Friday Open Thread (with courage)

If all goes well, by the time you read this I will have turned in all the marking (grading) I had to do this term. It has been weighing on me dreadfully. I have felt, this week, afraid and ashamed a lot, in need of more than usual succour and support — but too afraid and ashamed to ask for help with my fear and shame. It’s a cycle, and naming it is like naming a demon in stories: it helps control it.

In that spirit (as it were) I want to ask: are you afraid? Right now, are you afraid of something that you know is in your control, but doesn’t feel like it?

I wasn’t thinking of it when I started this, but I just reminded myself of this song from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, in which Rachel confronts “the darkness” in her and names it… Tyler. If you want to share that you’re afraid but don’t want to talk about why, I invite you to give a name to your fear as mundane or fanciful as you feel, and let us join in telling you why your own personal Tyler is an absolute jerk who doesn’t deserve you, whom you can ditch as easily as throwing a pinch of salt over your left shoulder.