No Cherry On Top

09/18/2025

Comedy plays a crucial role in oppressive environments by serving as a tool for resilience, resistance, and social commentary. It allows individuals and communities to cope with hardship, challenge authority, and maintain a sense of humanity despite difficult circumstances.

How Comedy Helps in Oppressive Environments

1. Psychological Relief and Coping Mechanism
Comedy provides a mental escape from stress and fear. Humor can reduce anxiety, foster hope, and improve emotional well-being, helping people endure oppression by momentarily lightening the psychological burden.
2. Subversive Resistance and Critique
Comedy often acts as a subtle form of protest. Satire and irony expose the absurdities and injustices of oppressive regimes without direct confrontation, which can be dangerous. This indirect critique can raise awareness and inspire dissent while evading censorship or punishment.
3. Community Building and Solidarity
Shared humor strengthens bonds among oppressed groups. Laughing together creates a sense of unity and collective identity, reinforcing social cohesion and mutual support in the face of adversity.
4. Empowerment and Voice
Comedy can give a voice to the marginalized by highlighting their experiences and perspectives. It empowers individuals to reclaim narrative control, challenge stereotypes, and assert dignity.
5. Cultural Preservation and Expression
In oppressive contexts where cultural expression is often suppressed, comedy preserves traditions, language, and values through storytelling and performance, keeping cultural identity alive.

Examples of Comedy in Oppressive Contexts

~Political Satire in Authoritarian States: Comedians use coded language and allegory to criticize dictatorships while avoiding direct repression.
~Jewish Humor in Holocaust and Diaspora: Humor was a survival tool that helped maintain hope and identity amid persecution.
~African American Comedy during Segregation: Comedians like Richard Pryor used humor to confront racism and inequality.
~Comedy in Apartheid South Africa: Satirical shows and performances challenged racial segregation and injustice.

Comedy’s ability to blend laughter with critique makes it a powerful instrument for navigating and undermining oppression. It fosters resilience, promotes awareness, and preserves humanity where overt resistance may be too dangerous or impossible.
In summary, comedy in oppressive environments functions as a vital psychological refuge, a subtle form of resistance, and a means to build solidarity and cultural identity, making it an indispensable resource for those living under repression.

08/17/2025

This is spot on! I hope that my children will understand what I had to go through to make sure they could have a voice that I never was allowed to have!

In a narcissistic family, loyalty isn't about love—it’s about silence. It’s a silent pact everyone somehow understands but no one openly acknowledges. Everyone knows the truth deep inside—the lies, the manipulation, the emotional damage—but they stay quiet. This silence is born out of fear, confusion, and a desperate need to keep the fragile family image intact. No one wants to be the one who disrupts the carefully constructed façade, because speaking up risks rejection, punishment, or being labeled the “problem.”

They remain too cowardly to confront the reality head-on, afraid of the consequences that truth might bring. At the same time, they are too invested—emotionally, socially, and sometimes financially—in the family’s toxic dynamics to make a change. This twisted loyalty binds them in invisible chains of denial and self-preservation, where survival depends on protecting the narcissist’s image rather than seeking healing or freedom.

Love, in this environment, becomes a word stripped of its true meaning. Instead of nurturing connection and safety, it’s replaced by fear, control, and compliance. The family members learn to silence their own pain, to suppress their voices, and to minimize their experiences just to avoid rocking the boat. Over time, this creates wounds that run deep—wounds invisible to outsiders but profoundly scarring to those living it.

Breaking that silence is often the hardest battle. It requires immense courage to face not just the narcissist, but the entire ecosystem that enabled the dysfunction. But without breaking that silence, healing remains out of reach, and the cycle repeats, passing pain down through generations.

08/16/2025

Peace is within you.

It’s easy to get distracted by the noise and chaos, but beneath the loud thoughts lies a steady foundation of calm you can always return to.

One deep breath is all it takes to remember that your peace is always within reach.

Each time you find yourself reacting impulsively, pause and come up with a more purposeful response.

Remind yourself that what is meant to stay doesn’t need to be forced or controlled.

Keep choosing trust.

Allow yourself to relax into the natural rhythm of life.

08/09/2025

https://open.spotify.com/track/2lwwrWVKdf3LR9lbbhnr6R?si=Dsi6TmrjRcWkFisd0dHRgQ&context=spotify%3Asearch%3Afloat%2Bon

Listen to this song and then read today’s motivation!!

The best parts of your journey are still unfolding.

There is still so much goodness waiting to unfold.

Some of your greatest chapters are taking shape right now.

You have so much more to explore.

On the days when life feels heavy, when it seems like you've hit a wall, hold onto the truth that life is always working in your favor, even when you can’t yet see how.

You are attracting new experiences that will shift your perspective in beautiful ways.

There will be moments of pure joy that remind you none of it was in vain; not the heartbreak you’ve endured, nor the painful days you’ve overcome.

Trust life’s unfolding. n

Modest Mouse · Good News For People Who Love Bad News · Song · 2004

08/05/2025

06/24/2025

Please consider donating and/or sharing. This family is near and dear to my heart!

12/28/2024

Here is a sample for steps on goal setting for 2025 for those of you that prefer the steps there is an example below. The list is overwhelming for my neurodivergent mind and I’m a visual person so I will be doing a vision board (also an example below). I’m using this weekend to propel myself the first quarter of 2025.
How do you set goals and stay on track?

Step 1: Conduct a thorough self-assessment to identify your current position and desired destination.
Step 2: Deconstruct long-term objectives into manageable, short-term goals.
Step 3: Ensure your goals conform to the SMART criteria.
Step 4: Develop a comprehensive action plan. Step 5: Monitor your progress and acknowledge significant milestones.

11/02/2024

Check out the Austin Smiles - The Austin Plastic Surgery Foundation Gala auction items! You do not have to be present to win!

09/27/2024

Today’s Motivation:
“Maybe I’m too damaged to be loved”

“Maybe I’ll never meet anyone who accepts me”

Entertaining thoughts like these leads to the harmful assumption that you’re never going to heal.

You won’t always feel this way.

Healing is an ongoing process and you don’t have to be perfect to be loved.

You’re committed to your healing journey.

You’ve shown incredible dedication and resilience.

The right people will be patient with you as you heal at your own pace.

You’ve been through harrowing experiences and you’re doing your best to heal.

You may be vulnerable, confused, or lost, but you’re not damaged.

Don’t talk to yourself like that.

Slowly but surely, you will gain the courage to open your heart again.

09/25/2024

Today’s Motivation:
You can only control your own perspective.

Harnessing this power can bring you to a place of true inner freedom.

The quality of your perceptions affects your experience.

Don’t believe the first thought you have about a situation right away.

Try to come up with different ways of looking at it.

Don’t color all of your reality with the same shade.

Distorted thoughts drive you into a state of lack and fear.

Life is an ever-changing journey.

Let there be space for different possibilities.

Develop the openness to allow your perceptions to be transformed.

09/06/2024

This week has been a doozy health wise for me. Shoulder out of socket! Thank you Dr. Bowker for fixing it!

Steroids for a horrible allergic reaction, then a horrible migraine and antibiotics for my allergy induced sinus infection all less than a month out from my sinus surgery.
Ehlers Danlos and Chiari are Bi***es!
This is my life and sometimes it’s really hard to stay positive and verbal communication is hard for me with this jaw splint that I have to wear because my jaw is permanently dislocated. Surgery is 30k out of pocket so don’t be upset if I haven’t called you or texted back! I deal with a lot that I don’t share. I got tired of sharing years ago! There are no cures for Chiari or EDS or Lupus. But I fight everyday to live! I am exhausted most days.

09/01/2024

September is Chiari Malformation Awareness Month. Consider turning your outdoor lights purple to raise awareness for this rare brain condition.

Learn and help raise awareness about Chiari Malformation, a chronic condition that causes regular headaches and is as of yet difficult to treat.