Snowbound On Second Street In DC

Although the snow stopped falling late yesterday and people are beginning to get out and about this morning, there is a stillness to the city covered in snow that is peaceful.  We’ve been essentially hibernating for the past two days but the sun today is blinding and folks seem to be enjoying this cold but sparkling Sunday.  (Although it’s after 9AM I’m still waiting for my Sunday Washington Post to be delivered.) And today is the Super Bowl – and may the Saints crush the Colts who fled Baltimore in the middle of the night all those years ago.  But I’m feeling generous and calm today mainly as a result of the incredible beauty that all this snow has bestowed upon our nation’s capital.  Course there are those – mainly out in the burbs – who are still without power and they are probably not so pleased with the 30+ inches covering their streets and driveways. 

I’m just back from a couple of weeks in India visiting some friends and taking a look at what’s happening on the Indian art scene which is why I haven’t paid attention to my blog.  Had a really great time.  But got an e-mail from Blogger Extraordinaire Ian-Dark Tomahawk this morning asking for a post which, since I woke up at 5:45 this morning, I supplied.  “What It Means To Be A Gay Man in 2010” was the topic.  And now I’m thinking what does it really mean to be a gay man today?  Much has changed, much is better than when I was younger and yet there is this nagging feeling that we aren’t making the kind of progress that we should be.  And for many it’s still dangerous out there.

 

These are, for those of us who are politically aware, very trying times.  If you’ve been following the Tea Bagger meeting in Nashville you know what I mean.  So Sarah Palin bashes Obama?  Ummmmmm, excuse me, but the very thought of this woman occupying the White House is a thought too frightening to contemplate.  And as gay men we surely must be politically aware since there are so many out there who decide for us what our lives will be.  I have no solutions.  My “just shoot them all” suggestion hasn’t gotten a lot of traction.  Besides I suppose from the other side they would be just as ready and willing to shoot us and be done with it.

I, for one, get tired of being defined as a gay man as if that’s the alpha and omega of who I am.  On the personal level my gay and straight friends and acquaintances run the gamut of personality and character types.  As well as colors, religions, ethnicities, ages, body types, levels of insanity – you know, all the facets of our humanity who make us what we are.  My roommate, my Arab friend, my Indian lover, my Buddhist buddy, my Lebanese lesbian girlfriend, my Iranian brothers – they are all wonderful, unique individuals and cannot be typecast into some catchall category that says anything real about them.  And I would ask the same for me.  I am not just a gay man.  That’s surely a part of who I am, a key element of what makes me tick, but you know as well as I do that among your gay friends there is a rich diversity of characteristics – both good and bad – that leaves the “gay” descriptive very lacking in meaning as any sort of characterization of who you are as a human being.  We need to continue to fight for our rights – fight to live our lives without fear, without repression, without discrimination – but it seems to me that we also need be sure that we live our lives as richly and as fully human as we possibly can. 

Well did not mean to get preachy. Sorry.  There seems to be a small army of folks outside taking pictures with cameras and cell phones as well as a couple of folks attempting to unearth their parked cars so I’m going out to have some fun. 

Peace and love,

Scott-tay