Thinking out loud

We’re born into culture
Culture shapes us

It makes us what we are

But comes a point
Where we can choose

To be what we will be

The point of awareness:
Awareness of self
Awareness of situation
Awareness of alternatives

A point where we can accept
Or reject what has been given

I chose to reject, as many do

Depending how far down the path of life
And the nature of rejection
This can be traumatic

Mine blew a family apart
Though dynamite formed the bulk of its construction

Selfishness?

Perhaps

Was it selfish of my brother to end his life?

Perhaps

To him, it seemed inevitable

Progress:
The broadening of the possible
New roads 
Leading out of where we’re born

Humane, positive

Now, I see it everywhere
Here, and even over there 
In serpentine cul-de-sacs and drives
Beneath the heavy clouds, the chimney pots and aerials

We’re giving them a chance, at last
By recognising difference and complexity
Not trying, through shame and stigma, to enforce
Some primitive prescription of conformity

But we see ranged around us the resentment
The downturned mouths
The cold gaze of reproach

Behind those deadened eyes, life counts for little

Religion:
Nothing in this world is truly secular
We’re inheritors and victims of the need to have control
At whatever cost

It’s never gone away

State begat Church which blesses State
Submission of reality to superstition and its Earthly code
Submission of each life

That’s what we’re fighting

They want to make each wilderness a garden
Formalised to their design
By planting stigma, sowing insecurity and fear

Some of us have seen what this can do

People talk of liberty and freedom
But how empty are those words when they don’t apply to all

The army blanket of denial and despair
The reactionary stare
The bad old ways

How much hidden misery?

We hear the drowned calling from the bottom of the sea
“Come on down.  The water’s lovely.”

But society and culture, our homely micro-cultures 
Have been changing
We can advance that change or watch it falling back

Make the choice, reject what isn’t you
Diversity, complexity dictate that somewhere in the world
You’ll find a place where you can simply be

Orgullo!

More than just a word.