Mom hung a mass produced art print on my bedroom wall when I was about 8. It's of a little girl holding her puppy.
Cute, right?
Thing is, this painting terrified me. And I was raised in the time where you just kind of swallowed any complaints and didn't bother mom or dad with kid foolishness.
Here is a copy of the thing I actually had hanging on my wall. This same frame. Probably came from Service Merchandise or some such.
What in the everloving hell is lurking just over her shoulder?!?! To me it always looked like a skull wearing a hat on the side of his head, like a little old timey jaunty hat a clown would wear.
It's a wonder I got any sleep. I was too afraid to tell mom I hated it. I never considered that I possessed the agency to take it off my wall and hide it at the bottom of the closet.
I think of this cursed painting still.
Did you ever have something in your childhood that unnecessarily scared the bejeezus out of you?
I was scared of real demons and spirit forces lurking in the dark until I was around 10 years old. Ghost stories were common and told by most people around me with my religious upbringing. Around 10 is when I realized I had never actually seen anything like the stories and first started saying I want to see them to prove my beliefs system real. Over the decades that evolved into god doesn't have to be weird and can call me any time, my phone is on.
I was afraid of the world and realms around me, now I only ever fear the cruelty of humans and the monsters that hide within all of us, especially the battle within.
Technically god can call you whether your phone is off or on. Omnipotence, remember? 😜
Eh. Angels used to often show up politely knocking on doors. Now that's a bit weird, so no reason God can't just send a polite text or email.
What does your name mean, and how is that pronounced?
It's my Chinese name. The first character (张) is just a family name. It means "bow" or "stretch" but in this context it just means a family name with no extra meanings in modern times. The next two characters (殿李) are my given name and mean something like "palace plum".
You'd pronounce it Zhāng Diànlǐ using Hànyǔ Pīnyīn (modern Mandarin romanisation).
I'm a goddess and I'm not weird about it. I have a mortal body for an avatar so I can do stuff in the physical plane. Deus is supposed to have the Pope for a mouthpiece, but He doesn't bother directly talking through the guy, and he really ought to have more than one with the size of His religion. People should stop worshipping Him to teach Him a lesson about being so distant.
And I'm a spaceman!
Pretending is fun!
Ew.