Polyamory

Well, i thought i had a lot to say about this topic, but Wikipedia, for once, seems to have summed it up rather nicely:

"The defining characteristic of polyamory is belief in the possibility of, and value of, multiple romantic loving relationships carried out "with the knowledge and consent of all partners concerned."[1] What distinguishes polyamory from traditional forms of non-monogamy (i.e. "cheating") is an ideology that openness, goodwill, intense communication, and ethical behavior should prevail among all the parties involved. Some consider polyamory to be, at its root, the generalization of romantic couple-love beyond two people into something larger.[2]
"Polyamorous relationships, in practice, are highly varied and individualized. Ideally they are built upon values of trust, loyalty, negotiation, and compersion, as well as rejection of jealousy, possessiveness, and restrictive cultural standards.[3] "

Which means that the only thing left to ask is why is this such a problem? why are people so upset with the notion that love grows, rather than constricts? why do people grasp so greedily at those they care about or are attracted to, shutting the door to the possibility of being loved by more people?
i can't help but come back to the poem by Marianne Williamson:
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
...Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?"

and as she concludes, it is when we finally open our eyes to our own possibilities, let go of our fear of ourself, that we begin to free not only ourselves, but everyone else around us:

"...And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

it's a shame that liberation is seen as a cause for alarm and a signal to run to gather up arms. liberation is a celebration, and should be welcomed with open arms.

school buses and little kids

have i mentioned how much i hate racism? how much i despise our racist society with its' ingrained and deep-seated habits and racial profiling? with its' prevalence of reverse racism? - which just proves again that we're a white supremacist culture because even the term "racism" normalizes whiteness. this time i hate racism because of the hate inculcated by parents in their young children. our only hope for salvation would be to teach tolerance and extend the social networks of our children to include children of other races, let alone other cultures, classes, sexes, gender norms and sexualities, politics...
instead of equality, however, we teach superiority. instead of providing tools to our children for those times that they will encounter racism, or sexism or ageism or classism or ..., we teach them to build walls and separations. when we are caught in the public view with our less than tolerant ways - or our children make us look less than tolerant - we either take up the beleaguerd battle cry of reverse racism or smile tightly and take our kids home and skin them alive, reminding them what racists surround us and to keep the family's racism under wraps. what lasting impressions we leave.

and just for the record, my white daughter enjoyed all people until the African-American kids on her first grade bus pulled her hair and called her "white" and refused to sit with her because of her color. and once she got over that, it was a black girl who told my daughter that she would whip her, and not mind if my daughter was killed, since our white ancestors had whipped and killed her black ancestors anyway.

racism is a two-way street, people. we cannot overcome it by continuing to hate.

mie sue!

mie sue mie sue mie sue!! the two year old yells as i flip her from one side of my lap to the next. once she is settled, i see that her slipper is hanging by a toe. she giggles: mie sue! and flips her foot so the slipper abondons its' desperate hold.

i would giggle with her, but i have just pulled her slipper back on and her shirt back down, and her back is scaly still. eczema. inwardly i cringe, as though my thoughts of cookies and candy today are enough to trigger her reaction. i think of so many other young children i have seen, particularly girls, with skin grey and peeling from total consumption by eczema. that these children are seen with snack bags of chips or candy hanging out of the corner of their mouths only makes me all the more certain that the trigger is sugar.
which would mean that it is mostly likely outrageous outbreaks of candidiasis, systemic thrush, rather than simply eczema.

simply eczema. huh. that's like saying the baby has colic.
what the baby has is pain somewhere that the adult can't figure out - stomach, esophagus, throat, intestines. or possible a highly sensitive child, or introverted child, who is overwhelmed and trying to release that pent-up anxiety. or just plain over-tired, since over-tiredness so often masks itself as rowdy, hyper-active behavior before crashing into spasms of crying.

of course, it is pure blasphema for me to say that sugar is what prompts my daughter to scratch her back bloody and for her elbows to crack. it's much more kosher to say that she is allergic to herself and go out to buy steroids for lifelong treatment of symptoms. since we all know how safe steroids are, and how likely it is that the body would genetically mutate itself to want to destroy itself. but my route not only cuts out BIG-Pharma, it cuts out the poor corn farmers and all of the middle men in between who produce those tasty junk foods, snacks, and time-saving packaged meals.

i couldn't help thinking about all of these connections when i saw the yahoo! news heading today about how sugar-free schools have seen immediate improvements in test scores. hm. maybe candidiasis affects the ability of children to concentrate and learn by demanding that the body consume low-protein, high-sugar meals that rob the body of staying power. or maybe the removal of sugar inadvertantly removed HFCS from a portion of the children's diets, and the lower doses of mercury meant the return of full brain capacity. either way, i'll make sure that i have mie sue somewhere on hand the next time i reach for a bag/box/carton/bite of sugar so that i can flip it upside my head as a reminder of all this.

Beginnings

Like endings, mark change.
Like spring, are fall.
Like night, are birght with possibilities and hope and chance.
Like birth, are death.
Like warmth, are knees wrapped over thigh to keep out the cold.

Ache out in etchings of unsurity, insecurity, uncertainty
until
the beginning has become the full-sunned day at noon, and
it is time for resting and a meal to replenish.

Mark the first step from ignorance to knowledge,
mediocrity to expert,
planning to action.

So much potential, beginnings
that does not belie the difficulty of walking
the weight of carrying
or the weariness of less-traveled paths taken.