I Just had to call outta work today on a holiday, which will mean an eventual write up, because of intense first-degree burns covering 4% of my body, using the “rule of Palm.” I might be a little crazy wild, but when I agree to play with a fire dom, there is an expectation that they will make it hot – not potentially disfigure my breasts and put me in so much pain the next day that just wearing a bra makes me fight to hold back tears.
RACK Risk Aware Consensual Kink: I knew the moment I got on the table that an accident could happen and that there is a trust between me and the dom that they wouldn’t do anything intentionally. This is why I am not pissed off at him but upset at myself for the complete trust and the hurting. Note: since it is only a first-degree burn (thank goodness), it is unlikely to leave a scar, but the healing profile for a burn is 10-20 days, and the first days are the most important. (Note: I am a professional medical provider EMT.)
The burn is on the underside of my breasts, which all ladies and other people with breast tissue can tell you is an area of sensitive skin. What makes it worse is when I tried to put a bra on – since it holds the breasts, it is compressing right in the burn area for the weight to settle. I am going to get some special hydrostatic bandages specifically for burns on top of the burn care protocol I have been following to help relieve any unintended damage or direct pressure from now on until they are no longer tender.
This is a fucking wake up call! When I say let’s get crazy that doesn’t mean to lay me up with damage for a week. I have a very intense workout and martial arts regimen and now that’s total fucked because all my energy has to go to preserving my breasts.
A direct message to me, Hey wake the fuck up! I know you pride yourself on taking pain, being fucking wild and crazy, but aren’t you lucky that it wasn’t worse? Imagine if it was a second-degree burn and for the rest of your life you were missing chunks of your breasts?
You can’t just say, yeah, whatever, go for it as long as you don’t violate my 3 core rules anymore and expect accidents like this won’t happen because many male doms are careless idiots.
My core rules are: No penetration – I save that for people I am in a relationship with or need specific negotiation.
No bodily fluids of any kind. I am STD- and other buggers free. I intend to keep it that way.
No permanent marks.
I assume people would understand what that means and would obey it, but seeing as I am sitting over my keyboard with tits so sore I wanna claw my eyes out, I think I have to from now on understand what doms are thinking about doing, since they apparently don’t have the self-restraint to be better.
Up until this year, I have only been a Dom. I have had moments when I was interested in switching, but I didn’t have the confidence in others to try it, so this was never an issue. With me as dom, I have the self-control, self-restraint, the discipline of someone with 30 years in the martial arts to never hurt any male, female, nonbinary, or other playmate in any way if they didn’t want me to and exactly how they wanted me to.
Now that I am finally trying to explore my switch side, I have just been slapped in my face. I gotta take more control of the situation since trusting doms to dom the way I do with safety first is literally a life-or-death matter with some of the extreme play I have done.
I haven't been definitively attractive for many years after a sexual assult and feeling horrible about my body I just needed to fade away.
This year I have reclaimed confidence in myself. I already lost 60 pounds and dropping more by the day. I am able to go on amazing jogs hikes and bikes. The composition positions flexibility and power of my body is here again.
Approaching people in a positive loving manner has been great and ontop of that getting support that i hadn't felt in awhile is huge for what little self esteem I have.
This time I am going to love honor and cherish my body by never giving up on myself again.
Its perfectly natural to wanna be an active exciting fun sexy female on top of all the other hats I wear. I just wish someone would play with me more it's never enough.
Tonight I am nursing a hand I bruised pretty badly going to the gym. I was working out for over 4 hours and was doing leg lifts and dips in my rotation I feel those had to cause it.
Why I work out so hard?
I was abused as a child: physically, mentally, emotionally as well as other ways. I never wanted to be weak or attacked.
I know what it's like to feel anxiety.
How with our current climate could trans men and women feel safe or valued? (note - I am not trans)
The rate of murder, suicide, homelessness, joblessness, discrimination. We live in a world that as a society is getting more sensitive you have billion dollar comedian's and political leaders getting up on stage and openly mocking the most vulnerable among us blaming them for problems they don't cause and millions of people laughing along with hate filled hearts.
It shouldn't have to hurt to be yourself.
It is crazy to think people who wanna live their lives in peace get chased from being able to use a bathroom room safely, or teaching without controversy, or in some areas outright refused treatment, but that's better then in some cases where the attempt for treatment is banned outright or a crime.
God I wish we lived in a world where I didn't have to be paranoid on behalf of my trans brothers, sisters, and nonbinary.
I will say this no matter what you have an ally with me.
Be strong, your loved, your valued, and we will make the world one day recognize your right to exist. It seems like the dark age never left humanity with the way we are so casually cruel to one another. Yet we have the power to make the world a better place.
I have talked about being intersex quite a few times in my blogs as a way to vent, and to be frank as I kinda expected I have had idiots talk to me about it almost in a fetish sense which means they see the word but don't read about my particular condition. Here is the best written medical summary I have seen.
People with CAIS are genetically male – 46, XY (instead of 46, XX) – but in every other way, they are female.
When an egg is fertilised, the sperm determines the gender of the child, so this is already decided by the time we start growing in the womb. All babies are by default female.
CAIS is an interruption in the growing process when the foetus would ordinarily be changing from the default girl into a boy. What you end up with in CAIS, for all intents and purposes, is a woman.
You wanna know what's different from me and other females? Nothing due to my condition and as I am sure you can see from my pictures I developed a typical female body in every respect.
Even though I am less masculine because of my condition then most females on the planet i get at times harassed. Most women have some and respond to testosterone ever see those women body builders who use T for an extreme example. Well I physically can't respond to T at all this plays out in odd ways even though I am 5'8" i have tiny delicate hands, baby soft skin, with size f 38 breasts. ( It is at times revolting how fem I am)
I literally hate my body... All these people just by me trying to express what I am going through remind me I am othered. Even though I'm a typical female in every way biologically. It just happened through an unsual process. Roughly 1 or 2 in 90,000 have my condition I live in the United States so that's pretty much 10,000 females running around like me with a Y chromosome that didn't function properly.
If people could take the time and think about it all males do have an X chromosome! What do you think would happen if the Y chromosome didn't function? It makes logical sense that my body to exist would get its instructions from the working X chromosome that's the overly simplified but clearly rational way this happened. It could happen to anyone just that I am one of those cases.
What hurts me more is that when I tell people this just like my family they are somehow disappointed. Like oh your just a biological female boring. This just proves to me how ignorant of intersex most people are the majority of intersex people are cis gendred like me. The fantasy of both sets of genitals can never happens in real life.
The people who obsessed over intersex bodies literally have a fetish driven by hentai, porn and trans people who don't get all the operations and they are projecting those unfulfilled desires onto intersex people, it pisses me and the majority of us the fuck off.
I literally never one day in my life got a choice to be anything but a biological female. Hell there was a time my family due to insane XY equals male bullshit tried to have doctors give me treatments to masculinize me without my consent or understanding but my body was unable to change and you know what happened after that they were disappointed in their daughter for not being a man.
Many females have to live in the shadow of a prefered male sibling or have a sister who was favored. You know who I was never good enough to measure up to?
Myself!
My entier damn life interacting with my mother I was always worse then alternative universe me who wasn't female. I wasn't: Smart enough, strong enough, caring enough, talented enough, I never could measure up to a person I never could be. I was in her own words this disappointing underachieving weak emotional female who couldn't achieve half of what I could have if I had been male.
Quite an enjoyable life where you feel blighted for existing. The unwanted mistake. I plan one day to write an autobiography and i always had the idea of the tagline the child not even a mother could love of have it somewhere because she would say that to me often.
Maybe the specifics of what I been through are unique but the feelings are universal. I am a female that suffered alot of inhumane treatment for no other reason then ignorance.
I speak out about being intersex not because its fun or I enjoy it quite to the contrary Its painful. I often end up in tears I am crying right now as I type this. But how can anything ever get better if no one speaks out? So few intersex people want to talk about there conditions because they are used to painful blow back.
In a bizarre way I am in a privileged position I am biologically a Female with no health issues as a result of my condition thus its less sensitive to me then some intersex conditions that have more issues associated with it.
My problem has been emotionally how other people and there treatment of me has made me feel for being a female. Its like even though I'm a woman I am often treated like Im some cheep imitation or even worse in the case of my family as i mentioned earlier that I'm some mutated freak that I should have been male.
Wrong in so many cases I am exactly how i was meant to be. I was born female am female bodied and for the most part have a female gender identity. Being othered so much in my life sometimes makes me hate my existence many intersex people because of this treatment believe we make up a third sex. If you wanna read about it here is a link on the topic
In my country New York state ( where I was born) was one of the first to offer amended birth certificates for intersex people who want a third sex designation and many intersex advocates were pushing for me to have it amended as some of the first wave in the country.
I refused I don't feel like a third sex I feel like idiotic people who refuse to listen learn and understand make me fucking sick of repeating myself that I'm a typical female it gets on my nerves but it doesn't change the fact that I'm female bodied.
Does it make people feel good to pick on someone with a unique health condition that for what its worth I don't believe should be a health condition at all. I have had Doctors apologize to me for being female like what in the fuck is my life.
Why is being someone at female at birth with a female gender and sex something they feel the need to apologize to me about? Other women be frank here how the fuck would you like it if randomly at times you'd meet a new doctor they would look at your charts and say "oh wow ? sorry. I mean there was nothing that could be done." I am fucking coming in for a broken writs and your busy talking this bullshit.
I only learned of the term Demisexuality a few years ago and it describes me perfectly. Demisexual was added to the Oxford English dictionary this year. The term is defined as: Noting or relating to a person who is sexually attracted only to people with whom they already have an emotional bond.
I never understood why or how people would fall in love with or be attracted to models or movie stars, even watching things like porn did nothing for me I mean If I don't know the persons hope dreams fears personality why or how could anyone even possibly love that person or want to be with them. To me there is no such thing as skin deep attraction.
Some try to argue that demisexuals don't exist (laugh) think critically about our hook up culture I can't imagine ever using grinder tinder or any other app that claims to set me up with someone. Anyone who has ever tried to pick me up before they even know the content of my unfulfilled desires and what I feel my life is working towards to me is uninteresting and a hard no!
The overt sexualizing of everything in society also makes me uncomfortable at times, people say sex often sells to me its just gross. Take a toothpaste or deodorant ad what is it a soft-core porn about how if you use said product you will have men or women all over you. I mean who would even want that? I would never want random scumbags who don't view me as a human being near me oh because of my bright smile people who open with commenting on my looks my response is usually -- that's nice go f yourself dipshit.
Demisexuals aren't trying to put other people down or judge you for doing your thing. We want to be given a space to exist I mean it sucks when we do develop a crush on a friend since that is how it mostly happens, for me one friend took almost 15 years for me to find them attractive.
It is difficult to address this with people since it isn't talked about enough and many people tend to wanna shoot there shot right away clearly with the view it is better to swing and miss to then go onto the next person as if relationships were just a numbers game. I just wish it was normal that getting laid or sex didn't matter, that people could wanna make strong loving bonds in general and if some of them evolve into sexuality that would be a natural progression between people who loved eachother.
I know some demisexuals can play the game of relationships not because they want to but because of needing to feel loved and have sexual expression once in awhile. I just am too damn aware of my feelings, the act of being flirty or receptive before I feel it to me is a no go. I also hate it when someone says thank you when I give a complement why be thankful for an honest assessment of something about you? They should recognize for me it is just truth telling and such a thing does not deserve gratitude.
One benefit to dating a demisexual is we don't love half way. For a demisexual like myself the more we discover about someone the more we often wanna be there. Sure if your a creeper we'd never be interested in the first place, but if your a decent person let us in and then you can prepare for unconditional love.
I decided to say fuck it I am going to stop policing myself and start being myself. The goal was to get to know my unfiltered self better and hopefully gain the strength and confidence of who I really am.
I ended up losing over 60 pounds because of a focus on physical health with a goal of getting back in shape to be a competitive martial artist. That was an easy priority since I love martial arts been doing it since 7.
Then I had rejoined a BDSM club because I am kinky my life has been intense as shit thus for me if it ain't deep bordering on too much why bother?
While going to the clube made a few friends and am learning new skills such as knife play, rope play, cupping, and fire doming. It was a harsh reality for me when I had only said in theory before I was a switch because some of my fantasies had me bottoming to having someone tie me up suspend me in rope and I went catatonic temporarily my first time up.
I now am a fully committed rope bunny. Funny side note for an upcoming Disney night I am actually gonna dress up as the rabbit judy hopps ( a little on the nose? )
Also I have developed a near obsession with dragging sharp blades across my body. When I was younger I used to be a cutter like many goth emo females. Knife play gives me a similar reliable release of feeling alive without all the blood.
Taking a blade pressing it to your flesh and feeling it makr a fine cut or scraping a layer of skin off while feeling your muscles move underneath is just fuckin so sweet. Writing about it makes me wanna start dragging blades across me --Yummies!
One person while he was using a large sword on me had daggers at my throat so I had to stay still or get tiny pricks that constricted me in ways that I been practically pleeding with him to do again! He says it's part of a larger scene but we have yet to have the time -- sigh he likes to say always leave em wanting more. But feed my desire dude what do I gotta do get down on my knees and beg arg! How should I feel when I been anticipating something for weeks yet haven't felt completion!
When you have daggers at your throat the forced control of all your muscles, the inability to gasp laugh or even talk much, was the most intense bondage I have faced. Yet it was all self imposed at any time i coulda stopped but who the fuck would ever want to when it feels so great?
Another friend was wax playing and scraped if off with a live straight razor at my request -- he normally used a dull one but fuck that I need the luster of a live blade.
Is knife play edge play I guess? but to be taken to the edge of what my body can stand gets me to feel the most alive, in a world where I'm often so bored I feel everyday life makes me a tired zombie.
What's real life? Waiting on hold with a company for 30 minutes to get them to take your call, standing in line at the grocery store for 10 minutes to buy cereal, or maybe a self checkout, or how about going to work having to sit in bumper to bumper traffic for damn near a half an hour.
Yeah everyday life is total shit, people who enjoy the daily grind can keep there smug smiles to themselves they are insipid drones who's spirit been grinded to dust and they can just shut the fuck up with their attitude.
Now these changes in me have all been positive. However a new issue has arrived on the scene of my life and it has been confusing as hell. I have been as open as any human can be that I have a rare intersex condition that made my biology develop female. As I have talked about this I have had people on this and other forms ask if I am male or had male parts which is so unbelievably stupid look up complete androgen insensitivity syndrome and read for five seconds since apparently me talking about it doesn't get peoples attention furthermore I also have persistent mullerian ducts.
The end result is I not only am a perfectly healthy female I literally couldn't transition or respond to gender treatment If I wanted. My body ignores Testosterone and since T naturally breaks down into estrogen, if someone was to perscibe testosterone for me it would simply raise the level of estrogen in my blood stream.
Yet due to the way I was treated growing up like an abnormal freak even though my body responded as it should was traumatic. Those memories still play out in me now as I have grown to be more intune with myself I have realized like most women I want and think about sex several times and day.
This admitted desire for sexual contact is something I never addressed before due to my own discomfort with my body. I am not sure how to respond. My own goal is asking for a huge change.
I didn't account for the delirium of a full admission and acceptance of my body and its desires. I had hoped by giving into BDSM pleasures and just being more social would address some of what I desire and make me happier.
My body is not amused, it doesn't want excuses. I feel tired of my own thoughts getting in the way of what I want.
This conflict is now at the center at a battle for my very soul. I am not really comfortable being intimate with people yet my savage sexuality doesn't give a shit. I have repressed myself for so long my body is making me unbelievably frustrated to the point of tears at times. I had no idea I had this kind of sexual potential inside me. I have been celibate for nearly 7 years and sex had never seemed to be a big priority to me before, but my body is tired of my bullshit and feeling sexual agaony is real.
I scream into the void-- "Why has my life led me to such a fucked up place!"
As an individual with an intersex condition, moderator of various LGBTIQ groups, and someone who has spoken to many confused intersex individuals, families and allies, I get a similar question over and over: What does it mean now that I am diagnosed with an intersex condition? Or, from the ally stance, what can I do to better understand and support someone who is intersex?
Just today a better answer came to me, and it additionally is advice to those who often write the insensitive question, how should I write an intersex character, or I have an idea for an intersex character, can you help me with it?
This insight came from me watching a YouTube video pointing out that the character Toph (blind earth bender) from “Avatar: The Last Airbender” was based on a real person.
(
It got me thinking in a whole new way to explain what it is like being intersex. The following is what changed about me the day I found out I was intersex: absolutely nothing! I am a real person, my hopes and dreams were exactly the same – wanting a family to love me finally, wanting to understand myself, wanting to have quality healthcare so that my issues could be dealt with. Oh, I was scared and afraid – not because of the condition, but because of how my family, society, and some medical professionals made me feel.
With my condition (Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome), my body, brain and hormonal development is like any other female’s. I know not every intersex condition is so lucky, and even within androgen insensitivity, not everyone’s bodies has taken to it as well as mine. I am lucky that I can run marathons and perform spinning 360 jump kicks with enough force to break a target as thick as a 2x4.
Yet behind my eyes of steel resolve, there is hurt, not because of a diagnosis but because of a rejection of my humanity. My family didn’t want me; ignorant that someone with XY chromosomes can grow up to be a biological female, they rejected me. Yet they weren’t the only ones. My first girlfriend, when I tried to be intimate with her, was very upset because she didn’t want to be with a man and claimed I tricked her because I wasn’t a “real woman” in her opinion.
The reason why people can’t understand what it’s like to be intersex, or how to write intersex characters is because, unlike with the design of Toph, where her blindness didn’t define her, so many attempts to understand intersex do not see that when you meet an intersex person, you have met only one intersex person. We are real individuals, with complicated emotions, families and circumstances, making the intersex aspect of us an afterthought. My condition doesn’t and didn’t ever define me. My lack of love, supportive people, or people who cared about me is what caused the struggles I have faced in my life because of my intersex condition.
I know being in my 30s, nearly 20 years removed from puberty, it will be different for this next generation, but that doesn’t mean some of the same themes won’t play out. Here is my advice to young or confused intersex people:
First – Breathe, nothing has ever changed about you. The only thing that has happened is you better understand yourself.
Second – Relax. Most intersex conditions are harmless, and for the ones that have health considerations, it may take time, but if you get qualified medical care, it can be managed. The majority of intersex conditions do not shorten life expectancy.
Third – Trust. It’s hard trusting others, when so many will stigmatize you, or mock you, making you feel insecure. Trusting medical professionals is required, even though they will often fall short and say or do disrespectful things. Find medical professionals who care, and trust that things will get better, even when year after year it seems like the world only gets worse for people like us. Trust builds hope, and to keep striving for the day when you find people who accept you better is worth fighting for.
Fourth – No Shame. No one is born hating themselves; it is impossible. You love yourself, but that spirit was broken by many people who fed you a lifetime of lies and pain, which twisted your self-image. No one is an island, yet finding self-love, self-respect and showcasing who you are to the world is worthy.
Fifth – No Judgement. I don’t have to talk about my condition; I choose to. When I was young, I didn’t know where to turn. No one I knew had any condition like me or could even relate to me, so I was alone in the world. But then the power of the internet and concerned online intersex people saved me by simply talking to me and helping me to realize being intersex is natural. Now, as many of them have grown older and started to retire from advocacy, I have picked up the mantle to keep a light on for the next generation of hurting youth. The innate nature of intersex means there will always be another generation. We have existed as long as humanity, and thus the work of improving our lives, of being a symbol for and mentoring the next generation, will always be needed.
If you can’t do this yourself, that’s ok. Love yourself and follow my advice; there is no right or wrong way to be who you are. I love you all the same for staying true to your heart. Not everyone is a healer-educator. I don’t do this for you, though; I am doing it because without being an advocate, my life wouldn’t feel complete. I am obsessed with making the world a better place, not because I believe it ever will be – but when I was young, I prayed for a hero that never came to me. So I became the person that I prayed for. I became who I believed the world needed; I am the change I wanted to see in the world and its people.
Holidays are a hard time for many in the LGBTIQQA+ community, me included. I will never have a day when I go over my parents, to a warm fire, presents and stories of past joy. What I have instead is the added conviction to improve the world, so other intersex children get spared the pain and loneliness that has filled my life.
In short, I love Toph, not because she is a character who overcame a disability, or because being intersex is a disability, but because she’s a fully realized person who is strong, capable, intelligent, and caring, who we the audience and the characters in the world often forget to see as blind.
As an intersex person, I don’t live my life everyday thinking about my condition or situation; that would be insane. A typical day: I get up, have breakfast, shower and brush my teeth, walk my dog, then go to university to study, go to the gym, go to taekwondo practice, and then sometimes work at night, and get up to do it all over again. Where in my everyday life does being intersex matter? Why should it have ever mattered to anyone?
Yet it does because we live in a world of: stigma, bigotry, hatred, and shame. I have no biological family, countless friends have left me, and I suffer often for speaking the truth, knowing fully well if I shut my mouth and chose to be invisible, I’d have an easier life. I would be seen as just another tall, intelligent, attractive, white girl. Yet to do that, I wouldn’t help anyone. Furthermore, that act would exact a price on my soul I couldn’t live with. It is my duty to live in the light to cast out darkness.
I hope this helps you understand what goes on in the mind and life of a real intersex person, and that if you or anyone you know is intersex, it’s ok – just: breathe, relax, trust, no shame, no judgement, be yourself, the same person you always were.
Be like Toph. She isn’t the sum of her condition; hell, it’s easy to forget she is blind because with what she does, her disability doesn’t define her. Toph is herself – and amazing for that. As Intersex people, all of us can be ourselves, no matter what others think or try to force upon us, and that is amazing.
How to write a disabled character, a video featuring Toph:
I have moved on from so many toxic things this year. Finally stood up and told my abusive mother I will not interact with her unless she gets professional help for her mental illness it isn't my duty to fix my mother.
I told an ex that I will no longer tolerate him dictating any aspect of my life and that if we are to be friends or have any interaction he must accept me as I am.
I lost 60 pounds and started training 5 days a week at a taekwondo gym that just brought home 9 medals from worlds. I have been doing martial arts since I was 7 because I was tired of being bullied. I have taken it to a whole new level now, next year I will finally start doing competitions my body is getting explosive can't wait to test myself.
I got back into BDSM publicly and became a contributor to a local dungeon. I have been making friends while learning and working on getting my skills back. I am currently learning fire doming, knife play, cupping, rope play.
I used to do BDSM as a way to escape or get my issues out on others but now as a mature adult I am doing it to help not only please others but actually just enjoy the time and space of life. Kinky people are the best people!
I am working in better expressing myself and what it means for me to be my own advocate. As someone who volunteers and tries to save people for a living it's easy for me to be in the caretaker mode for everyone around me.
My schooling is going well got straight A's again so happy for that. Next year 14 credits and I will have another degree/ certificate license to the pile. This one is going to allow me to be a medical assistant. I want to have my own clinic or at least be able to do charity medicine when I am a higher medical provider so learning the back of the house things is important.
This upcoming year while working as an EMT and interning as a medical assistant I am gonna be applying to medical school so will see where I get in!
I am in a happy place trying to learn about myself through accepting my desires without any judgement or self policing.
Thank you to all who support me on my quest to be better then I was yesterday
As an EMT who started during covid it isn't new to experience death and suffering.
Yet in the last month my personal friend who was living with me while he transitioned decided he couldn't take the pain anymore and committed suicide, if that wasn't enough as an EMT when I called 911 to ask for a wellness check they pressed me to go into his room and exam him to decide if we needed emergency services.
While coping with that and dealing with his unsupported down right bigoted family my best female friends grandmother died of cancer and they live in Philadelphia and normally I would run to her side and be there for her but I just didn't have it in me this time my own personal grief and dealing with the fall out too intense to do much then listen to them on the phone a couple of times ahead those intense emotions with me.
If that wasn't all just last week my best and perhaps closest friends mother died and they had to fly out to North Carolina and help get there affairs in order we talked a couple of times but its finals week of all times for this to happen I just didn't have much time for him.
3 massive deaths in my life all within the last 3 weeks while I had to keep the wheels on and finish my semester. I finally did it turned in my last assignment Another 3 A's but I feel like I get 3 F's in how well I have done for me and my friends during this time.
I miss prince so much I wish there was something I could have done to help him I tried everyday I was in his life to lift him up and believe in him yet 100% of my love and appreciation wasn't enough to get him but a few more months of life.
My friends who have been going through stuff right now I am so sorry for how I might have failed you I really do love you and appreciate you I wish I had more time more energy more whatever you need me to be to make your life better. I would gladly sacrifice myself for someone I loved without hesitation yet what am I doing at the moment sitting in my room having just finished my last bit of school work screaming at the walls wondering if I can live up to my own unrealistic demands on myself for just one more day.
I will keep my head above my tears too many people pray for a hero and someone has to be strong enough to run into chaos and pull people through. Sorry that I had a human moment its important for the soul to know I have sympathy for myself even if I have to let go of these feelings before they have the chance to resolve too much good to fight for to be weak in defeat.