I Watch Cartoons While the World Burns

and honestly? Same

Right now, literally right now, I'm watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Season 2, episode something. 

Btw I'm very attentive to details and I have this unexplainable obsession of finding out the most accurate human versions of each pony, and I am studying each pony's behaviours and attributes and taking notes each episode. 

I'll post it here when I'm done with the whole show! (For the 5th time I believe)

There’s a missile somewhere in the distance.

Not in the show.

In the real world.

But my popcorn is caramel flavoured. I'm kicking my feet in the air like a schoolgirl with a crush. I’ve got glitter on my wrist from earlier.

I’m fine. I’m good.

No—scratch that—

I’m alive.

People think when you post about genocide, or colonization, or war, or whatever-they’re-ignoring-today, that you somehow give up your right to joy.

As if wisdom means I have to walk around dressed like Athena. Have you seen the kids dance in circles to block the sounds of missiles... from other kids..?

But I’m here, sipping cold Americano which I despise, yelling at cartoon horses like they owe me rent.

And I don’t feel guilty.

I feel tired.

I’ve read the books.

I know the theories.

I can drop names and dates and the names behind the names.

Yes, I’ve seen the footage. Yes, I've memorized their faces and carved them into my memory and cried until my face broke.

But what do you want me to do?

Implode on schedule?

One time, I posted something serious—about siege, about Gaza, about kids collecting water in shattered buckets—and someone replied:

“Wow. That’s so deep. But also you post cartoons lol?”

Yes, Sherlock. I post cartoons.

Because sometimes the only thing that makes sense is a pink pony teaching diplomacy to a dragon.

Because war doesn’t stop being real just because I laughed for 3 minutes.

Because they can destroy our cities but not our colors.

Joy is not betrayal.

Softness is not ignorance.

I’m not aestheticizing resistance—I’m being it.

And that, my lovely readers, requires imagination.

You think they only drop bombs on bodies?

They bomb dreams.

They target imagination.

They turn the softest children into steel and then punish them for forgetting how to smile for the goddamn cameras.

تسقط الأجساد، لا الفكرة.

Bodies drop, but not the concept itself.

_ Ghassan Kanafani

Well, I smile.

And then I post a thread about settler violence.

And then I giggle at Pinkie Pie doing a stupid voice.

And then I read a book about anti-colonial strategies.

And then I draw something silly and color it in with stolen time.

Because time is already stolen from us.

"إذا بدهم ياكي تكبري بسرعة، كبّري خيالك 

قبل وجك."

(If they want you to grow up fast, grow your imagination before your face.)

I won’t pretend to be empty just to be taken seriously.

And I won’t be quiet just to seem “deep.”

So yeah. I watch cartoons while the world burns.

And if that makes me unserious, then maybe the world needs more of that.

Because some of us are still trying to build a place worth being serious for.

Next episode’s starting. I gotta go.

Luna’s about to appear. I never skip her entrance. 🦄🌙