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I woke up from a nap, and all I remember of what I dreamt was a crotchety old Bruce Campbell, bitterly complaining that they no longer give that position to men. Something to do with psychic resonance. And while he and I understood that as valid reasoning, it still pisses us off that we can't join in the fun.
9 December 2011
I found this, while looking for a different entry altogether. http://amul.livejournal.com/465387.html#cutid2
It was a list of Needs, Wants and Desires for a relationship. I don't have time to write this AND the other one I wanted to do, so I'm just putting it here as a cue for later contemplation.
It was a list of Needs, Wants and Desires for a relationship. I don't have time to write this AND the other one I wanted to do, so I'm just putting it here as a cue for later contemplation.
I didn't actually make it to The Moth Storytelling Slam a few weeks ago. Life interfered and although I picked the stories I wanted to tell and had started revising them, I never even managed to sit down and write out a draft or time it.
One of the stories I was going to tell was the story of the The Kindest Thing Anyone's Ever Done For Me. There's a better version of that somewhere in my LJ archives, but I can't find it just at the moment.
While I was revising the story for an audience who doesn't know me, I realized that I needed to include something about how unpopular I was in high school, and to give some examples of why. This ended up taking the entire story in a different direction and added a whole new level to it. I should really write the new version out here.
Anyway, in this new version, after telling a few jokes about the sort of disconnection I experienced with my fellows, I say, But I think the real reason that I was so different from my peers was because I had discovered the existence of evil in the world at a very early age, and in a manner intricately tied to my first kiss.
This led me to start thinking once again, in subtly new and strikingly relevant ways, about all the sexual violence that occurred just barely off-stage during my formative years, and how it affected me.
For those of you unfamiliar with The Moth, at the end of every podcast, they offer a brief biography of the storyteller after the story is told. The bio often emphasizes the story, acts as a sort of epilogue, about how this story has affected their entire lives. What would they say for me, if they ever decided to podcast my story? The thought began consuming more time than the storytelling efforts themselves. I haven't been involved in rape counseling or advocacy in years, and never even felt like I had accomplished much when I made those efforts. What have I been doing with my life? Has any of it mattered? Does anything I'm doing today really matter?
And then, it hit me, all at once, and I found myself speaking aloud:
Amul Kumar is an internationally renown artist and sex educator. He travels the world, teaching others about the power of consent, the joy of vulnerability, and the hidden beauty inside us all.
Not a bad life to live, if I do say so myself.
One of the stories I was going to tell was the story of the The Kindest Thing Anyone's Ever Done For Me. There's a better version of that somewhere in my LJ archives, but I can't find it just at the moment.
While I was revising the story for an audience who doesn't know me, I realized that I needed to include something about how unpopular I was in high school, and to give some examples of why. This ended up taking the entire story in a different direction and added a whole new level to it. I should really write the new version out here.
Anyway, in this new version, after telling a few jokes about the sort of disconnection I experienced with my fellows, I say, But I think the real reason that I was so different from my peers was because I had discovered the existence of evil in the world at a very early age, and in a manner intricately tied to my first kiss.
This led me to start thinking once again, in subtly new and strikingly relevant ways, about all the sexual violence that occurred just barely off-stage during my formative years, and how it affected me.
For those of you unfamiliar with The Moth, at the end of every podcast, they offer a brief biography of the storyteller after the story is told. The bio often emphasizes the story, acts as a sort of epilogue, about how this story has affected their entire lives. What would they say for me, if they ever decided to podcast my story? The thought began consuming more time than the storytelling efforts themselves. I haven't been involved in rape counseling or advocacy in years, and never even felt like I had accomplished much when I made those efforts. What have I been doing with my life? Has any of it mattered? Does anything I'm doing today really matter?
And then, it hit me, all at once, and I found myself speaking aloud:
Amul Kumar is an internationally renown artist and sex educator. He travels the world, teaching others about the power of consent, the joy of vulnerability, and the hidden beauty inside us all.
Not a bad life to live, if I do say so myself.