humor
"Humor is what binds humans together and makes difficult times just a little less painful; Sometimes you can't help but laugh. "
Falling Between Every System
Modern social systems are often described as safety nets. Employment law protects workers. Healthcare programs provide treatment. Disability benefits replace lost income. Unemployment insurance bridges job loss. Each system is presented as a safeguard designed to catch people when life disrupts their ability to function normally. Yet for many people living with disability, chronic illness, or injury, the lived experience is the opposite. Rather than forming a net, these systems stack vertically, each with its own eligibility rules, thresholds, and assumptions. Instead of catching the fall, they create gaps. People do not slip through because they failed to try. They fall because the systems were never designed to align.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast18 days ago in Humans
Nomophobia: The 21st Century Fear Nobody Is Talking About
Picture this: you reach into your pocket and your phone is not there. In the space of a single second, a wave of unease washes over you — a flutter of panic, a surge of disorientation, a sudden and overwhelming need to locate the device immediately. Your mind races through possibilities. Did you leave it at home? On the table at the café? In the taxi? And beneath the practical concern lies something rawer, something harder to articulate — a feeling not merely of inconvenience, but of vulnerability. Of incompleteness. Of being, in some fundamental way, cut off from the world.
By noor ul amin19 days ago in Humans
Congratulations
A system that is broken or misaligned, be it social, economic, cultural, technological, or otherwise. Spam/Scam calls or messages seem to cover them all. Social systems of shame among family & friends are overcome & broken by economic realities. Local politics engage in human trafficking, often of entire communities, forcing them into the trade. (If the first three numbers of a 13-digit phone number are “234”, the call originates from Nigeria where, for many, such call centers are simply a fact of life.) Where law enforcement would love to be able to bring practitioners to justice (India is a prime example), lack of resources causes it to break down.
By Randy Wayne Jellison-Knock19 days ago in Humans
33 and a Light Breeze
Expect today's high to rise to 33 degrees Fahrenheit with a light breeze. A light breeze, my ahs. The flags in the front circle are flapping in a stiff wind in today's breeze. It's great for anyone walking from the north side of the hill to the south, but the return trip makes the eyes water and the nose hairs freeze.
By Mack D. Ames20 days ago in Humans
Roots and Fruit
Roots and Fruit Photo by Lukáš Kulla on Unsplash Most people evaluate life by what shows. Results, behavior, success, failure, growth, collapse. Fruit is easier to measure than roots, so it becomes the focus almost by default. When something goes wrong, attention rushes to what is visible and immediate. When something goes right, credit is assigned to the most recent action. But this way of seeing consistently misreads causality. Fruit is never the beginning of the story. It is the result of something that has been growing quietly, often unnoticed, for a long time.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast25 days ago in Humans
What car troubles taught me about perfectionism
Often, when we’re chasing perfection, it can feel like everything goes wrong at once. One thing breaks, then another. A friend seems a bit distant and then an unexpected phone bill arrives. Before long, we start telling ourselves that everything has gone to shit and it’s all our fault.
By Chelsea Branch26 days ago in Humans
