(i ripped this off wikipedia real fast so sorry if it's lib)

In October 1776, the Public Universal Friend contracted an epidemic disease and was bedridden and near death with a high fever. Their family summoned a doctor from Attleboro, six miles away, and neighbors kept up a death-watch at night. The fever broke after several days. The Friend later reported that [deadname redacted] had died, receiving revelations from God through two archangels who proclaimed there was "Room, Room, Room, in the many Mansions of eternal glory for Thee and for everyone". The Friend further said that [deadname redacted]'s soul had ascended to heaven and the body had been reanimated with a new spirit charged by God with preaching his word, that of the "Publick Universal Friend", describing that name in the words of Isaiah 62:2 as "a new name which the mouth of the Lord hath named".

From that time on, the Friend refused to answer to their deadname, ignoring or chastising those who insisted on using it. When visitors asked if it was the name of the person they were addressing, the Friend simply quoted Luke 23:3 ("thou sayest it").  Identifying as neither male nor female, the Friend asked not to be referred to with gendered pronouns. Followers respected these wishes; they referred only to "the Public Universal Friend" or short forms such as "the Friend" or "P.U.F.", and many avoided gender-specific pronouns even in private diaries. When someone asked if the Friend was male or female, the preacher replied "I am that I am", saying the same thing to a man who criticized the Friend's manner of dress (adding, in the latter case, "there is nothing indecent or improper in my dress or appearance; I am not accountable to mortals").

editorial note: I think this is a very cool story and I really love hearing it. We've been around forever and we've been doing variations of this forever. It's really beautiful

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    • imogen_underscore [it/its, she/her]
      ·
      1 month ago

      hrt has made me a lot less scared, even excited about 30 tbh. i'm gonna be smoking hot and 30s can't be any worse than my 20s lol. 40 is still scary though.

      • ashinadash [she/her]
        ·
        1 month ago

        10000-com I'm not even worried about my 40s tbh, my body is already coming apart at the seams so lfg, here's to me becoming older and better.

        • imogen_underscore [it/its, she/her]
          ·
          1 month ago

          my body is already coming apart at the seams so lfg, here's to me becoming older and better.

          same! meow-bounce and definitely a great attitude to have. at least i know my rate of inflicting damage on this vessel has slowed down in more recent years (did most of my worst disordered drinking from the age of 16-22 or so...) so things are looking up!

          • ashinadash [she/her]
            ·
            1 month ago

            lets-fucking-go I plan to work out even more as I age, hopefully I won't slow down much. I will say it seems grim when there's an inverse correlation between how well I treat myself (I eat way better and exercise way more) and how healthy I am (chronic pain is killing me 100× more than it was even seven years ago) but y'know!

            • imogen_underscore [it/its, she/her]
              ·
              1 month ago

              I feel that very hard, I get resentful a lot of the time because I've done so much work to abuse substances less, don't do hard drugs and drink 3x/week anymore, even working on quitting weed recently... but I'm more or less still miserable a lot of the time. i have chronic MDD, I'm used to it for better or worse. like, I'm sure it will pay dividends physiologically in the long term but sometimes I get in a really bad mood and I'm like what was the point of all that yknow

              • ashinadash [she/her]
                ·
                1 month ago

                yea too relatable... Me I just try to think that there's no sense treating myself worse Idk.

                • imogen_underscore [it/its, she/her]
                  ·
                  1 month ago

                  it's the right mindset and I'm thankfully able to channel it most of the time these days! it just comes under pressure when I'm in a real doomer mood which unfortunately isn't so infrequent. still doing better than ever with all that self destructive stuff though snom

      • magi [null/void]M
        ·
        1 month ago

        I'm in my 40s and looking better and doing better than I was in my 20s, still get carded lmao anya-heh

        • imogen_underscore [it/its, she/her]
          ·
          1 month ago

          that rules kirby-spin tbf even 40 is less scary now it just seems like more of a Big Deal than 30, probably something i'll get over as the years go on. i know im just gonna be getting hotter and more comfortable in myself every year now so that's one reason the future in that way feels so much more real than

          oblique sui talk

          when i was younger and never thought i'd make it that far. :::

          • magi [null/void]M
            ·
            1 month ago

            Once I hit 25 I stopped caring and have had chronic pain since around 19 and I've managed that to this day, but today I am fitter, look better than I did in my 20s which is extremely funny to me. Plus not going into the sun in years hasn't aged me either lol

            spoiler

            I didn't think I'd get to where I am now either