Tomorrow is both Columbus Day and National Coming Out Day. I assert that the latter is a much more important celebration, considering the slew of recent deaths and also reason #735 that Christopher Columbus was an asshole:
Queen Isabella had offered a reward to the first person on the voyage to spot land. On the morning of October 12, 1492, a sailor cried out, “Land! Land!” Christopher Columbus rose to the deck and said that he had seen “a light in the distance” hours before, and ended up claiming the reward.
So, in memory of our brothers and sisters who have fallen to oppressive tyranny, as a gay man I wish all of you a Happy National Coming Out Day. I also wish the spirit of Christopher Columbus an especially torturous day in hell!
In honor of National Coming Out Day, I request each of you to spend at least 30 minutes reaching out both personally and politically.
Here are some options for reaching out personally:
1. Tell your children it is ok to be gay. It makes a huge difference.
2. Express gratitude to an LGBTQIA friend, coworker, classmate, or family member.
3. Reach out to your community.
Personally, I am going to express thanks to all of the mentors, who have supported me in the coming out process. I am also going to reach out to a friend whose environment is oppressive.
Whether working with wood or stone, cement or iron: why do humans insist on imposing their face on even the most unwieldy things in the world, why do they name dead matter after their own flesh, personifying it as parts of the body? Is this hidden tenderness necessary to make the harsh work bearable?
Herta Müller’s Nobel Lecture, December 7, 2009
In response, I pose a question: To what degree do we as humans personify industry, and to what degree do we mechanize humanity? In other words, how much does holding the “head” of a screw envisage cradling a child’s soft, forming skull, and how much does calling the heart a body “part” imply that, if it gives, the organ is replaceable, as is a screw?
Annex has a new hobby: flushing the toilet. The first time he did it I was in bed watching a DVD and nearly had a heart attack.
Branch in the Snow, 1980
I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show.
Photograph and Quote by Andrew Wyeth
Sparklehorse - It’s a Wonderful Life
A gentleman on parole raving that Sheila Dixon does not deserve a second chance if he does not, police sirens, a picture in a window of Bill O’Reilly that says “Fuck You,” this Sparklehorse song looping in my mind, all as I’m bundled up on a bike ride home through Mt. Vernon from Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse: yes, it’s a Baltimore life.
