Musings from my everyday life...

I don't think we make mistakes in life but rather undergo a series of experiences which allow us to learn and grow. Over my life my vision of the world and its people has morphed significantly which would not have occurred without in part by burning my fingers a few times. So while it's easy to bemoan our past and see some failures it might be best to see how those events shaped us into improved versions of ourselves; at least a little heartier and more weatherproof. I don't look back with regret because at every juncture I did everything with the best of intentions and with the information I had at hand which is all we can ask of ourselves at any given point in our journeys.

Some people are so open and friendly that it is a pleasure to chat with them. The young woman had asked if she could sit with me as I was finishing my coffee after I told her and her two colleagues I would soon be on my way. Hence, my table would then soon be theirs as well as each only accommodated two. Rather than ignore me and only address her friends, she smiled and started a conversation with me which was so easy and effortless that I could have continued much longer. It turned out that she and her company were statistics professors visiting from Florida on a conference. I speak to everyone particularly if they are charming and friendly as this young person was.

 

Next on the hit list for this Supreme Court was of course environmental protections and the undermining the EPA's ability to have one central policy governing the entire country. By leaving it up to the individual states you guarantee that red leaning ones who don't believe in science can keep those coal fired plants running in perpetuity. Next on the hit list will be sodomy laws (still on the books in many states like Texas) and the re criminalization of homosexuality and if you think I'm exaggerating keep a close eye on what this court does in the near future. Their ire for trans people will also be included in new and more restrictive laws.  Clarence Thomas who is an extremist nut of the highest order and is married to a seditious wife, won't rest until the country is a shadow of its formal self. Even the founding fathers, hypocritical as they were in the treatment of slaves and women like property, at least understood that mixing religion and government was a danger

I had been invited to dine with a friend and colleague in a lovely renovated and recently purchased flat in Rosemont accessed by those famous and charming wrought iron Montreal staircases; it is where he calls home these days. At almost 40 and on the cusp of a divorce whose proceedings drag on, he talked about his recent infatuation with an engineer in our Brazilian office. The hurdles were substantial not only in language (she speaks only Portuguese) but also procedural as the red tape of coming to Canada with young daughter in tow and speaking neither official language would be substantial. As he went through the heart ache of the eventual realization (after a series of trips to Brazil) that the stars would not align for them, it made me reflect afterwards on the complexities of love. Being twenty years his senior I am at a different stage of life and the immediacy and urgency have all but dissipated. I also reminded him that from my vantage point he is still young. After a marriage

This blog may be coming to its natural and logical conclusion for in the end it's always really been about respect for human difference but also unresolved childhood trauma and someone who needed to work their way back from it. No one has a perfect life and we all have wounds and challenges we must resolve whether past, present and future. As a trans person born in the early 1960's I simply buried it all and pushed it deep into a closet only to be forced to truly face it again in my mid forties. Shyness didn't help me as a child not did religion and they were both oppressors against my coming to terms. Your answer may be different from mine but then that is why we are all such unique and wonderful creatures.