*I wrote this in the bathtub by red candlelight while he fell asleep*

There's something that feels supernatural about the love that I've fallen into. First there was how we met, how I felt at home with him; how I knew that I loved him within just a couple of days. How my walls came down around him - the courage I took to express by vulnerabilities - the way I felt so confident and safe in sharing them. The way our personalities and external lives are so different, and yet we seem to share the same heart, each having pieces of the same heart. A slow-won yet innate understanding of each other. As though the love were there before we were. I'm not religious, but this love is supernatural to me.

Hannah Rooth, February 1, 2020

On the internal dictator 

Tells you what you can’t do...
what you’re not good *enough* at...
that people will think you’re weird...
your friends won’t understand...
your family won’t approve...
your childhood god would disapprove...
you’ll probably fail...
it’s stupid...
that’s not what girls do...
that’s not what boys do...
it’s too scary...
*insert your own version here*...

On the external dictator 

Defines what people are “bad” or “wrong” or need to be exterminated...
decides on what is socially allowed...
punishes, imprisons, represses for “otherness”...
represses creativity and creative action...
defines roles for all in society...
uses brainwashing and violence to maintain control...
defines the good or acceptable based on a social norm...

If you cannot stand up to your internal dictator, how will you stand up to an external one?

More resources on the idea of the internal dictator:
Regime Change
Your Little Internal Dictator

Resources on external dictators:
How Do Democracies Become Dictatorships?

~Hannah Rooth