The thing about knitting is it’s much harder to fear the existential futility of all your actions while you’re doing it.
Like ok, sure, sometimes it’s hard to believe you’ve made any positive impact on the world. But it’s pretty easy to believe you’ve made a sock. Look at it. There it is. Put it on, now your foot’s warm.
Checkmate, nihilism.
This is a powerful positive message..
I’m literally reading a book right now (Burnout by Emily and Amelia Nagoski) that says this is scientifically sound.
There have been studies done on rats and dogs where they develop learned helplessness in the animals by giving them impossible tasks. Eventually the animals stop trying, even when the task stops being impossible. (I.e. put a rat in a maze with cheese it can’t get to until it develops learned helplessness, then put the cheese somewhere it can get to it and it won’t even try.) But once they show the animals they CAN do something - i.e. physically moving the rat to the cheese - the learned helplessness goes away.
No one can move you to your cheese for you, but the book says DOING something - which they define as “anything that isn’t nothing” can help. Make a food. Work in the garden. Clean a thing. Do a favor for a friend. Call your elected officials.
Knit a sock.
If you feel overwhelmed by existential despair, do something. It doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be anything that isn’t nothing.
This is really good advice for ADHD people because when executive dysfunction gets bad it’s easy to fall into this pattern of thinking. Do just one thing. It doesn’t have to be your homework, or a chore. It can be something small, it can be something you enjoy. But do just one thing to remind yourself that you can.
This is what “humans want to be productive” really means
We want to make things. We want to do something and at the end of the process see that something has changed. We want physical proof that we did something. We want to be able to point at something and say “I made this”. We want to be creators
You are Superman, aren’t you? Lois, look, we’ve been through these hallucinations of yours before. Can’t you see what you almost did? Throwing yourself off a building 30 stories high? Can’t you see what a tragic mistake you almost made? I made a mistake? I made a mistake because I risked my life instead of yours. Lois! Don’t be insane! And don’t fall down ‘cause you’re just going to have to get up again!
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (2006)
This scene features one of the best things about Chris Reeve’s portrayal, which is that he physicalized his different choices between playing Clark and Superman. Like, look at the difference:


He could go from Rick Moranis to Chris Evans with just his posture. It’s like his glasses are weighing his entire body down. Here it is, in motion:
Acting.
This is a perfect example that proves that the Clark Kent disguise actually does work….and how it works….
Christopher Reeve was the best Superman and still is
Are we gonna discuss that Lois Lane rationalized that Superman wouldn’t even feel a bullet, thus wouldn’t even know he hadn’t been hit, causing Clark Kent to reveal himself for who he truly is without her having to risk anybodies life?
God I love Christopher Reeve’s Superman because some of Clark’s clumsiness can be seen in Superman too. The fact that this man didn’t realize it was a blank even though he can see things move in slow motion is really funny to me
Like he grew up thinking he had to hide his powers and I just assume that sometimes he forgets he has them because Clark is Clark. He might be superhuman but he’s still a clumsy dumbass and that’s his biggest flaw.
You don’t need kryptonite when you’re dealing with a good honest clumsy man and Lois knows that because she knows Clark!
It’s why I don’t like pretty much any other Superman movie as much. They make him too perfect, that’s not what makes this Kansas man so charming!
Reblogging specifically for the shot with the glasses (so fabulous a transformation) and also for the emotional context of the scene, which his face continues to do extraordinary things—including signaling a kind of vulnerability that has nothing to do with being proof against bullets.
Jester’s always adorable and fascinating.
BUSY WEEK, work’s demanding, but I’m still trying to keep up with art.











