my understanding and interpretation of Mary Oliver’s “Wild Geese” cannot be untangled from the fact that it was originally published to follow her poem about childhood sexual abuse, “Rage”
i just don’t think it was unintentional that these were presented flush against each other
ive always rly liked the idea of a member of a group of adventurers having what everyone assumes is very well trained hawk and then at the end of their journey its casually revealed that thats actually just his buddy whos a shapeshifter and just rly likes being a hawk
the guy also like thinks everyone knows bc he never tries to hide the fact that the hawk is a person but everyone assumes hes always just joking. like the others being like “damn its crazy how he knows exactly what you want him to do its like he knows english or something.” and the guy is just like “well yeah thats his first language so ofc he’s fluent??” and they all go “haha good one” and move on, leaving him confused
they just think hes a quirky guy that really loves his pet and says things like “the 9 of us” even tho there are clearly only 8 people! he just cares about the bird so much he counts it as a group member haha !
Most non-Minnesotans have no idea what this means, but to put it plainly: we’re raised with not just the expectation but essentially -programming- to assist others who get stuck during the winter. We’ll help people we’d otherwise punch on sight if they’re stuck in the snow and ice, for zero reward.
This is the level of rage we’re at with ICE. I’m not joking to say it’s almost physically painful to not help someone stuck like that, and it’s worth it because the people stuck are ICE.
The only way we have to express how mad we are above this is channeling the First Minnesota all over again.
The Scandinavians who settled in Minnesota brought with them their Norse understanding of the laws of hospitality: you do not fuck around with winter, that if someone needs help in the winter, you help them as long as they don’t actively try to hurt you or your neighbors. Food, shelter, labour, whatever, if you can help in winter, you do.
ICE has violated the “actively try to hurt you or your neighbors” bit of the laws of hospitality, and thus the hospitality has been revoked. They are free to feel winter’s wrath against those who would bring harm to the community.
I like to think that Lady Skaði would be proud of her distant children.
this reminds me of the mud wizard who walked through everything without any problems while the police officers kept sliding and falling and getting stuck, you can watch it right here.
for context, this was during anti-coal protests in lützerath which went on for days and included people being forcibly removed, injured, or otherwise violated by the police. they showed up in riot gear against people simply sitting and camping and wanting to protect their forests. it was a really big deal here.
I think some people just have boring lives and channel that into their politics. I don’t crave the excitement of martial law because I have enrichment.
When you drink a minuscule amount of alcohol and still get absolutely wasted: Night of the Hog
When you drink a ton and yet feel nothing out of the ordinary: Night of the Wolf
I reference this literally every time I’m at a bar because I somewhat convinced I saw it in a tumblr post somewhere but I have been informed that this is not in fact a known tumblr post in circulation and I was shown a prophetic vision at some point leading me to form the dichotomy from first principals
