I have and love a singular inability to control my face.
If I inwardly suspect that you are full of shit, the muscles behind my eyebrows will contract, pulling the corners just a few centimeters to the left. My face will betray the rest of my body and silently but undeniably broadcast undiluted skepticism.
Similarly, if you've just barfed a half-baked conspiracy theory into my face or displayed a staggering ignorance of the subject upon which you're expounding, my eyelids will flap rapidly up and down, like psychic windshield wipers, trying to flick away the stupid before it really sets in.
This all amounts to a low-grade sort of mental telepathy, and over time I've noticed that my interlocutors have the ability to read my mind. What would seem like a disadvantage often turns out to be a subtle plus. Where it can be prohibitively awkward to verbally reject someone's whole program, it can be equally advantageous to do so visually. I've found that when people are trying to rent space inside your head for their own shabby luggage, the very wisps of doubt about their motives (or indeed their mental stability) can be expressed so quickly and directly that they themselves don't consciously perceive it, but nonetheless will pack up their ideological goods and make their way to the next sucker without so much as a sour puss and tip of the hat.
I do notice that I am more skilled at expressing hostility than welcome, but hey - stick with what you know. I wouldn't change a thing.
The waves were inconsistent but in the best way. They made space for me to
take some photos. And I joined the coffee Zoom of a friend. Yes, I joined a
Zoom call from the water. It was nice. Camaraderie is worth seeking out,
even digitally, even in the water. Loneliness, disaffection, dislocation,
disconnection are everywhere. And we need each other—human connection—more
than ever. It’s a time of great misery and injustice and there’s much work
to do. Let’s get to it, in kindness.
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11 hours ago
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