Greetings, Everyone!
This is probably way late in response, as I am only now going through
digests dated early July (really, how do you all keep up?!), but I wanted
to comment on some of the things touched on back then. (Incidentally,
this is my first post, although I've been a subscriber since April; did
send something in around May or June, which apparently never made it to
the digest ... Will this?)
Speaking from my own experience, I could be (and have been) categorized
thusly: male; gay; Asian-American (at least I think that's still the
current-PC term these days), more specifically Japanese-American; Sansei
(third generation Japanese-American); local-Hawaiian Japanese (born and
raised in Hawaii, as opposed to persons of Japanese ancestry born and
raised in the Continental US or Japan, and not to be confused with
Japanese-Hawaiian, which denotes a biracial ancestry); left-handed;
Joni-fanatic ... where does it end? I don't know if these labels are an
attempt from others to find some common ground with me, or my attempt,
when I allow myself to get caught up with these labels, to find my
"specialness." I just like to think of myself as a person, first and
foremost.
Like everyone else, I too have my biases/pre- and misconceptions/ignorance
to contend with. But the thing I noticed since coming here is that we
celebrate our similarities first (i.e. our mutual repsect for Mitchell's
art), rather than sniff out the differences, which seems to be the way
most human interaction starts. Honestly, while reading through the
digests from day to day (or should I say week-to-week ... like I said, I'm
way behind!), I never get the male/female, black/white,
Democrat/Republican, gay/straight thing. It doesn't happen very often --
when you find your kindred spirit (if you're lucky enough), a supportive
circle of friends (again, if you're lucky enough), unconditional love ...
And while there are differences of opinion here (I first signed on during
the great Bjork debate!) you guys are role models of how things should be.
Bravo! Now if only you could go beyond these "walls" and go global ...!
Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger
http://phonecard.yahoo.com/
