CELEBRATING PRIDE & BEING YOURSELF - LGBTQ: LOVE & RESIST

June 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village. In New York the whole month of June has been dedicated to many celebrations of this major breakthrough in the fight to protect human rights. Fifty years later the LGBTQ movement has gained recognition and many victories have been achieved. Yet sadly human rights are still infringed—I am myself a proof as a survivor of domestic abuse, constantly fighting bullying. 

"Love &Resistance: Stonewall 50" at the New York Public Library

Pride and comsumer colture?

Events | A Dark Thanksgiving

It is again that time of the year. It starts from the last Thursday of November when the US celebrates Thanksgiving which marks the apotheosis of consumerist culture, culminating in Christmas, now known as holiday season, when the festival of lights turns into the shopping malls pseudocomforting bright cheap hallways.

Somehow my personal situation is a mirror of the socio-political context: darkness and anxiety lead to the fear of losing control of basic rights. My divorce is horrific, constellated by encounters with human nature at its lowest, dominated by greed, narcissism, deception,mental cruelty: my husband, his family and their money. They have been so powerful to even buy my daughters. 

Uncannily even the usually cheerful balloons from the Macy's Thanksgiving parade have a gloomy. dark appearance. Signs of the times?

However there a few things I can be thankful for: a relative good health, resilience, and the means of reinventing my life. finding new friends and meaningful relationships. Perhaps it is just the darkness of the night to give the balloons a gloomy appearance and tomorrow sunlight will cherish the usual yearly extravaganza.

Thoughts | Giving Thanks

Today, across the Pacific in the northern hemisphere, people travel hundreds, perhaps thousands, kilometers to gather with families and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving. Usually this holiday represents for me the approach of winter, and the feared holiday season: the apotheosis of consumerism announced by the black Friday madness —as well as  the beginning of overeating and over-drinking to cope with family dysfunctionality. And of course Thanksgiving day is also about the hyperreal Thanksgiving Macy's Parade  which I am able to witness on first line, as my home is one block away. But this year while I am remote from all the above, in a faraway country, Thanksgiving day offers some moments of quiet time and reflection. 

And right today I have a major reason to be thankful: it is the first almost pain-free day in over four weeks! And the anticipated return to one of my favorite endorphins releasing activity —power walking— makes me compile a list for the many things,I am thankful for, some given for granted, until we loose them, like walking.

I am thankful for: 

• walking pain free again;  
• good health;
• inner strength which always prevails on my fragility
• a comfortable home I will return to next week
• the "angels" I always encounter in the moments when they are most needed
• a yoga practice which has been my faithful companion for several years
• using creativity and art as survival means in the most difficult situations
• finding a soft spot between a rock and hard place
  

It has been a tough year, adventuring in this research project on the other side of the planet. A research I truly believe in, which has encountered so many obstacles. I have been facing solitude and marginalization, found myself in a disability condition without a support system. Yet I was able to endure as challenges of different nature intersect my path. I am still here, pursuing something I believe in: I am not giving up is what I decided when purchasing a return flight ticket.

NAMASTE