Since I am still unable to process my thoughts into coherent sentences right now, allow me instead to share a chunk of quotes from some of my admired human beings.
Don't forget to share yours, eh!
--- There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance. -- Socrates
One way alone does not suffice to attain so great a mystery. -- Symmachus
Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart. -- Erma Bombeck
You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. -- Ray Bradbury
I cannot accept God as the Good-Surgeon-in-the-Sky. Whatever tumors He may be removing, He has also planted there. -- Anne Roiphe
If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all. -- Noam Chomsky
The Gods will not do for Man what Man must do for himself. -- Delphic Maxim
The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict. -- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. -- source unknown
The creed whose legitimacy is most easily challenged is likely to develop the strongest proselytizing impulse. -- Eric Hoffer
Everything is alive. What we call dead is an abstraction. -- David Bohm, Quantum Physicist
In the end, antiblack, antifemale and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing -- antihumanism. -- Shirley Chisholm
I never understood the theologies which would absolve God of earthquakes and typhoons, of children starving. A God who is not God the Creator is not very real to me, so that, yes, it certainly is God who throws the lightning bolts. -- John Updike
Enforcing gender conformity is not, and will never be, a corporate social responsibility; ending discrimination is. -- BB Gandanghari
A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand. -- Bertrand Russell
Most men are straight as spaghetti... till they hit the water. -- Latter Days (film)
A gentleman never runs to catch a train. It is undignified. He should not have been late in the first place. It is unacceptable to do a second undignified thing in order to try to fix the first. -- source unknown
Thou shalt not employ sarcasm with idiots. For they tend to take it seriously. -- Aldrin
Decide no suit until you have heard both sides speak. -- Hesiod, "Precepts of Chiron"
Nothing ever truly dies. The universe wastes nothing. Everything is simply, transformed. -- Klaatu, The Day The Earth Stood Still
We are what we protect; what we stand up for. -- Sophie Neveu, The Da Vinci Code (film)
Ultimately, it's not what we believe that counts but how we use those beliefs; how we conduct our lives. -- Aldrin
The fools either claim there is a god or there isn't. The wise admit that we may never, ever know for sure. -- Aldrin
When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one. -- Epitaph of Leonard P. Matlovich, 1988
People who don't read good books have no power over those who don't know how to read them. -- source unknown
The fact that no one understands you doesn't make you an artist. -- source unknown
Heterosexuality is not normal, it's just common. -- Dorothy Parker
Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity. -- Leonardo Da Vinci
I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love. -- Mother Theresa
Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. -- Mother Theresa
Man's inherent nature is to be curious, gentle, intimate, responsible, enthusiastic, sensual, tolerant, courageous, honest, vulnerable, affectionate, proud, spiritual, committed, wild, nurturing, peaceful, helpful, intense, compassionate, happy, and to fully and safely express all emotions. When will we stop training him to be otherwise? -- Gordon Clay
Daniel Radcliffe is the new generation of heterosexual male (if those identifiers are even relevant anymore). Not only celebrating the spectrum of sexuality across the population but within himself. Is there anything stronger or more masculine than that? Brilliant. -- notingdavid.org on towleroad.com
We all grow old; do it with dignity. -- Rafe to Astrid, Blood & Chocolate (film)
Sit down! Proud, empty, hollow things that you are! -- Prince Nuada to the humans, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
Celsus had some rather catty things to say about that; he remarked that Christianity appealed to the base and ignorant in society, and their motto was "Don't think - just believe!" -- Sannion
There are a thousand ways to say something. Pick the best of the lot. -- Kaye/Aldrin
By using the right words, you hit home, your points weigh heavier. -- Jeff Uy
I like being weird. At least I'm not like every one else. Who would want to be so ordinary? -- Aldrin
I would rather live there [in hell] with my honourable ancestors than go to heaven with a parcel of beggars [his enemies, the Christian Franks]. -- King Radbod of Frisia to Wolfram
All stories are true. Some of them actually happened. -- Ron Wetherington
Remember also that every rational animal is your kinsman, and that to care for all men is according to man's nature. -- Marcus Aurelius in "Meditations"
The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of an eye. The more light you shine on it, the more it will contract. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes
The only jobs for which no man is qualified are human incubator and wet nurse. Likewise, the only job for which no woman is or can be qualified is sperm donor. -- Wilma Scott Heide
Religion should be a process of discovery and exploration. When you've got all the answers, that only means you're not thinking deeply enough about stuff. -- Sannion
In violence we forget who we are. -- Mary McCarthy
Instead of telling [Iranian] girls to cover their hair, we should teach them to use their heads. -- Shirin Ebadi
The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off. -- Gloria Steinem
Why hasn't the Watcher been updating the blog lately? He's busy in the farms. Seriously. He wishes they could be real farms, though. Aren't farms just bloody lovely?! I promise to blog something more socially relevant very soon. But for the while, you may check out my FarmVille photos on Flickr.Good on us all, us fur-footed, green-thumbed hobbits!
Through many options for gender expression, including recognising five genders, this Indonesian community finds balance and peace, and prays to share this with the world. ["Taboo: Third Sex", NatGeo Channel, October 2008]
Taboo's gender is calalai. Biologically she is female but she lives as a man.
Taboo: "I feel comfortable as a calalai. My family is also comfortable. As long as I'm a good person and I work hard, people accept me."
Abdul Rahman or Poppy is calabai. He has male genetalia but has lived as a woman since he was six years old.
Poppy: "I am not special. The Bugis culture accepts all five genders."
Taboo and Poppy join the fertility ceremony.
Because according to high priest Poangmatoa all five genders must co-exist for there to be universal harmony.
Bissu priest Poangmatoa: "There are five genders and we don't need to separate people based on their gender because everything must live in harmony."
"If one of the genders is separated, then the world will become unbalanced."
At a sacred cave, three miles from Segary(?), the Bissu begin the first stage of the blessing, an offering to the earth. The Bugis believe the universe has three levels.
Heaven where Partote(?) lives, the Middle World where humans live, and the Underworld where the Spirits live.
Poangmatoa: "We pray that everything -- animals, plants, people -- everything stays connected with each other. Not only from this village or the district, but the whole country ... the whole world is kept in balance and safe."
The second stage of the blessing is an offering to the Spirits. Because of their Bissu gender, the Bugis believe that Bissu priests can communicate with them. Poangmatoa must be possessed by a spirit from the Underworld before the fertility ritual can be completed.
"In order for a Bissu to be to be able to bestow particular blessings, they have to be able to contact the Spirit-world and part of the reason they can contact the Spirit-world is because they are male and female embodiments."
"And then the Bissu with all of those combinations of female-male spiritual powers can bestow a very strong blessing." [end]
It is a pity that here, in the Philippines, things have been the other way around for the past 400 something years. I can only think of one force to blame. (to be continued)
