An essay that's more than writing, it's composition. An ancient myth
for an adagio introduction, an allegro flourish into the "Hit the road"
theme, then a long development section where every paragraph segues
seamlessly into the next, climaxing in the most complex and turgid
paragraph of the piece, the "OK, so how do you do it...", then a
lightening of the tempo while it is all summarized in the "The last bit
SHOULD come...", then a recapitulation of the myth as the orchestra
thins out to high strings.
I mean - bra-VO! Maybe she misspelled a few words, but shit, so do I -
somebody could edit it.
First AwiNoquisi and Holly come in on a blaze of trumpets, and about a
week later in comes Montana Crystal with the low brass booming. This is
getting to be a jam.
Now that I have given some sparse hints as to my general impression, I
want to nitpick it line by line - making it perhaps look like something
on Alt.atheism. There aren't too many refutations, a lot of
clarifications, and I will even agree a lot.
Now I'm first reading this, wondering if it's gonna be a flame or not,
and it's hard figuring out whuther she's fer me or agin' me.
>>BB (shall I call you bumblebee?),
I wish I could see her facial expression, if she's smiling, probably
she thought that whole game was funny - but if she's frowning, maybe
she's implying that Bumblebee is the more appropriate name (possible
insult).
>>Mark, Roger: it looks to me like you need to gird your loins and hit
the road ;^)
She told me to hit the road (another possible insult) - but, wait a
minute. She said it's bad to deserve it and not walk it, and she's
telling me to walk it - so that must mean I deserve it (profound
compliment). Well - - let's read it some more...
>>This is my take on this: BB, Mark, and Roger are lonely brothers who
are frustrated with their love lives and the apparent injustices in
matters of the heart.
Correct,
except I'm not so sure of the sense of "apparent". If it means
appearing to me, correct, but the word also might mean illusory. It's
been too apparent to me for the last 35 years and agreed to by reports
of other people encountered in those same years to allow me to think
it's illusory.
>>As an aside, there is some frustration with the anger being vented by
women over their own frustration.
It's more than an aside - it may not be exactly in the middle, but
it's quite integral to about everything that produces my frustration.
>>But Sn/Carla, I love your bluntness! You really cut through the ice
on some issues I was about to take a torch to.
I'm telling you, some of the best composed , most poetic, and
sometimes downright funny posts have been when somebody has written off
a long simmering anger funk. I would put that one up alongside "The gods
die tonight", by Miranda Raven.
>>Just remember (brothers AND sisters) to do it in moderation. Wallowing
in the feeling does not improve anything.
I believe in moderation in all things, and "all things" includes this
statement. Sometimes it is good for both the nervous and endocrine
systems to go off on a binge so you can experience a few things you
can't otherwise. Prudence becomes more important, of course - but
sometimes even that must be abandoned extremely. A Rainbow Gathering is
- for me - a glorious extreme that I go to once or twice a year - no, I
could not live at a Gathering year around.
I know that - now that the second act of this play has started, with
the entry of Snarla, and the plot is thickening and developing rapidly
-I am going to go to an extreme with this newsgroup trip. I used to come
into the lab twice or thrice a week - now I guess I'm gonna have to hit
it every day. I just started this last May, this is the first time I
have done this talking on the computer game - and it has turned into one
of the damnedest things that I have ever gotten into. I can't believe
I've been doing some of the shit I've been doing. This no doubt will
eventually settle down, and yield my attention to the next obsession I
have to take in order to get my spiritual degree. But right now - yes,
I'm gonna sit and whine at the computer. It's the first time anything's
ever whined back at me.
>>OK, now to the touchy stuff. I got the feeling you guys really would
like to change something
Correct.
>>in the hopes of landing the loves of your lives.
Not really, any more.
It would not now make me happy simply to be rollin' in my sweet
baby's arms - not when I can still hear the couple fighting in the other
house, not while the divorce rate is 1 in 2, not while domestic violence
is the leading situation for homicide, not while so many kids are
growing up fucked up, not while I can't stand to listen to 90% of the
lyrics to the songs on the radio - words that glorify jealousy and
irrational abandonment to passions. I'm getting too old to start a
family. My dharma must be different. For me, the only satisfying
solution can be revolution. I think the system is irrational and brutal.
I want to change it.
This is the cause I could devote all my passions to. If there were a
group of people that were devoted to this, I would obsessively take up
their sign, their microphone, their telephone.
But right now there really ain't one. The women's movement has dealt
with some of this, with their exploration of removing sex roles, and
their concern with domestic violence, but men's feelings haven't been
explored too much. The gay movement has spoken to me, with their freedom
to be gentle and silly, and the male affection they offer me, but they
don't tell me how to relate to women. The men's movement has given me
some of the same, but so much of it seems to be searches for new macho
trips to replace the old. The Rainbow Family has opened people to me in
many ways, but as the sisters will tell you, a lot of the same old bar
games are played there too. There's nobody really interested in
revolutionary love.
So why don't I start something, then? Well, I'm like Moses before the
burning bush. "But Lord, I am short of speech..." Cynical old fart
Bumblebee Bill advocating revolutionary love? Wouldn't that be like
Hummingbird Cowboy trying to be the pastor of a Unity Temple?
So I'm casting about in places like a.g.r - hell, I don't know -
something might come up.
>>I am (quite happily) nobody, so take my suggestions with a grain of
salt.
You've just turned yourself into a great big somebody to all of us
here, sister.
from
>>The problem here is in appealing to the kind of women you like while
maintaining some integrity. That is going to be a serious problem for
several reasons. To begin with, the competition if fierce. ...
to
>>...And all of this has to be done with the right timing. The right
emotional speed. The right point in both of your lives. The right time
and place....
An excellent introduction to the general theory - but still painfully
short of details. How do we tell the right this and that. We're still
having to sort out contradictory behavior. We're still having to try to
read your minds.
>>I don't think women are confused at all. They want to be made to feel
good by a man they naturally respect. They want to be swept away with
both warmth and excitement. They want both respect and help. They want
the man who walks the golden road, but only if he belongs there.
I want all of those same things, but I'm confused about how to get
them - and so are most of the women I'll ever have a chance with.
>>Montana Crystal
Is there a story behind your name?
Wait, I still got some stuff with the other people before I go.
Talking to your tits,
and all that M.C. said about looking into her eyes:
In America, people make a big thing about people looking you in the
eye. If someone doesn't do this, he can't be trusted, he's tying to hide
something. This is actually culture specific behavior. In Japan, for
instance, an inferior must never look into a superior's eyes, but look
down in humility. And in modern Japan, superior-inferior can be things
like diner-waiter or customer-salesperson.
With my right hemisphere brain, my RAM sometimes gets overloaded if I
have to deal with the very intense stimulus of someone's face and eyes
and at the same time have to do stuff like talk in sequential language -
often no small task by itself for me. If you want me to talk with you,
you're gonna have to let me look off into space to collect my thoughts
before every few sentences.
I am attracted by this behavior in women. If she looks about as she
talks, she's another weirdo like me. I feel very uncomfortable with
someone staring at me like a TV when talking with me.
I have learned to consciously look at people in business situations,
because I know some people make a big deal of it - but it really doesn't
matter where you look with me.
Someone staring at your tits may be just staring off into space, which
your tits just happen to be in front of. Maybe he's still feeling too
shy to look at you, and he doing the equivalent of an oriental bow. Or
maybe you've got some good ones, and they are.
Kriss said,
>>I love you, Butterfly Bill.
Kriss, you are such a god damn sweet little bunny wunny that I'm
convinced you could have brought all operations to a halt in Auschwitz
as soon as you hippity hopped off that boxcar and wiggled your little
nose. How is it possible for ANYONE to hate you, the way you carry on?
You could charm Joe Stalin.
All right already -I LOVE YOU, KRISS!!!!!! Now, can we get on to the
other stuff, now?
- Butterfly Bill
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