‘Invisible Grace': Civility and Kindness Are the Wellspring of Joy
Manuals like 'Social Graces' have long attracted American readers. As a youth, George Washington copied out and then put into practice '
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Buzz Feed
4 hours ago
- Buzz Feed
29 Dumb Things Americans Posted Online
Hello! I think we could all use a little levity in our lives. Coincidentally, I recently stumbled upon the Shit Americans Say subreddit, where people share screenshots of the most ignorant thing they've seen people in the US say about the world. And honestly? It's the best reprieve. Enjoy! This person genuinely believes America is "too big for public transport." Someone please tell that to our train and bus systems. This person thinks free will only exists in the US. This person thinks servers LOVE the tipping system. I'm not sure where they've been in the last 10+ years. This person thinks WhatsApp is designated to third-world countries... Despite its massive popularity around the globe. This person would be shocked to know that a Euro is worth more than the US dollar. I don't even know what to say here. This person has no idea how commonly the metric system is used. This person claimed the US is the "most creative nation in the world" and challenged people to name a revolutionary invention created outside of the United States. A simple answer: Cars. This person thinks only Americans drink water. As if we don't all need water to survive. This person thinks Europeans can't comprehend the concept of steak, eggs, and bacon. This person claims Silicon Valley "built the modern world" and wonders why they shouldn't run it. My only response is... imagine Zuckerberg running the world. Help. This person said that ALL of Europe is dangerous, and honestly, that's probably for the best. I'm sure they don't like American tourists, anyway. These two Americans got in an argument over the stupidest thing. This person tried to make fun of someone for misusing a word... while literally using a word not acknowledged by dictionaries. This person can't convert Celsius to Fahrenheit. This person thinks currency in all other countries is basically "monopoly money." This person bragged about living in the US. A place they think they can openly criticize their government without being arrested... (Who's going to tell them?) This person thought the symbol for US currency was "universal for 'money.'" This person referred to a building built circa 200 B.C. as a "copy" of a fort in Florida. You know. A state in a country founded a few hundred years ago. This car owner. This person said people living in New York and Arizona — who literally speak the same language, use the same currency, and have the same political history — are as different as those who live in Iceland and Germany. This person thinks TikTok — whose parent company is based in China — was made for Americans. This person genuinely believes worker strikes are "mainly really an American thing." Clearly, they're not familiar with France's game. This person seriously said, "Every significant cultural item comes from the US," and I need them to get out more. For context, the person commented on a video where someone in London ordered "chips." This person thinks US citizens should "never be embarrassed to live in the USA," and I'm embarrassed just reading through this list. This person decided that the US has the authority to decide what people of other nationalities and ethnicities call themselves. This clearly stubborn and confused being. And finally, this person who thinks that only the US allows its citizens the right to free speech. What's the most ignorant thing you've ever heard someone from the US say? Let us know in the comments.
Newsweek
12 hours ago
- Newsweek
Hearts Break As Shelter Volunteer Reveals Reasons Dogs Are Abandoned
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. In a viral Instagram post, a shelter volunteer revealed the most-common reasons dogs are abandoned, leaving internet users heartbroken. In the post, shared on Tuesday under the username @jsaraceno, the volunteer, Julie Saraceno, walks around the shelter filming some of the pups still waiting for a home, listing the reasons for their surrender. "When you're a volunteer at an animal shelter and you see all the reasons the dogs ended up here," the caption says. The first pup is Mishka, a 10-year-old Siberian husky who was abandoned because of his owner's health conditions, and is now desperately looking for a new foster, who can make him feel happy and safe for his remaining months. Saraceno told Newsweek: "He's been with us for just over a month, surrendered because of the health of the owner. Upon intake, a mass was found on his hip, later confirmed through X-ray. "Due to his age and medical condition, Mishka is in need of a hospice foster home where he can spend his remaining months surrounded by love and comfort." Screenshots of the viral video show the pups in shelter waiting to be adopted. On the right is Mishka. Screenshots of the viral video show the pups in shelter waiting to be adopted. On the right is Mishka. @jsaraceno Another pup featured in the clip is Jazzy, surrendered due to landlord issues back in December, still waiting for her perfect match. "She is only 1 year old. She is very shy and scared, so it takes time for her to trust people," Saraceno said. "Most people aren't willing to do more than one meet-and-greet, and I think that is what she needs to feel comfortable." Among all the other dogs in the clip are also Bowser and Mario, a pair of 5-month-old dachshund and Siberian husky-mix puppies, surrendered because the family had too many animals. "They have the most-adorable stubby dachshund legs you've ever seen," Saraceno added. With almost 3 million dogs entering American shelters in 2024 alone, adopting from a shelter has never been more important. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) says that, of all the homeless pups that ended up in shelter last year, only about 2 million were adopted, and 554,000 were returned to their owner. Of the pups left, 524,000 were transferred to other organizations, and 334,000 were euthanized. The Humane Society of the United States says that, when animals are injected with proper euthanasia drugs, they can lose consciousness in about 3 to 5 seconds. However, many local and underfunded shelters still use gas chambers. In these black boxes, it can take as long as 20 minutes for death to occur, and, in some cases, the animals are still conscious when their vital organs begin to shut down. The video quickly went viral on social media and it has so far received nearly 30,000 views and almost 3,000 likes on the platform. One user, John_baresky, commented: "Each is a TREASURE of a puppy dog to ADOPT and CHERISH! They bring cheer, fun, joy, laughs, love and loyalty to those that adopt them!" Portagebreeze added: "So many wonderful dogs who were originally placed in homes where human illness or a must move occurred. These pups are all so deserving of a wonderful family to call their own. "Won't you consider one of them? Papa has been waiting SO long. He has to be an only dog in the home it this is easily done and the folks at the shelter can help you be successful with him!!" Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@ with some details about your best friend, and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
Boston Globe
20 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Going to therapy while the world is on fire
'I'm doing well,' I answer in a semireflexive way. The kids are thriving, summer is here, vacation is coming soon. Yet my answer does not capture the full picture. 'Well, I mean apart from the fact that terrible things are happening all around and that the world feels on the brink of collapse.' Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up A car ablaze in Sweida, Syria, following clashes between Bedouin and Druze factions on July 14. Getty Images/Getty Advertisement One of my patients doesn't wait for me to ask how he is doing as we start an early morning session. 'I can't do therapy today,' he says. I listen, curious. 'There's just too much dissonance. Not sure I can really go into the details of what's happening in my life when the world seems to be crumbling all around.' I've heard many versions of this expressed in therapy over the past several months, a hesitation about feeling entitled to a 50-minute therapy session. (I received consent from my patients to reference their stories anonymously.) 'Your life matters,' I say. 'Yes, big things are happening, but this doesn't mean your life doesn't have significance.' My words feel flimsy, perhaps because I'm only partially convinced of them myself. My patient knocks them down in the next three seconds. 'Yeah, well, you're a therapist, so of course you are going to say that.' Advertisement Sometimes I need a good little kick of radical honesty in a session to sharpen my focus. 'Many people are talking about this very question in therapy,' I say. I tell him that I'm thinking about this question, too. He tells me about hypernormalization, a term introduced by the Russian-born American anthropologist Alexei Yurchak to describe the way in which people carried on with life pretending everything was normal in the 1970s Soviet Union despite the systemic failure of government and institutions. I listen in silent agreement. My patient tells me he is grateful for having just gotten a good job offer, but his happiness is tempered by his awareness of what is happening in the country and the world. Some of his friends want to leave the country. 'What do I do?' he asks. 'Should I escape to Europe? Focus on my job? Amass wealth and buy a house? Fight? How do I fight?' A Ukrainian firefighter worked to extinguish a fire following Russian drone strikes on houses in Odesa, on July 11. OLEKSANDR GIMANOV/AFP via Getty Images We end the session without having gotten into the dynamics of the romantic relationship he had wanted to talk about. I remember learning in grad school about the late American psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner's biopsychosocial model, which holds that human development is influenced by multiple interconnected systems in a person's environment. An illustration showing a stick-figure individual at the center of several concentric circles: family and close friends first, with community and school one ring out, and politics, government, religion, and culture circling the whole. I imagine the stick figure — my patient or me — becoming uncentered, floating across the lines that are themselves wobbly. Advertisement Therapy feels like this: destabilized. Can we truly shut out the outside world and carry on with day-to-day therapy work when the world keeps smashing into us? What weight do our individual lives carry? Some patients wonder at the self-indulgence of paying good money to talk about relationships, health, families, careers, kids, pets. These perennial questions for the practice of therapy have resurfaced with a new urgency over the past several months. For other patients, the political world has become of immediate relevance to their day-to-day lives. Depression, anxiety, anger, dissociation, and fear are heightened for many. Scientist and doctor patients whose research funding has been cut question their life's direction. Other patients talk about deportation; yet others are fearful of losing food stamps and housing benefits. A woman with a severe trauma history, whose government-subsidized housing has provided her with a sense of safety she had never felt, tells me she has a suicide plan if her benefits get taken away. She is not joking. A colleague mentions a patient with a history of delusions who is terrified when he sees black SUVs pull up in front of his building. The presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in his neighborhood now gives his delusions a grounding in reality. The line that separates anxiety from paranoia has shifted. Smoke and fire rose to the sky following an Israeli army bombardment in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel on July 10. Leo Correa/Associated Press And then there are many patients who, like me, feel enraged and powerless, consumed and wanting to escape. Meanwhile, life on the street in my neighborhood looks eerily normal: People get coffee, kids play while parents chat at the playground, runners run, and, of course, people go to their weekly therapy appointments. Advertisement I ask my own therapist, 'Is it strange for me to talk to you about my own little life in the context of the world? What are you telling your patients? What should I be telling mine?' I see in her eyes that she knows what I'm talking about. She is asking similar questions. She tells me about a book she is reading about the power of defiance. Sounds good, I tell her, as I put it in my online cart. Not a typical therapist move. We are out of mainstream therapy water. Both as therapist and patient, I wonder how much my individual story has weight and consequence in the context of a breaking social order. Is there a risk that I am becoming complicit with this break if I carry on talking about relationships and family and summer plans in my therapy as if nothing else were going on? And what if I don't feel like talking about politics in therapy? Or what if I need to shut out the world so I can focus on what's happening in my smaller sphere? I reflect on what I had said to my patient, about his life continuing to matter. It hits me on my bike ride home along the river after my therapy appointment, alongside the people sitting by the water taking in the afternoon sun. Our lives matter. The fact of an administration that seeks to crush individual voices, and in particular dissenting ones, urges us to stay aware of ourselves. Many skills developed in therapy are important not just to individual well-being and personal growth; they are tools to support coping and, if we want them to be, can be vehicles for political change and resistance. These tools and vehicles include self-exploration, curiosity, reflection, questioning of previously held assumptions and what we thought were given truths, taking risks, tolerating distress, managing uncomfortable emotional states, appreciating one's unique identity, questioning fear, building on one's strengths, and exploring possibilities for change. At a time when difference and diversity in being and critical thought are in peril, now more than ever is the time to bolster those very qualities. Advertisement
