Now, how does anyone out there know this? Haven’t a clue, but this issue of the dance magazine has been “put to bed” (that’s publishing talk. heh), so now I can resume some of my other life pursuits, like blogging.
Actually, while I haven’t been posting here, I’ve been commenting intently and intensely on various blog and email conversations about sexism. My ire is stirred by that issue because I belive that expressed sexist attitudes (whether voiced in jest, conscious intent or even unconscious intent) contribute to the tough row that women have to hoe in this world by adding to the impression that it’s OK to demean women.) So, when I read Jennifer Balderama’s posts on the subjects of feminism and strong women, I figured that giving those posts some additional visibility was a good way to relaunch myself into the blogmix of things.
And, while I’m on the subject of gender differences (yes, all of this sexism stuff is somehow based in the different ways each gender needs to perceive the other, I believe), I found this very relevant passage in a “trashy” novel I just finished reading

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I

I’m not the first to need a break, and I won’t be the last. I’ve got some projects on my plate that need my attention, and I need to hang out with some real guys for a while. (Gotcha with that one, didn’t I?) I mean real-life flesh and blood male friends in contrast to virtual.
I’ve entered into an agreement with one of them to take over half the work of putting out the regional dance magazine that he started and is struggling to make a go of. And we’re going to take some dance lessons together. I’m opting for Argentine Tango (With full recognition of the sexist origins of the dance and full understanding that art and life are not necessarily the same. But it is a sexy dance. That’s why I like it.)
I’ve also made a commitment to edit a mystery novel written by a previous Significant Other, with whom I actually lived for a year at one point, so that we can run a condensed serialize version of it in the magazine. The story takes place at a ballroom dance weekend. (We’ve stayed friends, and so we’ve agreed to go out and hit some hot local dance spots in the meanwhile.) I’ve got deadlines to meet and some relaxed social and non-sexist interactions with real-life real male friends to look forward to.
Interestingly enough, I enjoy the company of my male friends in some ways that are very different from how I enjoy my female friends’ company. We do different things together, talk about different things, and laugh about different things. Different but equally enjoyable.
So, I might not be posting much here for a while. Except maybe on Blog Sisters, where there are issues being discussed that I care about very deeply. But I’ll be checking in. This is my unreal life, after all. My life in Kalilily Time.
Carry on my wayward sons, [sic]
For there’ll be peace when you are done….
Kansas

I know how committed you are to free speech. I know how intelligent and articulate and creative you are. I know how technologically innovative you are. For those qualities, you have earned my deepest respect. You have earned your professional reputations on the Net in general and in blogdom in particular. Professionally, you are men of vision.
Perhaps, on a personal level, you have wives with professional careers that you wholeheartedly support

At Linda’s request, I’m going to tell my rebirthing story. Now, don’t be confused. “Rebirthing” is nothing at all like being “Born Again.” And, from what I’ve been able to read on the Net, the current methods of doing “rebirthing” are nothing like they were when I did it.
Let me preface this story by explaining that I have always enjoyed experiences that lead me to more self-discovery. Like most people, I find that I fool myself even better than I fool other people. Like most, I’ve gotten pretty good at denying, rationalizing, ignoring, blaming etc. etc. So, every once in a while, I need to find a way to hold up the mirror of truth to my own soul. Of course, being a dedicated dilletante, I don’t just find one system for doing this kind of introspection and stick to it; I like to try out new ones all of the time. Transcendental Meditation, Yoga, Chi Quong, Tai Chi, guided imagery, self-hypnosis, sacred psychology, feminist spirituality, poetry therapy, active imagination, rebirthing…….. Basically, they are all ways of getting oneself out of usual patterns of “thinking” and allowing one’s natural intuition and wisdom to find a way through all of the nasty noises of our conscious and critical and constricting minds.
So, for a while I took a lot of workshops. I took so many that I got so good at some that I started to give workshops of my own — a kind of hybrid of feminist spirituality and guided imagery and active imagination and poetry therapy ……. Someone once said that you teach best what you most need to learn. How true. How true.
O.K. Rebirthing. I went through the process almost ten years ago, but from what I remember, this is how it went. I went to an introductory meeting and made the decision to commit myself to a three consecutive 10-hour days of a rebirthing workshop. I was paired with a buddy, and the agreement was that we would help each other through the process, which took place over a weekend. The process involved long periods of meditation — some guided, some not — and, of course, “sharing.” That was pretty much what we did on the first day. On the second day, after more and deep meditation and increasingly emotional sharing, etc., we were guided to to re-experience our own births — to feel ourselves in our mother’s wombs, listening to what people were saying about us, feeling the physical sensations of safety and warmth being violently disrupted, etc. etc. I don’t know what happened on the third day, and here’s why.

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A long time ago (by some reckonings) or not so long ago (by others), I decided that I wanted two twin beds that could be linked together somehow to make a king-sized bed. Because? Because I knew that I would be moving at least several more times in my life, and it’s easier to move smaller beds and mattresses. And sometimes I am in a relationship and want a big bed available, and sometimes I’m not and prefer sleeping alone in a single bed and using the other bed to pile my clothes on until I get around to hanging them up. When I’m not in a relationship, I tend to let my housekeeping skills (meager at best) to really slide.
O.K. Now, cut to another scene, happening simultaneously, wherein I decide to take a re-birthing workshop, since I’m always looking for ways to help me understand who the hell I am and why, for example, I want two beds that have the choice of either being together or apart.

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Don’t know much about the complexities of the politics (big picture) of the Internet, but I imagine that the freedoms we hope to continue enjoying and exploring here are preserved and protected in the same way all freedom is preserved and protected.
So I quote here from a post by Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig as part of a blog conversation the purpose of which is irrelevant to me. What is relevant is what he said, some of which is quoted by b!X (which is how I found Lessig’s entire post), and some of which (the part that I think is most important) I quote here:
My point is that if this community does not begin to spend at least as much time as it spends watching Hollywood movies fighting Hollywood, or to spend at least as much money as it gives DSL providers on those who fight broad based control , then this extraordinary space that you….. built will be taken away. Not by superior blogs, and not by witty /. postings. But in the old-fashioned way: through regulators who have been bent by the forces of those who can and do buy Washington…..
You say I should stop complaining, and open up a blog….. I say that in addition to blogging, and coding and whatever, we’ve got to do something that matters to these people who think a blog is a typo. You, or we, or someone has got to get this community to deliver a different kind of message. One that east coast coders can read; one that says: we won’t let the freedom we ….. built be regulated away.
And it’s not just a matter of getting to the point where everyone in Congress has his/her own blog, although that certainly wouldn’t hurt the cause — if, of course, their blogs all had a Comments feature and if we all used it. Heh.

Heh. George Partington’s got the goods on Frank Paynter in his intervew with the prolific interviewer himself. The microscope gets turned around and Frank shows his warts and all.

If you know Golby’s blog, you know what I mean. No matter what, you should go and trip out with Mike in the interview he did with Frank Paynter. It’s Golby at his careening finest as he zips through life, the universe, and everything sacred — all to the tunes of Bob Dylan. Part I is here. Part II here. Keep an eye out for whatever whips by next.