I went at it slowly and always empirically and had the luxury of it being "low stakes"
About two years ago I felt I got an invitiation to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsunetsuki and then a year ago I found a book that talked about fox mediums in China that made it seem like everything I wished it could be and started keeping an altar. I had some idea of the outlines of the practice but other than making regular offerings didn't really do much, in fact at one point my son was surprised when I told him I was still into that.
Around the end of November I was watching an anime where there was a character who had an animal ear hood (as opposed to a headband) and realized I could get away with wearing that and got the hood and when I started "going out" and the physical adjustments fell into place pretty quickly.
I got into taking photographs as-a-fox because I just take photographs when I go out so of course I would. By this point I had the brand promise, design rules and such figured out and one of them was "no explaining, no being reductionist, no matter what you are not going to come across like Larry Summers". Early in January I got into the first situation where I felt I had to explain it and realized I'd screwed it up and how. That weekend I was a little panicked but I came up with the "cover story" that "this is a character I do to put people at ease when I do street photography" which put my wife at ease because she was worried about how she was going to explain it to people.
Between having the tokens and that story I'm never worried now that I'm going to get tongue tied. I mean, I really wish I had the "voice of the fox" both in terms of the vocal adjustments and the writing down better than I do. But I have enough of the character working and the proof that people believe in it so sometimes I feel like the 1960s Peter Parker who finds that the community believes in Spider-Man even when he doesn't which makes me feel like I can face what is in front of me today, that if I don't feel brave enough to try something it's OK, never push on a string, and always been thinking how to structure things so I don't have to be brave.
Once I settled into the "foxographer" role and felt I had purpose I quit worrying entirely about going off brand. Like I used to never program a computer or talk about my personal history while wearing the hood and now I do what I want.
Sometimes I think "Why couldn't I have figured this out 20 years ago?" but I'm glad I did now.
PaulHoule|17 days ago
About two years ago I felt I got an invitiation to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsunetsuki and then a year ago I found a book that talked about fox mediums in China that made it seem like everything I wished it could be and started keeping an altar. I had some idea of the outlines of the practice but other than making regular offerings didn't really do much, in fact at one point my son was surprised when I told him I was still into that.
Around the end of November I was watching an anime where there was a character who had an animal ear hood (as opposed to a headband) and realized I could get away with wearing that and got the hood and when I started "going out" and the physical adjustments fell into place pretty quickly.
I got into taking photographs as-a-fox because I just take photographs when I go out so of course I would. By this point I had the brand promise, design rules and such figured out and one of them was "no explaining, no being reductionist, no matter what you are not going to come across like Larry Summers". Early in January I got into the first situation where I felt I had to explain it and realized I'd screwed it up and how. That weekend I was a little panicked but I came up with the "cover story" that "this is a character I do to put people at ease when I do street photography" which put my wife at ease because she was worried about how she was going to explain it to people.
Between having the tokens and that story I'm never worried now that I'm going to get tongue tied. I mean, I really wish I had the "voice of the fox" both in terms of the vocal adjustments and the writing down better than I do. But I have enough of the character working and the proof that people believe in it so sometimes I feel like the 1960s Peter Parker who finds that the community believes in Spider-Man even when he doesn't which makes me feel like I can face what is in front of me today, that if I don't feel brave enough to try something it's OK, never push on a string, and always been thinking how to structure things so I don't have to be brave.
Once I settled into the "foxographer" role and felt I had purpose I quit worrying entirely about going off brand. Like I used to never program a computer or talk about my personal history while wearing the hood and now I do what I want.
Sometimes I think "Why couldn't I have figured this out 20 years ago?" but I'm glad I did now.
schneak|17 days ago
[deleted]
cindyllm|17 days ago
[deleted]