dear quinn,

you can't stop
playing the
violin
because
you're afraid
of breaking the
strings.

and you can't stop
talking
because
you're afraid
of pushing people
away.

love,
quinn

sorry, did i stutter too much?
i hope you don’t mind.
it’s just that i’m scared my heart will fall out of my guts
if i keep talking to you like this

because how do you say i love you without saying i love you?
“i miss you” is too general to be perceived as anything but platonic, isn’t it?
but “you matter to me” is too personal for my comfort,
and “you are my world” might just be too much
for the both of us

it’s not like i’m in love with you or anything,
i just think it’d be nice to feel your heart beating
against mine.

I enjoy finding well-structured and coherent worldviews and ideas that collapse my prejudices, ideas, and my vision of the world; it’s uncomfortable at first but the catharsis achieved by being able to synthesize opposing ideas and find common ground where to build new ideas it’s one of the greatest mental pleasures I have felt.

It’s like feeling that after endless hours of trying to mix water and oil, the solution finally becomes crystalline and gleaming in veracity; to immerse myself in it and then go out to see reality with new eyes.

The main cognitive bias of all people is to discard information that contradicts their prejudices, ideologies, and conceptions of reality because of the cognitive discomfort this new information enables.

We take scientific objectivity as a base, and we accept the linguistic subjectivity and its intrinsic intuitive value; it is actually much easier to achieve a rational consensus in decision making.

That’s why we must be very vigilant and look out for rigid ideologies that don’t accept an intellectual confrontation, since they don’t have the capacity to adapt to a reality like ours that’s in a constant state of transformation.

“I do not feel superior because I'm vegan. The truth is I am vegan because I do not feel superior to others.”
—Michele McCowan.

It’s more accurately a principle that we shouldn’t subject anyone to our wants and/or needs.

The bottom line isn’t whether we believe ourselves to be better people. The question is not what we are, but what we think, and what we do as a result of what we think. The issue is about ideas and behaviors, not people.

Those of us who reject cannibalism do not think we are "better" than cannibals, do we? We only believe that there are ways of acting that are better than others according to ethics.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘪𝘵. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩. 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘶𝘱 𝘢 𝘵𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘴.

Why

You are subconsciously afraid of the change that will come from going from reaching out for what you genuinely want. You relate freedom to happiness, which is something good. It doesn’t matter whether the change will be good or bad, your ego is afraid to change.

Why

Your ego likes the status quo. Right now you’re alive and well and your ego wants to keep it that way. I believe evolution has given us an “ego” precisely for that reason, self preservation. It had a quite logical purpose back when humans were hunters and stuff. They had to be afraid of everything that was foreign in order to stay alive. Not anymore.

𝘐𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳? 𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶? 𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘵, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶?

𝗕𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗻. 𝗪𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁. 𝗦𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲. 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂. 𝗟𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗸𝗶𝗱 𝗳𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄, 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝗻𝗼𝘄. 𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆 𝗮𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲, 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗳𝘂𝗹. 𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝗹𝗹 𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝘁. 𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝘀𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗼𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗿.