"Do
you ever feel discouraged about where you're going
with things or is that part of the Dark Haired Bohemian
Chick thing? I can't imagine it is. I'm not that unique."
--Darklady
"Oh,
yes you are, but not in that way. Remember, the whole
country is feeling dispirited right now, and those
of us who write about goodness and hotness might seem
a little out of fashion for a minute. (www.lilyburana.com)
Lil's book launch was pretty much hijacked along with
those planes, since her publisher is in NYC and since
she isn't analyzing Osama bin Laden, just guys who
like to watch naked girls. That seems so quaint. The
life-goes-on thing will reemerge, in our readers and
editors as well as in us."
--Carol
Queen (www.carolqueen.com)
The
wreckage of the World Trade Center is still smoldering.
There's anthrax up and down the East Coast. The various
anti-terrorism bills use the legislative equivalent
of a gill net to capture the Bad Guys. And Iraqi women
are miscarrying grossly deformed uranium-poisoned
fetuses. These things tend to make that box of video
porn waiting to be reviewed seem mighty inconsequential.
But,
as Carol so wisely points out, "the life-goes-on thing
will reemerge." Must reemerge.
Before
I began my cross-country rental car odyssey out of
New York City, I was like a child spellbound by the
television. Only, instead of cartoons or sitcoms,
it was CNN or NY1 that I couldn't take my eyes off.
Buildings falling. People falling. Airplanes falling.
Everything was falling down--and I needed
to get out from underfoot of the people who could
help, and back to my own people. Back to where, if
anything else fell down, I could help.
The
day after I arrived home via a nearly empty jet from
Des Moines, Iowa,
I hosted the monthly poly discussion group. Thrilled
to be home, but not quite sure I was up to facilitating
a rollicking discussion of responsible non-monogamy,
I was relieved to find that even 3000 miles away from
the huge cloud that it had taken me a day to realize
wasn't made by nature, people wanted to talk about
what had happened, was happening, might happen. We
even managed to tie it all in to the discussion group's
unifying element: polyamory.
It's
rediscovering unifying elements that will reawaken
the life-goes-on thing.
And
that's one of the reasons to open that box of video
porn waiting to be reviewed. Because, regardless of
what people who hate bold sexuality claim, it's really
about bringing people together. Sex is about as close
as two individuals can get with one another and still
be two individuals. And we are all of us sexual beings,
even if our closest intimate friend is our self.
Even
the men who caused the sky to fall on September 11th
were sexual beings. And that, to be honest, is another
reason for me to open that box of video porn waiting
to be reviewed: Whether as an act of defiance against
a mind-set that would cover women from head to toe,
beat and starve them, and train their children to
hate enough to kill, or as an act of sex-positivism,
helping educate and encourage healthy and enjoyable
ways to express and explore sexuality, I don't know.
Perhaps both.
Ultimately,
the goal is to remember that the life-goes-on thing
is important. And part of that is the sex thing, because
it unifies and comforts us. When we are sexual with
ourselves or with another person, we are aware that
life goes on not just within ourselves, but within
others as well. So perhaps in our own ways, sex writers
and sex workers contribute to a more peaceful society.
If that's so, it's my patriotic, as well as my moral
duty, to open that box of video porn waiting to be
reviewed. I must answer my nation's call.
*
