its current execution is.
The time is 5:30am, and I am awake. Because I am awake long before I need to be, I make a cup of tea and decide to watch the US vice presidential debate on YouTube. I would have been watching the debate the day after it aired regardless, because these days I tend to go down with the sun. But even if I had wanted to stay up late last night and watch the debate live, I would have been legally unable to.
Hello, I’m a resident of the UK and I don’t have a TV Licence.
When I first…
Presidential debates are obsolete. So why do we feel obligated to pay attention?
Just shy of twenty-five years ago, The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror VI aired. The Halloween special featured several short horror parodies, including one called “Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores”. In this segment, a freak lightning storm causes giant advertising mascots to come to life. They start wreaking havoc on Springfield, terrorising the residents until Lisa comes up with a plan to starve the mascots of the attention that powers them. As residents stop paying attention to the mascots, they fall, one by one, powerless and inert.
Now, I could go for the low-hanging fruit and say that nothing the Simpsons…
Ash & Feather
Poet and author across several genres, with a love of photography and gardening. Find out more: https://linktr.ee/hearningcurve
