Pomengranate and Plantanes-- this is to book mark that beyond this post there is something more...
also dispite my painting of more painful moments the ones i have the hardest time dealing wtih, the uglier times, I stick around because there are good things, good people with good hearts who i hurt, and who hurt me but it is contradicting things,the good that make me want to find the well that I sprang from...
HeadLIne: dinner ended in seemingly good terms. Gave young family friend in 1st year uni a political prisoners art callender. sowing seeds.
yesterday we argued at the dinner table about decorated and lit 'Christmas' trees on city hall, and why it should stay or be taken down.
Other FFs were there. Can't decide if it will have lasting damage or not.
highlights of the conversation:
Why can't things just say "Mery Christmas" and not "happy hollidays". It IS Christmas.
no way. oh but yes.
YT-- and Chanukkah this year.btw.
and besides what about all those people who feel its an insult or a reminder of an oppressive colonial/ religious or market practice or just DONT want to celebrate (winding up to the rant)
but this capitalist moneydriven 'brainwashing,'society...(yadayadayada)
Some where over the course of the conversation there was:
M-- People Like YOU (actual words)(are the bigots who try to take down my catholic loved christmast tree infront of city hall) try to suppress the (joy) of the Majority, to erase everything for the Minority--n0t acutal words, but phrased using most of the vocabulary)
it was a yelled opportunity for M. Who's deep gut truth voice of accusation was tempered only by our FFs laughing at this accusation..oh and:
M-- You're only saying that (that she was supporting her own interstrets aroudn the damn tree) because Im the ONLY CHRISTIAN here
ff's laugh then say 'what is she!' as though M is ludicrous
looking at me, i shrug, and say not christian, my story is colaborated by M- not so much an affirmation as a tratatorial fact (ok im adding artistic licence here ;).
FFP haha --then what?
YT I dont know. (this i was not prepared for. started to cry. hate that. too close dont ask me who i am ahhh...
the accusations that i am threatening M is not new, though usually washed into private fuel for further heat on the intense coals always under there somewhere).
The arguement about erasure of difference or support of a 'tradition'
took turns such as FF(Pof another short line) asking poignantly "who came here first" as though since they were catholic/christians this justifies the long tradition of c. trees. like society is static and since when did "you were here first" ever WORK as an arguement. its never who came here first, that is a "fact' nicely turned so it benefites thos in Power because, as we know, it is about who is more powerful. we are not in a movietheatre line.
--interesting twist to this was what I will reffer to as the 'bearing straight' analysis that 'we are all imigrants' I think that one was a weak attempt to grapple with much larger xmas-tree-down threat that M was aware that YT was possibly about to chase this innocent FF's question
(in an attempt to lead to a point, that i already disagreed with.)
ha. really, it'slike being 17, but i'm sure im right, or at least that I want them to be less sure that they know one answer. I sure as hell dont think I do. well not all of it. ;) )
Also lead to the very important and relevant question of the struggle of how to recognize diversity while not erasing difference (by for examble deciding 'together to always wish everyone Merry cHristmas' as an ethos, to invite people toshare in the 'joy of the season'"
Now things get complicated when we realize that this discussion is performed by
four people who have chosen to live in this cntry, two who were born here out of that choice and raised in its education system. Four who grew up on countries whos constitutions and cultural life do not hide thier religous anchors or the enforcement of, and two who grew up in the myth of the "mosaic."
Theres more to that but it is long and not so interesting so here is back to the quick good one liners
'Im very catholic and religious even thoughI dont goto church"
(oh and the kicker-- ifyoure still reading:
"its like (this was veyr much out of conetxt:
if I was going (the voice starts to waver) to have a baby, and the choice was to have the baby or die, I would have teh baby -- BUT (begin pondification from moral high ground) if you or T or S (the other 'women' at the table) wanted to have an abortion, I would not judge you."
(and that is why, people, the christmas tree should stay up.)
oh, also
"get off you high horse"
(Im sure i deserved it, lol, i was also interupting alot...)
P ended eventually, with "you should come over more often (glance at P of FF, happens to be old uni buddy), so we can have these very important dicsussions (and not yell them at dinner)."
cute offering. i accepted it.
final comments:
Advice for living (or surviving) from FFM (matriarch of another short line):
"the person who is easy going, and talks like the people they are around is going to be happy and be friends with everyone"
and
"I used to be like you, but why should someone so young be so upset about wheter someone says Merry C or not" (at the END of the convo)
and
"I understand, you are comming from a place where you want to make sure eveyone is comfortable, and no one is hurt"
...yes, or obliterated by systems of oppression that some how became represented in this conversation by the stupid tree...
or the damn cross, on mountains or blasting up into the sky at ocean side in honour of C*l*umb*s--also sent by the same crown that purged its population of non catholics, and resulted in the landing on and "conquering" Tahino land, and later history.
does it all come full circle.
does it sound a little muddled?
it gets really muddled.
and i never know how to get myself out of these messes.
and I always wonder if im not wrong.
tip of the iceberg
plantanes and pomegranates---there is always more to the undercurrent of deep reds and multiple greens that are the pulse of this poste.
