Introduction for Faetopia

I wrote this as an introduction to my workshop offerings for the upcoming Faetopia event (come check it out! It's gonna be great!) in order to help orient everyone who shows up to what my perspective on health-care and self-care is, and to create a little context for why I view active self-care as an act of activism for social justice.

There is something within each of us that is inherently deserving of love, of acknowledgment, of recognition. That something, despite repeated experiences and stories to the contrary, is not our weakness, our pain, our suffering; it is our capacity to bear these things with grace. It is not our fragility that merits tenderness, it is the spark of life, singing out through the frail, wounded, and trapped animal within us, that merits it, because that spark, the unique, unrepeatable glimmer of impossible, enduring life can and must be cultivated.
And it is the cultivation of that life, that irreplaceable spark, that we are here for.

There is a world beyond Faetopia, beyond San Francisco, beyond the future of faggotry, beyond the gay agenda. There is a world beyond our smallness, petty jabbing, undercutting, and oneupsmanship. There is a world beyond our great friends, our great bodies, our great parties, our great jobs. And there is something beyond the health care crisis, the student loan crisis, the housing crisis. There is a deeper crisis.

Crisis, in the old sense of the word, indicates a crossroads, choice, and change.

This is the crisis of the emerging human being: What is it to be human, to be alive, to be called to purposeful action, to come together to work as individuals toward a common goal? What are our common goals?

We must ask ourselves as we plunge headfirst (or daintily dip a toe) into the future of faggotry and gay agenda: "am I cultivating the spark of life in myself, or just trying to stop sparks from going out?" Only then can we sustain the capacity to spark others.