Writing and the Equinox

Merry Equinox,

So I haven’t posted in a while and that’s because I have been less than inspired. That is not to say I haven’t been creative. I have bread proofing in the oven as I write this. Yesterday I made some naan bread and the day before that I made a Galette des Rois which is this wonderful almond pastry thing. I even made the pastry myself using a pie crust recipe. It was the best pie crust I’ve ever made. Thanks Jaclyn Weber of Red Goose Gardens.

There is something inside of me right now that really wants to create. I want to bake and garden and get back outside and start the growing season again. I’m so happy the sun is out longer every day. I would didn’t say I get SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) but my energy levels truly do decrease in the winter time. Even though we’re getting these little snow storms the sunlight and the increased temperatures do lift my spirits and I’m getting antsy. I’m starting seeds for tomatoes and peppers and broccoli and a bunch of herbs really soon (I just need to find my grow light).

Even though the tender fires of creation are moving in me, I do not have the divine spark of inspiration. I have many ideas and stories about which to write about but when I sit down to write out my thoughts or try to outline/construct a story nothing sounds quite right to me. Even writing this little blog post is difficult. I’m not exactly sure how to court the muses. When I think about the times when I’ve had really great ideas it is often time when I’m not thinking about writing. I generally see something, like a wall of fog or a bee landing on my hand a bus stop and then words begin for form in my mind as if out of the ether. From there it’s about piggy-backing on the original idea and drawing on things like mythology, research, or whatever else needs to be incorporated into the work.

The piece I’m working on now was inspired by the poem She Had Some Horses by Joy Harjo and a story my mother told me about the time when she brought home our dog Jake. I’m having trouble finishing the story because I feel that it wants to go into crazy/bizarre places (like Venus)  nd I want to ground it in a no-less strange but definitely different territory. I’ve still a few days before I have to send it out and I believe I will have it done by then (wish me luck though). And for those who subscribe to The LunacyProject I promise Greek Mythology is nowhere in sight.

Oh and did I mention the story I worked on last November (the one about Polish Mythology/Folklore) has been nudging its way back into my life. Not that I’ve been working on it but I can hear it calling to me from the recesses of my hard-drive. Even though I’m hearing these callings and am feeling pulled towards various writing endeavors I can’t get over the feeling that everything I put down on paper sounds like shit. Sorry for the language but that’s how I feel. I guess for the time I just have to let it be what it is, continue to work on it and hopefully, with some skill and some luck, something beautiful will emerge.

So where can the equinox help me. Equinox means equal night. Today we are experiencing 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness. This is a great time to breathe deep and feel connected with stillness, the mindfulness, and be in balance with our world. Because this is the spring time we need to move forward on the exhale. Breathe deep the power of balance on this day. Feel it aligning you with heaven and earth. All your parts fitting in place. Now breathe out momentum and growth. This isn’t the summer time so there is no reason to bolt out of the starting gate like a race horse. There will be time again for that kind of intense movements. For now move with this season. Stretch towards the strengthen sun; reach for the summer stars. Let the fires of the warming earth and sun fuel your work and your beautiful creations.

Breath in deep my friends, Spring is here!

Hansel and Gretel Review

If you’re looking for nothing more than a bit of entertainment and don’t mind spending ten dollars on a movie ticket, then by all means go and see Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. If not, then wait for the DVD. Either way it will be an hour and forty minutes of fun but not excitement. The plot and dialog are predictable. The setting is the standard 21^stinterpretation of midlevel Europe. The same can be said for the costumes. In truth not every woman walked around in a bodice and had heaving cleavage and a full set of pearly white teeth. This was very much a fairy-tale world; more fantasy than magical realism.

The acting was fair. I wouldn’t say that Jeremy Renner (The Avengers) was an amazing actor but he sure is sexy. There was a great opportunity to see some of those rippling muscles at one point in the film but instead we get a good shot of Ingrid Bolsø Berdal’s backside and breasts. This is a wonderful example of how Hollywood is just fine with showing female sexuality but heaven forbid the male is seen as anything but pure machismo and a killing-machine. That’s not to say we need to hyper-sexualize everything. I think the American culture is far too obsessed with compartmentalizing and cutting everything into objectifiable pieces, especially in regards to women/the feminine. American culture objectifies women all the time but when it comes to men, we have a much harder time swallowing the idea that man can be seen as a sexual object.

Now on to what the pagan community is really good at: seeing a witch in the main-stream and crying intolerance.  Yes, the vast number of magic-users/witches in movies are cast as the villain. They eat children or burn down towns or turn people into frogs. This comes from the Judeo-Christian tradition that sees magic and witchcraft as evil. American’s live in a changing culture based around that same Judeo-Christian puritanical ideology. Therefore witches will be the villains just as vampires and werewolves once were the monsters that were sought out and slain. Hollywood loves to take the witch and make it into the bad guy. Simple fact.

I’m not going to yell at the creators of Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. The original story is about a pair of children who almost get eaten by a witch. Of course their adult-selves would become witch hunters, especially if that’s what witches do (eat children and burn down towns)in this particular fantasy world. Fairytales are not real. YES we can learn from them. I treat folktales as scripture and as such I see characters and ideas as universal metaphors. I could deconstruct the tale of Hansel and Gretel and the resent film adaption into bits and pieces and come up with something about how our obsession with youth and acting like children is going to be the end of our civilization and the only way to save ourselves is to accept the past for what it is, forgive our parents for our terrible childhoods and realize our true paths/selves but that might be giving this film to much credit. To claim that Hollywood is calling the modern pagan religions and those who identify as witches as nothing but evil hell-spawn who deserve to executed —burning-times style— is simply not the case.

Of course modern witches i.e. REAL WITCHES do not fly through the air or puck the eyes out of newts for potions. We go to work, buy groceries from the store and farmers market; we put our pants on one leg at a time. That being said, it would be nice, if not fun, to see witches normalized or at least not demonized in film. And it is. The best example of this is Practical Magic (1998). If you’re thinking what about The Craft (1996), well I’m still not sure how I feel about that one. Another is the upcoming movie adaption of Starhawk’s The Fifth Sacred Thing. I cannot wait for this to come to the big screen. It will be a few years. It is in the works but because they are creating an ecologically sustainable praxis for the film-industry (of course Starhawk would do that… and that’s why I love her) plus creating sets for the movie that can be used by the city of San Francisco post-production it will be a few years before it will be coming to a screen near you. You can support the

project here.

I would be great if an old fairy tale was adapted to have the witch/magic user not a villain. Even in Hansel and Gretel there were white-witches (though she played the martyr more than she was the mage/holy woman). It would be great if men were portrayed as witches (I know what you’re thinking and a warlock is not a male witch. The world warlock comes from the old English warloghe meaning “breaker of faith”; in other words… a liar). I would be sweet is a movie came out, fantasy or otherwise, that showcased modern witches. I’m not saying it’s needed but it wouldn’t be bad P.R. if it happened. 

It’s true the over-culture is not permeated with ideas of what it means to be a witch in the 21^st century. Most people don’t know what witches and pagans do for rituals. This isn’t the media’s fault.  Let us move on and realize witches in film do not do the things real witches do in the real world. If you talk to a doctor they will say the same thing about shows like House and Gray’s Anatomy. If a film comes out that shows modern witches, using modern rituals, citing modern pagan events, and has those characters doing evil things to good people, then we’ll have something to cry and complain about. Movies that take place in a clearly fictional world should not be used as an argument that modern pagan religions and witches in particular are being persecuted. 

Ida of Kildare

ĺda was a child, barely six years of age, when she was brought to the abbey of Kildare. When she arrived her stomach was as empty as her head. She wasn’t the only little girl there. Nuns herded groups of five or six into and out of buildings like the shepherds that herded the little black and white and brown sheep. She gave a fearful good-bye as her father deposited her into the hands of the sisters dressed in gray. She cried mightily for several days when she realized he would never would come back for her. Some nuns were kind and took compassion on her; finger combing her hair until she fell asleep. Some nuns were neither kind nor caring. They had seen this before and showed no mercy; little girl comes, cries, and carries on with her life. This was the way of things at monasteries and they believed Kildare should be no different.

With a bent head she learned to read and write with rest of the little girls. She took to the learning of Latin verse and prayer as a babe takes to the breast. Of all the girls there at Kildare, ĺda was the one who recited the rosary and the Lord ’s Prayer the best. Her vowels were strong and her consonants sharp.  By age nine she knew the linage of Christ, the number of popes in the Holy See, and even a little Greek she learned form a traveling Bard who had a little yellowing scroll bearing the names of prophets she had never heard of before.

Ĺda, head always bowed as in prayer or titled toward an illuminated manuscript. She did not find outside world beautiful nor pleasant as ink on velum. The pastures of sheep terrified her as the reciting of rosaries did not. She said their eyes were slant wise and would twist her mind in evil and unwanted ways. The forest too was filled with terrors only Satin himself could have vomited into the world. Treacherous mushrooms and trees branched out in twisted and obscene angles only to reach out to devour wandering travelers whole. The worst of the hillsides wonders were the little folk. The nuns whispered in their tiny ears that they were demons who donned unholy tattoos and danced around fires every night, singing prayers to their earthly gods. They instructed all students to stay within the nunnery grounds; that the lights in the hills would steel their very souls. Ĺda, who trembled like twigs in the wind at the mention of anything that might come from within the dark, green wood consumed every word of the nuns folktales. 

Mother Lìadan scolded them. She called them fools. She heard their non-sense as she prayed in the little chapel or sat beside the holy well of St. Brigid. She was old, far older than any of the other nuns clothed in brown or gray. Though her hands were roped and her face withered as February apples she still managed to bring in water from the well, tend the herbs, and lift herself after kneeling for many hours without the aid of others. She has seen the faire folk and knew they are neither demons nor evil spirits sent by Satin to spread sin across the green and fair Ireland.

“Those folk are harmless and know the joys of life as you or I never will,” she said with spite. She looked at Sister Marie and Sister Dorianne squarely under her wrinkled brow. “They come to drink from the well just as we do. This is a blessed place. All who come before God, by whatever name they call him, are slacked of thirst here and should be welcomed with open arms.”

With that she says no more but bitterly sips her thin mutton broth. The cross of St. Brigid swung back and forth, like a pendulum. Its reed-woven form kept time in the rarefied air and no one spoke for the rest of the lunch hour. She knew what they said about her in the secrecy of cloister or garden wall. They said she was actually a Druid. They said she called their patron saint by her old name. They said she knows how to make poisons from herbs. The worst she ever heard was that she was in league with the devil himself. 

*** 

Hope you enjoyed this little piece of fiction. I know it sounds a little dogma heavy but it gets far more interesting. I'm nearly done with the first draft. This will be the February Lunacy Project. If you like it then share this post with your friends. If you have $5.00 and want the whole thing, sign up for this month over at my website. I'm so happy to have inspiration once again!  

Imbolc and Brigid

I thought I would talk about the holiday that is today. Now you might be asking you’re self what is there to be celebrating here on February 2nd. Good question actually. Like most holidays, take a look outside and see what’s going on and you’ll have a general idea of what would be honored on that day. Thanksgiving is the harvest, Halloween we honor our ancestors. Christmas… well that’s a whole book’s worth of topics. Like all winter holidays, this one honors the returning of the sun.

For those that don’t know, Imbolc was celebrated by the ancient Celts as the time between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Imbolc can be translated from the Old Irish I mbolg meaning “in the belly”. This refers to the time when ewes were pregnant. It can also be translated from oimelc meaning “ewe’s milk”.  The combination of the fertility/gestation, nourishment, and the returning of light makes Imbolc a very special time.

Okay, so I’m going to assume you’re thinking that an ancient pagan holiday has nothing to do with me? Ah but that’s where we can thank Christianity for not completely eradicating all traces of early earth-based traditions.  When the Roman Catholics invaded the British Isles and Ireland the celebration of Candlemas is celebrated on February 2nd and there for the two was merged. Candlemas is also called the Purification of the Blessed Virgin. Seeing how I’m not Catholic, nor have I been, I’m not exactly sure what this purpose of this holiday is but if I might take a stab in the dark I think it might have to with Mary, Mother of Jesus, and honoring her in some way.

Now back to the Celts. The Goddess Brigid (pronounced BREED) was honored on this day. She was the goddess of healing, poetry, and smithcraft (metallurgy). Her name translated means “exhaled one”. She is also said to protect cattle (and other livestock) and bring the spring. Remind you of anything; groundhogs day perhaps? Of course there will be six more weeks of winter. Brigid carries the sacred flame. This is both the heat from the hearth fire and the fire of inspiration. It is the fire of divinity, the fire of the holy spirit in Christianity. This fire brings us hope and light to our cold and winter-weary bones. Six more weeks till the Spring Equinox and the warming of the earth.

So here we have Imbolc and Candlemas, Brigid and the Virgin Mary. These things correlate so well do they not? Brigid the goddess was made a saint. She served the same purposes as a saint as she did a pagan goddess. St. Brigid of Kildare is very controversial for the documentation of her birth and her death appear in several places but do not match up.  It is also very striking that the Celts would have a goddess who just happened to match up perfectly with the associations of this saint.

Where does this leave us? Here in the Midwest we are experiencing the coldest weather we’ve had since… well, last winter I would suppose. Last winter was very warm and that makes these temperatures that hover just above zero during the day and that dive well into the negative thirty’s at night all the more intense. We can light candles on this day, or a fire in the hearth if we are so privileged to have such things, and feel the fires heavenly warmth. We can look at the rising sun and see how far we’ve progressed with the intentions and goals we set at solstice or at New Year’s. Have we tended those goals? Have you given up on them? In reflection do you find the soil has gone fallow? What do you need to nourish to bring life back to your goals? Are you tending that inner fire? What are you feeding that fire and is it proving to be good fuel or do you need to dig deeper, find the better wood, make the hard choices and sacrifice something in order for your goals to be nourished?

In honor of Brigid, I will be posting a short story on the blog next week relating to this fire festival. 

Check back in the middle of next week for that. What creative endeavor do you do? What do you create? What does that fire feel like?

The Illumination of Queen Bees

Dearest reader,

My situations really have improved since last week. I've received a bit of inspiration and almost have a story done for the open submission for Cross Genera Magazine. I'm really excited cause after being a in a dry spell for the last two months it hasn't been easy. It's not like I'm just pouring out words like they simply can't be contained (though that is really amazing and I love when that happens) but it's not like I'm trying to extract blood from a stone. So that's good. I hope to send out a portion of it it for this months Lunacy Project. Sign up for this month (or for a year?) if you'd like to have a little story to read come this Saturday -which is this months full moon.

For those interested in what its about: it's a story about a woman looking back on her life, the magic she's made, the lives she's impacted, dignity, and choice. Should be a little controversial but hey, I'm not writing for children here. I think we can discuss sticky issues and raw topics through many means and stories (fictional or other-wise) are excellent places with our culture to have these discussions.

In other news Pill Hill Press, the publisher for the anthology I've been published by is no longer in business. This is a sad day. They really gave so many new authors the chance to show their work, myself being one of them. I wish the editors over at PHP the best of luck. I send them my love and luck.

This does mean that I have the rights to my story back. Therefore, instead of attempting to resell the story to another publisher, I have chosen to publish it on my own website and it is free to you. You can read it right off the site or can download a free PDF version. If you are so inclined to throw a few bucks my way I've put up a $1.00 donation button on the page. This will help pay for the website hosting services so it would be greatly appreciated. I really do hope you enjoy the story. I enjoyed writing it and am very proud of it. I really do consider it the first stepping stone to being considered a published author and that is why I'm really happy I'm able to bring it to you. 

Thank you all and have a great week!

Stuck with the Writing & Thoughts on Gender

As some of you might be aware, I’ve been struggling with the writing. Last week’s blog post was kind of a fluke. I enjoyed writing it and it was fun to go back and do something that required a little more research than usual. In short, I wrote a 13K word something or other akin to a paper I would have wrote in college. Sure it contained a more mysticism than I’m normally comfortable with sharing but what is the internet for other than over-sharing?

But when it comes to the fiction writing I’m consistently coming up short. November was really great. I wrote nearly half a novel in less than 20 days. December wasn’t as good but I got a lot of editing done. Here we are half way through January and I have very little accomplished since the beginning of December. I’m struggling with the Lunacy Project (which shouldn’t dissuade you from subscribing). I feel like everything I write doesn’t have the usual spark that it has in the past. I’m not sure if I’m just trying too hard or being overly expectant of myself. I want to give you all everything I have and continue to bring you things like The Illuminationof Queen Bees and Roses Through the Fog (a Lunacy Project story).

I have the novel to work on and The Lunacy Project, not to mention my weekly blog updates. I also have a short story (less than 2000 words) I’ve been working on and want to finish sometime soon. And now I have two jobs (Jimmy Johns and a tutoring for ISD 194). And I friends I want to see more than I do. And I will have car payments, and insurance, plus the .5K a month for student loans. Needless to keep up the litany, I’m a very busy lady and I haven’t got all day to surf the internet or watch an endless string of youtube videos.

I’ve recently come across an open submission for a science-fiction/fantasy magazine. The theme is She.

“What defines She? External definitions, internal, or the combination of both? When those definitions change – and they inevitably do – who writes the new rules?

We’re looking for stories featuring: women characters exploring the distinctions and overlap between sex and gender; transgender women or girls; characters for whom gender is in flux or in question; and characters who change or redefine what it means to be She."

You think I would have this in the bag. I mean come on. I have a degree in Women’s Studies. You would think I would be able to pull out my knowledge of gender, mix it the experiences of gender fluidity I’ve read about and experienced, add in a dash of mythology and bam! Amazing story right?

As it turns out it is a little more difficult that that. I’ve written several beginnings but nothing feels right. They all feel to be little forced. I don't have a setting and that makes this incredibly difficult for I really want to connect the characters in stories with their surroundings. How does the landscape impact their emotional lives. That is something I writing and feel I'm good at. But I don't even know where to start with this one. The submission closes at the end of February but I was hoping to use part of it for Lunacy. I keep coming back to the quote by Simone de Beauvoir “One is not born a woman, one becomes one”. I think the same could be same of men but I don’t want to dive into a big examination of what is a woman/man here, or at least not now.

I need to find my voice again. I really believe in the adage write what you know. I know I can write. I know this creative fiction thing is a part of who I am and I need to be very diligent with it. It is my dream to write beautiful, lush, exotic, and sensory rich stories that make people feel something. I want emotionally complex characters. I want wonderful and strange and fantastic settings. I want to bring to the world different voices, new stories. Thus, when I get pushed against the wall known commonly as writers block it is really difficult. It’s like there are big, great, exciting things just on the other side of the wall and if I just push hard enough or let myself fall into the wall and it will open up and show me everything I have to offer.

Share links to articles about gender in the comments or write about your experiences with gender in the comments. I’d love to hear from you and your interpretations of masculinity, femininity, and everything that falls in-between and around the concept of gender. What does She mean to you?

Devilish

I went downstairs earlier this afternoon to tell my father I got an interview tomorrow morning. Before I can even deliver the wonderful news he holds a hand up to my face and says something about how he doesn’t want to see it.

Wondering what “it” is? That would be my nose-ring. This had been a topic of contention between my parents and me ever since I got "it" over two years go. This is understandable for it is definitely considered deviant behavior. Outside of earlobe piercings, all other piercings are considered to be outside the normal realm of acceptable behavior in western culture. They deviate from our expectations of regular self-expression. Some piercings (nipple, genital, nasal sphincter, and gaging of any tip) are even considered grotesque for they mark an open/exposed orifice.

This is a surface examination of piercings. Anthropologist Lévi-Strauss points out that in cool/cold society’s (of which western culture is one) piercings and tattoos are consider to be individualistic and each mark’s meaning is different/up to the individual to create meaning. This means each individual has a different meaning for the mode and choice of self-expression. We don't have body modifications which no note things such as rank, social status, or placement within our socitey. Anyone can have a tattoo or ear piercing and there for these are not our indicators of social stratification. In a hot/warm society, various markings (tattoos/piercings) mean the same thing for everyone in the tribe. Each tattoo has a specific meaning and it is known throughout the enter culture.

Now that we have the basics down on body modifications and how it relates to society we can dive back into my story.

As soon as my father said he didn’t want to see it, I told him to stop and to get over his preconceived notions of what it means to have a nose-ring. That is when he said it was devilish.

Stop: Lets examine this for a moment.

Devilish, as in, relating to the devil. 

Let’s look at the depictions of the devil. Seeing how my father is a religious man, and studies the bible weekly, I will turn to the bible to look for details about what the devil looks like. Under the “Subjects Appendix” of the NIV there is no entry for “devil”. Under “Satan” there is many versus that say that Satan defies God’s power but nowhere is there an actual depiction of Satan. Nowhere does the bible say anything about Satan/the devil having any rings of any sort. The devil isn’t even said to have a nose. In fact there are no direct biblical description of the devil. The only glimpse we get at Satan's "physical form" would be his history as an angel/fallen angel; thus Satan looks like an angle.

Clearly my father was not using his vast knowledge of the bible to describe the piecing.

So where is he getting this relationship between a nose-ring and the devil? There is certainly a lot of historical depictions of the devil being grotesque and bestial, much of this coming from medieval art and iconography. The devil is often shown as possessing a goat head or goat feet or a forked tail or possessing any number of animalistic attributes. These images come from pre-Christian religions or spiritual traditions which often had very strong agricultural focus. The cycles of summer and winter dictated the flow of life and the livestock became the source of your very life, thus they were held with great reverence. Christianity comes in makes demons out of the old gods. Therefore you have the goat and the bull now have a connection with the devil/Satan.

Now let’s look at livestock outside of a medieval frame. They often had nose-rings (see I was getting around to this) in which they were led around the farm and tied to posts and such. They tilled the fields and provided nourishment through their deeds (and their bodies) to the community. They were bound to the earth and to the master. This is why I have a nose-ring. It is my tethering, my grounding in the earth. I have worked the field with my hands. I have used my body to bring food to the table for many people. It is my religion, in its original meaning, my re-connection.

While living in Lakeville (suburbia) and while it is winter it is hard to remain connected with the land. It is impossible to work the land when it is covered in the snow and ice. The nose-ring is a constant reminder that I have chosen to tie myself to the earth, to serve the community. I am not a beast of burden. I am not whipped by a master into working. I have chosen to place my will in the hands of the earth and she is bountiful. Many Christians do this with Jesus. There are many traditional prayers asking their will to be the will of God. I have done the same but to the earth. To flow with the cycles of the seasons; To be bountiful; to rest when necessary; To give birth to new generations and to take what is old and broken and bring it into a new time and place and form. The cycles and rhymes of nature are holy and sacred. They bring a wholeness to my life.

As such I have taken up the symbol of the nose-ring to connotation this message. In the cold society, as laid out by Lévi-Strauss, the messages piercings and tattoos have is often misinterpreted. People do not take the time to ask what does it mean? Instead these individuals are written off as deviant, as other, and as an outsider. In this time when we need to be looking at everybody, in all their parts, we need to look at the outsiders, those who do not have privilege, the unrepresented and listen to what they have to say.

Devil: relating to Satan, who in the Old Testament was called the Adversary.

Now I don’t necessary have a problem with this one. I don’t mind being an Adversary, especially if it is an opponent of the main-steam, hegemonic culture. The adversary calls out the powers-that-be and says Check yourself. You are wrong. Here are reasons why I see your actions as wrong and I will oppose them. If my nose-ring is a symbol of Satan and thus a sign of the adversary I wish to make myself a safe place where we can discuss prominent ideas and challenge them. If we strive for balance then we need to have an adversary to check ourselves against.

I do not see myself as the Satan, the devil, which is said to bring evil into the world, which is the one most often written about in the Bible. I do not spread the ideas which separate us from god. I do not spread sin. When I have been an advocate for greed? I do not condone violence. I will not shroud you in darkness. I can help lead you through the darkness and explore the compost rich dark night of your soul. I’ve gone down that road before. It is dark and lonely, confusing and often a place of great sadness, but we are not meant to dwell forever there. If anything, I claim to write about illumination: to bring light upon. I don’t claim to be a saint or a guru. I’m not filled with the pure light of god (show me someone who is) but I can say I’ve see, felt, been filled by and in the presence of the multifarious, ego shattering, wall dissolving, soul expanding  light of the divine. I see the divine everywhere: it comes in so many colors, shapes, and sizes. I do not take people away from divine. I would never equate my nose-ring or it’s symbolism with destruction and depression.

If my father wants to call my nose-ring devilish, then I ask him (and you dear reader) to use it as a term that relates to the earth-tiller, bringer of bounty, servant to the land and community.* Let’s call those who rail against the dominator society by pointing out its short coming, its hidden spots, those who it suppresses, devils. Let's reclaim the word. Let’s call them devils and adversaries and see them as necessary, valuable and need parts of our society. We might live on the edges of society on the fridges, but we can see into the hegemony. Let us honor every element of our culture and treat it all with care. Let us be shifting, changing and stalwart members of a loving, caring community. Care for those who are “grotesque”. Care for the adversary. They will protect you, from yourself.

*Editing note: I don't think we can "warm-up" our socitey. I don't believe that we can take our current body-modifications and attach meaning to them as warm socitey does. To live in a cool society means we need to ask each other what our body modifications mean. We need to see people who are covering in tattoos or piercings as people are convening a message and instead of seeing the surface, realize their is a history in that ink. There is a story behind her tattoo. Body modifications are intensly personal, even if they are in publicly visible places. It's our jobs are humans not to see each-other as outside but to inquire, with tact and sincerity.