Main-eish Ta-anah!
Forgive the title, it’s Hebrew, and, as with all Hebrew there are a thousand ways to spell it in English. Anyway, it’s from Passover (pesach, pessache) This weekend was a kind of eye opener for me. I messed around with kid-hop (now called cricket). We spent the day just sort of hanging out after. Saw the movie “super-size me.” Which was all pretty cool. And throughout the day we chatted about leather, s/m, the death of the bar, and what the hell is next? This has been a kind of recent recurring theme as of late. I just got off the phone with Bad-faggot who continued the conversation just five minutes ago. But first lets talk about sex with cricket. Now, one of the things I like about cricket is his honesty. We haven’t known each other all that long, but he is definitely a man who tells what he feels. There is very little filter on what he says (which is a lot like me, so I enjoy that). He had just come back from running, and after a quick call to Daddybear (for approval), Cricket and I began to hang out a bit. We got to wrestling (I won) and then nakedness. Yum. The rest of the day is a sort of blur of city stuff and checking out stores and such. But we got to talking about leather bars…and I stated how I thought that there should at least be a dress code for GMSMA, and especially one for The eagle. Cricket pointed out how that would serve my fetish more than anything. And upon examination, a lot of my desires run toward that. I would love the eagle to have a “people blackbird would sleep with” room. As of yet, that hasn’t happened (though Sir and Daddybear have, they call it their bedroom, but I know better). That leads us to all the hubbub. BadF points out that most of what we know of the “old-guard” varies greatly. There were a lot of different bike groups and many have rivalry with one another. No amount of history can every really be untainted. I have been wondering recently about that. What does old guard mean? What makes a person kinky? How far into Kinky does one have to be to be considered a member of the leather community we so frequently shelter ourselves as? And what do we get out of large public displays. I have issues with Christianity for several reasons, one of them being that part of the religion has a section on how you are doing gods work by converting people to Christianity. And my dilemma sometimes with groups like GMSMA comes from the attempt to entice new members. Everything is made to look sexy, and fun, and hot. Puppy play becomes a “light alternative to master/slave play” because we want people to thinks that is fun, and soft, and easy. No, no, you don’t have to think here, just come and give us 5 dollars, tell your friends, just place your body in this chair for headcount. And then we wonder why people don’t help out at events. Why presentations have people who don’t care about anything beyond the technique, and we ask ourselves “how can we improve this?” I wonder if we can. I wonder if we need to. Maybe we focus so frequently on sweeping change to the leather community that we forget the importance of our own lives. Let GMSMA debase something you like and consider more than what they do. Fuck it. Focus on your own family, let the parties outside rage. Because an out community means that you can enjoy a truly private life. Does that make sense? So why the big Hebrew-haha as the title? It’s all about the 4 sons. “The story of the Four Sons is also read at the Passover seder table. Each of the four sons symbolize a different type of Jewish person. One son is wise, another is simple (this son is regarded as simple because of his indifference and unconcern), still another is wicked, and the final one is very young in age, too young to inquire about Passover, and therefore silent. The wise son inquires about why the Jews practise the customs of Passover. Those assembled at the Passover seder table respond in unison, describing this son as wise, since he wants to know more about the Passover traditions of his people. The simple and indifferent son asks in more general terms what is all this he sees at the Passover seder table. Those at the Passover seder table respond by educating and reminding the simple and indifferent son about G-d's favors toward the Hebrews during the time of slavery in Egypt, and the importance of remembering and observing them, and remembering them with gratitude. The wicked son wants no part of the Passover traditions and asks why the Jewish people - other than him - practise the customs of Passover. Those at the Passover seder table respond by describing this son as wicked, since he thinks Passover customs are meant to be practised by other Jews, but not him. Finally, the young and silent son who does not know enough to inquire is simply told about the Passover story in accordance with the biblical command: "And thou shalt tell thy son in that day, saying: it is because of that which the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt" This is where I am at. This is how all people come into leather, or any new experience. This is how one has to discuss things. Men who don’t know anything about it, need to be told before they can ask. Those who can ask, need to be answered. And those who feel angry, or bitter, need to be assured that they matter. Right now, I feel like there are a lot of Fifth sons (a concept introduced recently). “Unfortunately, in our time of confusion and spiritual bankruptcy, there is another kind of a Jewish child - a "fifth son", who is conspicuous by his absence from the Seder; the one who has no interest whatsoever in Torah and Mitzvoth ("commandment" in Hebrew), laws and customs; who is not even aware of the Seder-shel-Pesach ("The Passover Seder" in Hebrew), of the Exodus from Egypt and the subsequent Revelation at Sinai. A challenging and pertinent question is: What brought about this regretably all-too-common phenomenon of the "fifth son"? The "Fifth Son" is the result of an erroneous psychology and misguided policy on the part of some immigrants arriving in a new and strange environment. Finding themselves a small minority, and encountering social and economic difficulties, some parents had the mistaken notion, which they transmitted to their children, that the way to overcome these difficulties is to become quickly assimilated into the new environment by discarding the heritage of their forefathers and abandoning the Jewish way of life. Finding that this process leads to the discomfort of inner spiritual conflict, some parents resolved to spare their children this conflict altogether. They simply gave their children no Jewish education or training.” That’s history folks. Finding ourselves desiring to fit in leads to the dreaded fifth son. I still had sex this weekend. I get to see Sir’s next weekend. Life is good. Next post: Creating the Third Place, Starbucks and S/m. Greater explaination of SONS and the Seder can be found by clicking on this scentence. WOOHOOO SIRS SOON! Who are all those people?
- posted by G @ 2:36 AM