Some guy in the row in front of me said “nah you’re on your own after that” when mj asked him to bring her home. Like yeah dude that’s why you’d never be spiderman you’re not that guy pal
The new Spider-Man movie proved to me once again that forced isolation might make you super productive in the short term, but you pay a very heavy price for it. Ultimately, you destroy your own potential.
Even Peter Parker, despite having superpowers as Spider-Man, a clear sense of purpose, and being loved by all of New York City, struggles with being completely on his own. He develops real mental health issues and is driven by his trauma. He feels lost, and the exact same thing happens to so many people without anyone talking about it.
No matter how talented and successful you are in life: if you stay isolated for long enough, the silence will eventually drive you crazy and tear you down. The dangerous part is that you can't really predict when it starts getting bad. For some, it's a week; for others, a month or a year...
The point is, no matter what you're going through, you don't have to face it alone. Be spontaneous, follow your gut. Stop overanalyzing every little thing and measuring everything by productivity, efficiency, or profit and loss. The world isn't black and white, and it certainly isn't made of numbers. It is so much more than that. So get out there and face your fears. Get out there and have fun. Be like Spider-Man.
And btw, the movie was great. I highly recommend it
told my boyfriend that spider-man does a good job showing you who can handle rejection and who can’t. in the theater, a few guys outrightly said “you dey go nau” when MJ came on screen after she told peter she didn’t love him because she didn’t know him (1/2)
In Georgia I entered a Chick-fil-A drive-thru line of forty cars.
I turned off my engine. I prepared to wait the way my ancestors waited out a siege.
Six minutes later I was holding chicken.
I do not know what happened to the other thirty-nine cars. The line moved like water that had somewhere to be.
A young woman walked between the cars taking orders on a small tablet, on foot, in the sun, smiling like the sun was her idea.
I said thank you.
She said, "My pleasure."
I did not think about it then. I should have.
At the window I thanked the young man for the food.
"My pleasure."
I thanked him for the sauce.
"My pleasure."
I thanked him for thanking me—
"My pleasure."
I want to be clear about what was happening.
This was a duel.
In Japan I trained in courtesy for forty years. Bowing angles. Seasonal greetings. The correct depth of apology for seventeen distinct situations.
I was a white belt in that drive-thru.
I escalated. I used my most formal English. I thanked him on behalf of my entire family line.
He said, "My pleasure," and gave me extra sauce.
Extra sauce. Unprovoked. A counterattack.
I returned the next day to reclaim my honor.
It was Sunday. The restaurant was closed.
All of them were closed. In the entire country. They close every Sunday, and they have closed every Sunday since the beginning, because the founder made a promise, and the promise did not expire when he did.
I stood in the empty parking lot and understood I had lost twice.
Once to a teenager with sauce.
Once to a man I will never meet, who kept his word so long it became a building.
In my country we say a samurai's word is his life.
I had never seen a restaurant say it back.
I returned Monday. I ordered. And this time I said it first, before she could.
"My pleasure."
She smiled and said, "It sure is."
America, I surrender.
It was my pleasure.
In America I ordered a milkshake and the young man turned it upside down over my head.
I did not move. A samurai does not flinch, even when the ice cream is above him and gravity is the law.
Nothing fell.
The cup hung there, upside down, defying the sky, and the boy held it over me with the calm of a man who has done this ten thousand times and buried his fear long ago.
This is the Blizzard. This is Dairy Queen.
If it falls, they told me, you get it free.
I understood at once. This was not dessert. This was an ordeal.
The boy was not showing off. He was swearing an oath, with his own arm, that he had made the thing thick enough to hang against the earth, and he was betting the price of it on his honor.
The flip is not a trick.
It is a vow.
In my land a smith proved his blade by cutting.
Here a boy of seventeen proves his by turning it over a stranger's head and looking him in the eye while the whole line waits to see if he lied.
He did not lie.
He set it upright, handed it to me, and said "there you go, man," then turned to the next customer as if he had not just gambled his good name across a counter.
I tipped him everything in my pocket.
He tried to give it back. He said it was just a Blizzard.
I told him it was not just a Blizzard.
I could not explain the rest in English, and there was a line, and he was busy.
So I bowed instead.
He said, "You too, man."
That answered nothing I had said.
It answered everything I had felt.