Big girls were not built
To walk the straight and narrow.
–Storm Large/Beautiful
I have always been really good at staying out of trouble. I got excellent grades all through school and graduated from college on time-ish in spite of having spent 3 years in Europe in the middle of my University education. I’ve never been arrested, have only had one traffic ticket, and have always been self-supporting financially. I’m in a long term monogamous relationship with someone of the opposite gender, work a Monday-Friday job in IT, own a house and car and have a cat. I look fairly normal, whatever that means.
On the other hand, when I am not in a monogamous relationship, I have been known to be…
Well.
Let’s just say flexible in case my Mother is reading. (Hi, Mom–don’t worry, there are no sex scenes in a bathroom stall with hookers and blow in this post.)
I’m a bit of an in-between-er: really eccentric people think I’m too square, but normal people think I’m kind of a freak. I do skew to the freak side in many aspects of life, but I can pass as normal when I have to.
I have been, at various times, both pierced and tattooed. For a long time, I was a pierced and tattooed person who also knits. These days, that’s common. At one point, I would get odd looks not for being pierced and tattooed, but for knitting in public. “Normal looking” here in Portland is different than “normal looking” in other places.
I’m an atheist. Not an agnostic. One of the few things I don’t doubt is the absence of a deity.
I don’t think people should conflate religion and morality. The two are not related, and yes you can have a moral belief system even if you don’t believe in a deity. Right and wrong do not come from Above, but from Inside.
I tend to think that Faith is not good for a society, and that more Doubt and Questioning would strengthen the world. Yes, seriously. I’ve talked about it before, but in case you don’t memorize every word I write I basically think that accepting stuff without question makes you prone to abuse by political and religious leaders.
I don’t care what anyone’s sexual kink is as long as it’s a consensual one. I don’t understand some of them but that’s another show!
My wedding vows included elements such as granting permission for my husband to keep Miracle Whip in the house and helping him decide which bass sounds best even though all I hear is “boom boom boom.” Certainly nothing about obedience. One of our wedding songs was called “Good Witch of the North.”
I think anyone who is of age should be able to marry anyone else of age they choose to, assuming that the other person is willing and able to give consent. If it wasn’t such a legal tangle I wouldn’t even care about polyamorous marriage. On the other hand, I’m not a big believer in marriage at all. This is ironic considering how many times I have been married, and is a little strange considering that I take promises (like wedding vows) seriously. Maybe that would have had more of an impact if I had not just said that my wedding vows involved Miracle Whip.
At least some of my marriages have been for somewhat nefarious purposes. Mysterious enough for you?
I do not believe that anything but opposite gender marriage is a slippery slope that will result in the decline of civilization and end with people marrying golden retrievers and goldfish. And yes, I have seen that argument actually made. Granted, it was in the comments section of a pro-gay marriage article which doesn’t exactly bring out the finest minds in the nation.
I think people should be able to ingest whatever substances they want to as long as they don’t hurt others while under the influence. In fact, I think in some circumstances hallucinogenic drugs can alter the way you see the world permanently and for the better. “Tune in, turn on” was correct in that respect, though I disagree with the “drop out” part.
What else…
I like reading the news from Al-Jazeera. They are a very good news source. Fox News, on the other hand, is repugnant to me in every possible way.
I also think that there is no such thing as “left wing” in mainstream US politics or the news media. We have center and right. One might even say center-right and far right.
I am annoyed by too much informality in the news. The use of slang, in particular. “The cops busted the perp” does not, in my opinion, belong in any form of news story.
The other thing that irritates me about the news is the use of clichés to make a point. Tonight on the news, one of the anchors said that someone had beaten the pulp out of someone. So not only did they try to use a cliché, but they used it incorrectly. To be fair, it irritates me when I do it, too…but I’m not paid to write this shit or I’d be more careful. Probably. When I bring this up in conversation, I get a blank stare and “I’ve never noticed it before” so I am apparently alone in this irritation.
I get a little stuck trying to describe in what way I feel like my thinking differs from the way other people think. Partly because I am not a great writer and partly because I haven’t pinned it down for myself. I know I’m weird because I get…looks…whenever I give an opinion. Perhaps they are looking at me with admiration for the brilliance of my thoughts, but I doubt it very much.
I was really hoping that if I kept writing that somehow a way to wrap this all up gracefully would occur to me. That doesn’t appear to be happening, and I’m on deadline. (Only in my own imagination, yes, but still. On deadline.)
Maybe I will just loop back on my opening quote and get this over with.
Over the years, I’ve gotten more comfortable with the fact that a lot of the thoughts in my head are considered unusual, unacceptable , unthinkable or just plain weird by a lot of people. In fact, I’ve gotten to enjoy it. Not so much for the shock value any more- although let’s face it, there is definitely a pleasure in really getting someone’s eyes to pop open-but because I’m getting more and comfortable with who I am, and who I am is often someone who strays off of the paved road a bit. Especially if I find it too straight or too narrow.
(shhhh, don’t tell anyone I used a cliché)
On a completely unrelated note, I think I’ve said “I think” far too much here. It makes me sound self-centered.
Which I absolutely am.