2012: Year of flimsy bridges
1 January, 2013.
Musings about 2012 and thinking about how it done.. like 2011,2010, 2009..
Thinking of achievements to build on, trying not to be bogged down in the bad stuff.
2012 - year I severed some connections or tried to severe connections with people who terrified me.
First activity of 2012, turning down an invitation to eat cook up - poor mental health meant not being able to converse at any level; and also not having my guard up. 2011 elections results revealed some allegiances which were surprising and divisive. It was more than just 'political differences'. unlike say 'religious differences', it seemed to be about survival.
2012 - also, the year in which some bridges were built - flimsy ones - with people who I did not plan to engage with
Learnings really about ideas of friends and foes, and laughing at my blurred boundaries and while accepting the loss of connections, celebrating other ways of connecting.
Drinking Malta and Mauby
In June, I swallowed my politics and went and met with Sister Michelle and the Operation Restoration team. The rhetoric was the old familiar, my reaction though.. was not.. I sit down, drink a malta, talked, prayed and left with the same views as I had come in. But.. it was good to know that I could cross over boundaries in terms of engaging.. and perhaps it is easier to do this when the intentions of the 'opponents' are known clearly.
And then a few months later, I sat drinking mauby.. in another engagement with a woman who thinks it is okay to beat children and that homosexuality is wicked and evil and homosexuals can change. That meeting was about other things though.. and then I went to the Jehovah Witness convention..
Brownie and tea..
Yeah.. I started 2012 as I start 2013.. time to move on, get over with it, get on with it. No more contact - life goes on.. the past is the past.. except that it wasn't.. an invitation to lunch and other sad and bitter encounters with two former loved ones.
I am glad that the love is there.. the wish to know how life is going. Months later after another bitter exchange, I said yes to meeting up, having brownie and tea even though I should have stayed away. and then one other meet up.. but me thinking .. shoots.. I could do this.. and this..
This possibility of facing up to those which you do not want to face up to.. so flimsy thread bridging us.. no cussing up, all good.
The man in the car across the road
I did not have much feedback on the TV roundtable discussion on gay rights. One day, one man at a traffic light across the road, shouted across to me.. 'it is sinful, what you are talking.. a man must be a man".. and 'no wickedness in Guyana" even as he drove off. I did not say anything.
Then a few weeks later.. the man again.. passing.. 'you not on TV anymore'.. "sin sin.. etc" voice seemed less hostile. I smiled and waved.
Last week.. the man again, across the road.. car parked.. 'what happen, you not on TV anymore'.. I looked over, 'said no'.. walked across the road.. we shook hands, wished each other the best for 2013.
Musings about 2012 and thinking about how it done.. like 2011,2010, 2009..
Thinking of achievements to build on, trying not to be bogged down in the bad stuff.
2012 - year I severed some connections or tried to severe connections with people who terrified me.
First activity of 2012, turning down an invitation to eat cook up - poor mental health meant not being able to converse at any level; and also not having my guard up. 2011 elections results revealed some allegiances which were surprising and divisive. It was more than just 'political differences'. unlike say 'religious differences', it seemed to be about survival.
2012 - also, the year in which some bridges were built - flimsy ones - with people who I did not plan to engage with
Learnings really about ideas of friends and foes, and laughing at my blurred boundaries and while accepting the loss of connections, celebrating other ways of connecting.
Drinking Malta and Mauby
In June, I swallowed my politics and went and met with Sister Michelle and the Operation Restoration team. The rhetoric was the old familiar, my reaction though.. was not.. I sit down, drink a malta, talked, prayed and left with the same views as I had come in. But.. it was good to know that I could cross over boundaries in terms of engaging.. and perhaps it is easier to do this when the intentions of the 'opponents' are known clearly.
And then a few months later, I sat drinking mauby.. in another engagement with a woman who thinks it is okay to beat children and that homosexuality is wicked and evil and homosexuals can change. That meeting was about other things though.. and then I went to the Jehovah Witness convention..
Brownie and tea..
Yeah.. I started 2012 as I start 2013.. time to move on, get over with it, get on with it. No more contact - life goes on.. the past is the past.. except that it wasn't.. an invitation to lunch and other sad and bitter encounters with two former loved ones.
I am glad that the love is there.. the wish to know how life is going. Months later after another bitter exchange, I said yes to meeting up, having brownie and tea even though I should have stayed away. and then one other meet up.. but me thinking .. shoots.. I could do this.. and this..
This possibility of facing up to those which you do not want to face up to.. so flimsy thread bridging us.. no cussing up, all good.
The man in the car across the road
I did not have much feedback on the TV roundtable discussion on gay rights. One day, one man at a traffic light across the road, shouted across to me.. 'it is sinful, what you are talking.. a man must be a man".. and 'no wickedness in Guyana" even as he drove off. I did not say anything.
Then a few weeks later.. the man again.. passing.. 'you not on TV anymore'.. "sin sin.. etc" voice seemed less hostile. I smiled and waved.
Last week.. the man again, across the road.. car parked.. 'what happen, you not on TV anymore'.. I looked over, 'said no'.. walked across the road.. we shook hands, wished each other the best for 2013.
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