Directions

I've been buffeted by words posted here in misia's LJ. I am awed. I am terrified. I am privileged to take part in a groundswell Internet phenomenon. With over 1000 comments posted in 24 hours, she's closed the entry to further comments. Metafilter picked it up. It's huge. And it can be summed up in six words.

No Pity. No Shame. No Silence.

This posting, this phenomenon, these six words all are about sexual violence, abuse, rape. I'm thinking about my own past.  I am not a survivor, I've not been sexually abused, or raped. I believe I've always treated the Significant Others, the sexual partners in my life with respect... but have I? There are memories of relationships which ... were less than satisfactory, or ended less than amicably.

It's got me thinking about the power inherent in an on-line journal. Misia did not know what would ensue; she wrote from the heart. I've been following her LJ after being introduced to it through fat_fred and Skippy's Friends list. You should go read her work, and not only the posting linked above.

I started this as a bit of a lark. Do some on-line meditations about my photography. Then, add some occasional off-the-wall notes about the antics of The Border Collie Brothers. Those meditations can be serious or whimsical; that's the nature of finding one's art withing oneself. But they were, or have been until now, conceived of as meditations about my photography.

I dabble in poetry. I've read really good poetry, and I don't feel my own pieces are in that category. Still, there's a venue here. Why not use it?

Though I suspect, I shall need to upgrade to a paid account to accommodate the formatting I should like for the poems.