You don't have to run to know what resistance feels like
Showing posts with label love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label love. Show all posts

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Love is Contagious


During finals week, my campus we torn by grief and depression and stress and fear and hurt. As a community we were broken and hurting. I was racked, and confused and hurting in my own way and decided to start a paper crane making project. It ended up being a lot more successful than I ever imagined, totaling 1132 cranes by Wednesday night.

I needed something to keep myself together, and the cranes gave me a puropose and a reason to be somewhere. Keeping me from being along or dwelling by myself. I am very thankful for everyone who participated and needed the cranes in their own way.


The photo was taken when we put all the cranes on a table to give away. 500 more cranes were gifted to the project on Thursday morning and over the summer I am going to sting the cranes so that they can hang in the windows of the Stonewall Resource Center (our queer hub).

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

2010 Grinnell Monologue: Presented in Bob's Underground Cafe

My Path to Enlightenment


I was not a promiscuous girl. As a child I did not show my private parts to any of my playmates, nor did I desire to see any of theirs. I did not explore my own genitalia until a much older age than most report, and even so I did not feel throbs of eroticism until my mid-high school years. I did not know the term orgasm until I was thirteen, and I didn't have my first until nineteen. I may have been a late erotic bloomer, but I have not wasted time in my life. It seems every time I come into the g-mons forum I am enlightened in a different way than the time before. Or I am struggling with the intersections of my own sexuality, sensuality and situations. I am in a constant battle to understand the nature of my sexual condition.


I have long prescribed to serial monogamy, and the rapid turn around from one relationship to the next seeking an outlet for my sexual tension and a net of emotional security in a single other person. This led to a roller-coaster of emotions as I struggled to understand myself in the havoc of post relationship and then in the honeymoon phase of the next.

After many earth shattering breakups I have decided I am done with investing my whole self and all my pieces into one basket. Instead, I am discovering my own promiscuity, intellectual desire and pleasure surrounding sexual relationships, or what I will refer to here as erotic play.


I have begun to construction a series of interpersonal relationships that circle around each other, but do not dissect or disturb each other. Each one is conscious of the next, and the continuation requires a great depth of communication and understanding. I have been doing this semi-unconsciously, before the recent past, with my ex-boyfriend. He constitutes the outward most ring of relationships in my life. The situations is such that, we remain in distant communication and if we find ourselves in the same spacial area we are likely to have coffee and an afternoon frolic. This hasn't happened since fall break of my first year (before he joined the Marines and became a very different person), yet he remains a distant lover and a source of erotic play in my life. This relationship required a much smaller amount of energy to maintain that other points of erotic play, yet is no less satisfying or meaningful than the ones it orbits.


In order to understand and construct the remaining sources of erotic play in my life, it is important to understand that conditioned monogamy leaves little room for this type of promiscuity. There seems to be conflict between fucking and the rest of human activity. I believe that fucking or other erotic play is equally part of the human experience and the transition between them should be as fluid as the moving from a activity such as eating, to and activity such as studying. I define erotic play far outside the bounds of fucking, sucking and touching, though, because I derive erotic play from flirting and nonsexual relationships. These traditionally nonsexual encounters are included in the construction of circles, because I am creating connections and play that satisfy me in very different yet distinct ways. Before I began my pursuit of promiscuous circles, I sharply divided my romantic relationship from my less than romantic relationships. The inner most ring, was held for supreme sexual pursuit, usually monogamous, and the outer rings were only being utilized when the middle circle was vacant. The sexual circles that surround the base circle consist of single night hook-ups and lasting sexual relationships and well as flirtatious physical relationships which don't lead to fucking. These basic aspects travel over to my current model of relationship building with a very important addition, my own personal emotional understanding of these relationships and how they fulfill me and change me.


At anytime these relationships have the possibility to shift placement in the circles. A once close lover may slip into the further bounds of my circle, where I would only seek them out monthly or less than that, while someone who was less frequently a member of my life may come into a more consistent relationship with me. I am also open to the shift of a non-sexual flirtatious person into a physically driven source of erotic play, or visa-versa. I am in a place where I can accept this fluctuation openly and without hesitation, because I understand I am also shifting places in the life of those around me. I can now see the existence and fluidity of my primary partner and the rings which surround him/her/zer from my other sources of erotic play. I am also still able to find some sense of emotional security with a primary partner, without completely investing myself in that one person.


Emotional and physical security is a major tenant which leads erotic play into monogamous coupling, I am not trying to devalue the security we feel with one individual, instead I am urging for a different level of security with two, three or more individuals. There is a strong connection that two erotically sexual lovers have for each other. Two lovers create a level of comfort reached through erotic play that can be healthy and satisfying, yet when we start to define ourselves through these relationship it can leading to coupling. Coupling is something I am now more hesitant to indulge in. This is because of the eventual fading and shifting of relationship in our lives. When I've placed too much value on one situation, I have been left hopeless when the erotic or emotional aspect of this person has left our life.


I still have individuals that I hold closer than others both physically and emotionally, but I am Choosint to define each relationship separately. I'd also like to make clear that I am not simply fucking around, in fact I am in drastically fewer sexual situations than is normal for me when outside of a monogamous relationship.


Finally, I do not subscribe to indiscriminate and evasive coupling, that promiscuity normally get's a bad name for. Instead, I am excited by the idea of progressing and exploring new bodies both physically and intellectually. I hope to have found yet another plane of sexual enlightenment which I hope will lead to working interpersonal relationships. This existence is teaching me a lot about myself, my sensuality and my sexuality. I've learned about attachment and jealously towards others. I've also worked on healthy communication and relationships. In my new system, I do not have a claim on any of the individuals in my life, and they do not have a claim on me so I am free to explore what feels good in the moment. Without the huge emotional lose of self if something goes wrong or changed in these relationships.


Next time I enter this forum I may be monogamous, celibate, or further liberated from those bounds, never-the-less I have no choice but to understand these changes as the nature of my sexual condition. This is my current path – my path to enlightened promiscuity.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

JUMP

Kate and I really need to learn how to take our own advice.
This is a poem I wrote off of something she said once while cooking. Although, it was initially for her, now that it is finished it is really for me.

It's time that we all, jump.



Windblown (Jump)
N. Jameson

I sent you a letter in the wind today
I expect it to arrive the day after tomorrow
perhaps a little disheveled with water spots and runny ink
The wind may have torn it some so I hope that you can still read it.
with any luck you will understand my meaning
knowing that the story I wrote upon the paper
was the story of how we met
I was up the same tree with my shoes untied
when I wrote it
the clouds were floating by and my hair got sticky with sap.
I didn't throw my pencil though, not this time
Love, you should know that I am not so young anymore
many things have happened in the space and the time
I have held my head high and changed the colour of my hair
I have made many phone calls and even changed my job
I have a cat now, would you have ever guessed
and we live in a place with a yard where I grow tomatoes
yes, I've lived there long enough to have tomatoes more than once.
I don't expect you to respond.
the wind only carries things one way after all.
but I love you, even through the wind, the rain, the time
I've needed you often, but made it through on my own
I have learned who I am
slowly, like the letter I am
I will be floating away, wind torn and tattered
I need to sign off
because I will be taking to the seas on an unsteady ship
to get where I am going next

Thursday, December 17, 2009

My thoughts on tears

Sometimes the only thing you can do is cry, and know everything will eventually be okay again. Pain is something that everyone feels and we all have to work it out.
I use tears to deal with a lot of situations. Stress and fear and sadness are the prime examples in my own life. I wish it were more acceptable to let tears flow, because for me they are very comforting. I like to feel my emotions, instead of pretending they are not there.


I will be okay, I just might cry a little before I am.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

You smell like my girlfriend

As usual it doesn't have a title -
but this is my most recent poem

I think it's something I can preform
because after 2 years, I think I can preform again


Listen to this poem @
http://www.zshare.net/audio/642352122427b2d8/



You smell like my girlfriend
the first words
Falling of a train with the corn fields and soy beans
city smells of hot pavement and diesel cars
33 tracks made of hard dark metal
a long embrace at the end of track 8
I smell the old men and stale air
thoughts surround me like a warm blanket
but it's a hot day I want to take it off
and put you back on
Illinois with the true black dirt
the earth that grew me and grew her
we smell like the soil kicked under our shoes
bubble gum being stepped on
hotdogs from the corner store
lollypops from the candy shop
you smell like my girlfriend
I still don't know what that means
the hog capital of the world
long haired cats and lost dogs
whicker baskets full of fresh laundry
green corn with it's tops still on
catching fireflies in the shabby grass
drinking our water from mason jars
as we run home underneath the stars
eating a picnic lunch with the cars racing by
and the neighborhood boys peaking over the fence
water guns sitting in reach and eyesight
to defend ourselves from their onslaught of laughter
and we laugh
to ourselves and to Illinois
to the black dirt and lost bubble gum
we laugh


Tuesday, May 19, 2009

clear your head for a moment



Last night as I rode home - leaving Cleveland for the last time for 3 months my thought suddenly became clear as day. I even stopped my bike to talk them through with myself. The overarching theme of my thoughts landed with the fact that we are always changing.

Actually it started with me thinking about love (not unusual I know). I was thinking about how I love my friends, and family, and significant others, but how can we really love someone forever. We have a fascination with happily ever after long term love linked to long term marriage. It’s the American fairy book ending shoved at us every-time we enter the subway or

I will now crush my own hopelessly romantic dreams with one assertive statement. I think that it is impossible to love someone forever. I do believe, though, that we are capable of being in love with someone on a day to day basis.

Our interactions with people, books, TV, internet, animals, nature, and ourself constantly challenge and reaffirm our values and beliefs. Even a week after meeting someone they have already began to change and be a more complex person. This is because of the constant outside forces that make us excited about something, or turned off to something. Even something we once really liked could become something we no longer enjoy overnight. We constantly have to keep up with our own changes and the changes of those whom we love.

We know who we are and that possibly changes every single second. Sometimes we are affected by a change and we don’t know who we are for a while. I am not writing about huge life changing events and decisions, but instead about very small, simple unseen changed that build up over time. These small changes make us who we are. These changes educate our political leanings, what words we use, what we talk about, what we strive for, our passions, and much more about our personalities and lives.

Take this example:
You are sitting drinking coffee with your lover, one second everything is fine but in the next second things seem to have changed. We often talk about not having seen things coming when something bad is said or done to us. I think this is a flaw of mankind. Of course we are creatures of environment and we react to stimulus from others, so it is easy to blame one specific thing for another specific thing. But, I believe that the small moments right before a decision is made or something bad happens do not affect the person enough to be counted as influential. In some cases it is true that the moments before a decision is made are used for deliberation. In which case, those are critical moments. The point is, no one thing changes everything. Instead it is a bunch of small things that add up over time, until they become something.

It takes a lot of work to be in love, let alone to be in love forever. It’s a lot of pressure to know your partner so completely to reaffirm that you should be together forever. We have to be open and ready for the minor little changed that we don’t see in our significant others. We have to be ready for surprises, and quick to adapt. We have to understand we are changing as well, and it is okay to change or mind or stance about something. Communication from small spark to small moment is crucial. Living from one big moment to the next means we lose sight of the development and miss a lot about the person.

I am not going to say it is easy to know about the little moments. I am not aware of all my little moments. The effort to see what’s going on inside of a person and to be truly open so they can see you too is complicated and frightening. But it is only then when you are living for the moments and from the small moments can you truly be in love with someone, instead of being in love with the person you met.



The picture at the top is a shot of my window early last September
I thought it was fitting to my overall mood

Monday, May 11, 2009

someone to share the morning with




I had forgotten how much I love morning glow - the sun isn't rising yet but the sky is lightening and I am able to see different colours of blue and green from my 3rd floor window.
I miss early mornings, dew on my feet, the smell of summer sunrises.
I miss someone to share my mornings with
I miss oatmeal buddies, and love songs
I miss being a romantic [for you]







Time to find my P-card because I'm getting hungry and the morning is quickly approaching.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Smile for equality today!


What a dreary day in Iowa, yet the happiest day in Iowa since the election of President Obama and The Caucuses of January 2008.

Today all Iowans have the same rights as same sex marriage can now be preformed throughout the entire state. It was a rocky couple of weeks but no huge protests or large riots over the matter happened, and the legislation was not challenged. This means queer Iowans can rest assured that until 2012 no changes will be made in this legislation. And even then it is almost sure that nothing will change as all representatives who have released comments seem positive that the Iowan Supreme Court's unanimous decision is the right decision for Iowa.

This is a proud and happy day for Iowa, being the first mid-west state with protection and benefits of same sex couples in marriage. Each of the state connecting Iowa haven't begun (to my knowledge) and processes such as these. It is reminiscent of Iowa's progression in the last civil rights movement. Before inter racial marriage was legal in any of the surrounding states, Iowans allowed whites and blacks to come together in the union of marriage. Now this movement is proud to take Iowa under it's wing as a safe place for unions, unions that are actually marriage.

Good job Iowa! It may only be 45* and it may be windy and rainy but smiling faces can be seen everywhere. Including on the face of this queer tranny!

FREE HUGS FOR ALL

JUST NOW I WROTE THIS AND NOT 5 MINUTES LATER I BECAME AWARE OF [http://www.godhatesfags.com/written/fliers/20090423_Des-Moines-IA-Lincoln-High-School-g.pdf|THIS PROTEST]
APPARENTLY GOD HATES IOWA - FAGS - AND FAG ENABLERS.
MORE HUGS FOR YOU IOWA
MORE HUGS FOR YOU

Sunday, March 22, 2009

ruined for all others

There is a line in the movie P.S. I love you where on of the characters says something alone the lines of - I want to find a women and love her and use her up until she is ruined for all other men.

I never though a person could be ruined for all others unless something like death or tragedy struck them personally. Yesterday one of my friends was telling me about another one of my friends.
The story goes - boy meets boy and they fall for each other almost instantly. Both boys are gorgeous, it is almost hard to look at them together because they are so beautiful. His whole first year my friend dated this beautiful boy, until the summer between first and second year. The other boy was going abroad and they broke up. Since then it has been said my friend has been ruined for all other boys. This is because he has been unable to hold down a monogamous relationship since this breakup. (it has been almost 2 years for the boy)

Now this story sounds all to familiar to my own. I've had two actual relationships since ending things last summer with Erica. The first one I freaked out in and didn't really comprehend the entire time. I think the whole last part of my summer and first part of my semester was just lived in a blur of emotions and confusion. So I spent my first semester mostly indoors on weekends - when I did go out it was kind of a free for all and my friends couldn't control me sometimes. For example the cold day that I walked back to Loose 2nd in only my sports bra and jeans! Or the night of 80's where I ended up going home completely naked then spent hours talking with the kids on my floor (I was only in my bathrobe)

Needless to say when I started this semester with a girlfriend I though being monogamous would not be a problem. I'm not doomed by my past relationships! Yet, 80% of weekends I would get drunk then go and make out with 4-12 people before finding my girl. It was ridiculous, but I couldn't stop myself from doing it. It's no wonder that she broke up with me - I am surprised she put up with it for so long. The only problem I was faced with, was that she didn't ever tell me it upset her, or that I shouldn't do it. I would have only needed one scolding or upset look and I would have been done, it wouldn't have been worth it.

Now instead I think back to Anna and to Erica my only really significant relationships and I wonder if they did ruin me for others. Not permanently I hope, but for the present.

this goes on though, beyond the people I am hooking up with
I feel as though I have become bad at relationship and relating to people. This has been the case for about 2 years now. It is not normal for me to spend long periods of time in the same place, or continue back to that place. I almost never feel a draw from a particular space or time because of this it is easy for me to change my surroundings. I fear though that this is causing me to not form and harbor my relationships anymore. This is because I am often sure that I can look to the next space and the next time to make new friends and acquaintances. I don't want this to be my problem, or my life.

I've spent a lot of time at Grinnell and I keep coming back to this place. I am not sure anyone knows how hard it is for me to come back each time, I almost fear it. I fear getting stuck.
I am trying to keep in contact with my friends who are far away, but sometimes I don't think it is worth the effort anymore. I hate to think this way because I love all my really good friends from Grinnell, and I can't handle thinking about losing them.
My nomadic ways also make it hard for me to think abut going back to camp this summer. It will be one of the first times I've gone back to a place that I lived to do the same things again (other than Grinnell) and I am not sure how I am going to handle it.

To the reader, this may all seem strange and not like me at all. But this is the truth and I am working on understanding it still myself. I apologize for any choppy thoughts, or incomplete ideas. I will work on this in the next few days and weeks, and see if I can find more answers to my own questions.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Tribute to the Jamesons

Life is something to not take for granted it is like sunshine, completely transitional it is there and it is gone.
My grandfather is HIV positive and is quickly shifting into the AIDS stage if he has not already. My grandfather is a strong courageous beautiful person. I've always been inspired by him and have attempted to gather as many of his stories as possible. Most of what I want to do with the rest of my life is because of what I have learned from my grandfather. He always talks about how our generation will change the world, and will make all of his generation's dreams possible. Mostly he talks about queer issues, which he knows I do a lot of work on. He can't get enough of my stories and I can't get enough of his.

My grandfather's favorite drink is a Whiskey on the rocks or with Club Soda. He is a very very gay man, and whiskey is a "mans" drink. Today after doing some research I've decided to have a small whiskey drinking. I don't want to get drunk from it, but I want to honor this "manly" drink to it's full potential. I've been meaning to buy Jameson's Irish Whiskey for a long time now, and today just might be that day.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

All that we don't know

I do not know what today will mean for the rest of my life. This day will happen and change me and help me become who I am but in 60 years when I look back I will not remember this date specifically and will not know what it means to me.

I think it is important to remember that everyday is life changing, even if you are only changing an inch instead of a mile.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Purity

Why I think about the word purity I think about happy things like kittens, babies, white snow and so forth. Today I found myself overwhelmed with emotion after finishing my first chapter in a public health epidemiology book. I was in a public space but tears began to trickle down my face. In this moment I thought of myself and the tears and the space I inhabited as completely pure. It is hard to explain but today a lot just seemed to happen that reminded me about purity and the pure world.

I think sometimes I am growing up too quickly, then I realize that I still have a long way to go.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Dreaming of a place


This is one of the pictures that came up when I 'google imaged' Vermont!
who wouldn't want to live and farm in a place like this.
Vermont will you marry me?
because I will be in love with you forever.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Assistant Stage Managers

I have been working on the North American premier of Testing the Echo, a British play by David Edgar. Tomorrow after an 8 week process it finally opens at Grinnell College. I am the Assistant Stage manager, and in charge of all the backstage business. Today after a bit too much stress I broke down and the actors saw me cry. I am embarrassed about it now, but I don't think any of them will say anything about it.

During this whole process I have been reading quite a bit of Theatre theory. Frances Harding has an article titled Presenting and Re-presenting the Self: From not-acting to acting in African Performance. I have been reading about African performance lately on my own accord because I think that I want to spend the rest of my life working with it. Re-Presenting the Self resonates with me especially now because it talks about the stage-hand as a performer who is support of the central character/charters. This performance role is a fully functional balance between acting and not acting. As the assistant stage manager I am performer the role of backstage mom, making sure that the actors do not worry about timing, costume, or other technical aspects of the performance. This is a very necessary role to have performed during any show, yet is the least recognized.

I have come to terms with the fact that an assistant stage manager's duties are invisible yet valuable. Harding say it better than I when he writes about stagehands, "in spite of the deliberate absence of visual signals (costuming, behavior, etc.) the stagehand is drawn into the "informational structure" of the performance. It is because they are invisible that the show is able to be experienced in its entirety. I wish I could thank all the invisible assistant stage managers of the world for the hidden magic they bring to the stage.