Surrounded by love and art

Sometimes I really hate Instagram.

It started as a "retro" photo gallery with filters and squared frames.

I always disliked that Polaroid-inspired proportion, but I told myself it was "an Instagram thing," like the 140 characters for Twitter or the creative tagging on Tumblr.

I did not fight it.

Then, fortunately, they extended to rectangular shapes, but never exceeding 5:4, because, surely, you do not want your posts to take more space than that, would you?

But now, with reels that appear in my feed like they are the only things to see (aren't we TikTok already?), all inexorably in their 16:9 glory, I genuinely do not understand why my photos cannon be posted in the same size, maybe even with the outrageous ability to choose my squared preview as reels have, which would have saved me roughly 200 gazillion hours of editing and more than a few tears during these years.

The pompous preamble (I cannot avoid being disgustingly verbose), just to tell that it has been four months since I desired to share this stupid, random, very spontaneous photo of one of my shelves, but I was blocked by my stubborn refusal to being forced in cropping the painting in the background for the nonsensical pleasure of that app.

But today is snowing (because this is Iowa anyway), I have 15 hours of grading in front of me, and I truly like the light of this photo.

[You have no idea how often I tried to take another one: I never managed to have the same light on the bear. Never.]

So I bow to IG supremacy, and I post there a photo like it is a reel, hoping that my followers will concede me the transgression and read my caption anyway.

~

Even stronger than my obsession for Thrawn, his boyfriends, love, life, and all that jazz, there is a recurring theme in my posts.

And it is my complete awe for all the kindness and, honestly, *friendship*, that this community gave me.

So, in this simple shot.

The little woody guy that @amandaanime99_cosplay got me at Disney.

The precious Celebration Thrushie from @lindahansenraj.

The huggable @scifigirlnextdoor bear.

The stunning @ezra_or_whatever art.

The chubby and adorable @penguinfairycrafts Thranto plushes.

I am surrounded by love and art.