petard.us

Before our performance Wednesday night, G grabbed her bag and said she had to go put her face on. I must have said she was okay without it, because she replied that she felt naked without it.

Nakedness is vulnerability. Maybe it’s good to be vulnerable. It’s a kind of openness to others. It has its risks, but it also has its rewards.

Sometimes I have been publicly naked, such as on a beach. I found myself much more open to other people, more forthcoming, more sociable, more open to others, and a better listener. It was as if a barrier had been removed. And indeed one had.

Reading Lyotard, _The Postmodern Condition_ has reminded me of our work in the dramatic reading of _A Christmas Carol._ Lyotard says, ‘the metrical beat of the narrative occurences.’ I had heard the same words over and over in rehearsal, and by the end I was hearing rhythm in them and moving my head slightly to the rhythm. This struck me as odd in prose. But prose has rhythms just as much as poetry does. And it probably has the same effect, first to better inscribe the words on the mind, and second, to legitimate their teachings.

A joke on IRC turns serious:
Dec 16 14:51:37 whats up PetardGA
Dec 16 14:56:10 not much
Dec 16 14:56:36 about to start outlining my adult ed session for church next Sunday
Dec 16 14:57:03 and also for the next session in late January I guess:)
Dec 16 15:02:28 its missing a word PetardGA Adult Sex Ed section 😉

Dec 16 15:02:40 bloody unlikely
Dec 16 15:02:53 tho some of it may come up later in the spring
Dec 16 15:04:20 hehe
Dec 16 15:04:32 yeah Sex Ed and church don’t work well together
Dec 16 15:05:49 lol
Dec 16 15:06:03 if adults need sex ed, they have problems
Dec 16 15:11:17 oh i think they need to know more about sexuality in general
Dec 16 15:11:21 not just how to
Dec 16 15:11:36 they need to learn how to reflect on what God has given
Dec 16 15:11:45 and on the varieties of sexualities
Dec 16 15:11:54 hetero, homo, whatever
Dec 16 15:12:01 and the varieties of genders
Dec 16 15:14:15 otherwise we will be stuck in this heteronormative patriarchal rut for ever

I suspect such a subject would find serious resistance and not just in church. The interesting question is, given that resistance, what is it that such a discussion would violate.