A strong sense

Mental Health

The philosopher was really in tricky situation. The most recent apprentice philosopher had shown some promising qualities, however rough and undeveloped, when competing for the position, but was now proving to be more or less a disastrous mess of a human being. To make matters worse, the philosopher's time-tested curriculum was coming up on the unit entitled "Know Thyself", but it was looking more and more ethically justifiable not to subject the apprentice to the pain self-knowledge would inevitably bring.

That's dedication

Mental Health

Adrian stood before the bathroom mirror at work. People described him as nervous, high strung, tightly wound, anxious. He was aware of this and agreed with the assessment. Nothing brought him so much tension as thoughts about his carefully cultivated sense of self and the inevitable falling short of those high expectations. 

In this moment, Adrian was forced to confront his stated dedication to evil and the lackluster way in which he had worked wickedness in the world. Not living up to his commitments was, Adrian thought, well...bad. His eye twitched in sync with a sudden insight: he was being evil by not living up to his full evil potential. Far from being comforted or satisfied, Adrian felt that this was cheating in some form. Probably an effort of his lazy mind to justify his inherent halfheartedness.

Aspire higher

With halfhearted apologies to Ray Bradbury.

 

Mental Health

"Well, I want to be a plane-man when I grow up!" 

___"I think you mean a 'pilot'." 

"No! I want to be a man who is also an airplane. That's way better than a pilot."

Learn to be loved

Mental Health

Let's see...uh, the attendance policy. I won't give any hard-and-fast rules, here, but obviously if you're always here and always on time, with your little row of perfectly pre-sharpened pencils, etc., that's not super charismatic. But you gotta put in enough face time for us to form a positive opinion of you, too. Learning to strike this balance is what we're all about in Popularity 101, and going on to the intermediate and advanced popularity courses, too.

Cretaceous cowboy

Mental Health

The next morning, the rider rose early, made a roaring bonfire to warm up the mount's cold blood, and boiled water for his own dwindling supply of coffee. The beans from which coffee was made might not have evolved yet, and even if they had, the rider reckoned he was not likely to come across them on this journey.

When the dinosaur was awake and energized, the few articles of camp were packed and saddled onto its sides, and the cowboy was up on its back, they continued onward, looking for the place where the impact was supposed to occur. Both hoped they would make it in time to change the path of history. 

Stay afloat

Mental Health

"It's just the ocean playing tricks on us. Just because it looks like we're on land, and it doesn't seem like we're moving, doesn't mean we should risk getting out."

___"Our ancestors wouldn't have sacrificed so much to stay in the boat if it wasn't really on the water. And I wouldn't feel such a dark, frightened feeling every time my doubts say we've been fooled."

"Absolutely. There's no other explanation for it."

The mad hatted

Mental Health

I have an identical twin, and here are the only ways you can tell us apart: He always wears a hat, and I never do. He's a rude jerk, and I'm not. But we always wear the same clothes; it's a long story, but basically we won a contest for identical twins but missed the fine print where we have to dress exactly alike. It's worth it. Uh, and so anyway, my twin might also know stuff about my life and pretend to be me, but it's only because he reads my journal all the time. In conclusion, we are totally two different people and that's why you shouldn't be mad at me, because I'm not the one who apparently ruined that funeral reception by accidentally eating all the cake and then trying to replace it with tofu covered in leftover frosting, or whatever.