Little Talks

Finding your place in the world (or, adolescence) The teenage years can be stressful, awkward, and enlightening. It is during this crucial epoch in our lives that we begin to gain a fuller awareness of the world around us; our eyes are opened to the truth of the human condition, to the realities of social injustice and environmental concerns. As we move from childhood to adulthood, we come to realize—if we haven't already—that things aren't always fair, and we life won't always go the way we want it to. At the same time, we are aware of the growing pressures and responsibilities being placed on us as we make more decisions for ourselves and prepare to step up and take our place in the world. And it can be awkward, when we still feel like children, to try to understand who we are and what we are doing with our lives. It is in this integral stage of life that we meet the protagonist of our story, Jake. Though we don't see a lot of his day-to-day life, we get the fe...

It's been a long time since I've regularly been on this blog, so I'm going to try to get back to that. I'm starting today with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. There will be spoilers for this and future MCU movies, so please read at your own risk. The problem with fathers The second installment in the Guardians of the Galaxy  series was, if I'm being honest, full of a lot of cliches. Honestly, the whole idea of the Guardians and thier backstories is built on the idea that family is not about blood relations. That theme runs through a lot of the GOTG storylines, when I look back on it all now. For example: Thanos, despite being an adopted father to Gamora and Nebula, is their "legal" parent, I suppose (the quotations are there because he did sort of kidnap them, despite the fact that he raised them and they seemed to remain relatively loyal for most of their lives). However, neither of the girls is happy having him as a father; they are not really comfor...