White Crane Journal #54: Marginality

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White Crane Journal #54

Fall 2002

Editor's Note: Walkers of the World's Weird Wall

Feature Section: Marginality

	Graphic Art: Walkers of the World's Weird Wall Wil Biggers (a full-size copy of this illustration is available for sale from the artist. See FYI)   Changing the World from the Margins (excerpted from The Soul Beneath the Skin, St. Martin's, 2002) David Nimmons   Sounding Gay Gary Kaupman   Mere Marginal Decorations C.S. Lewis
Already There Ralph Walker     Wherefore Gay Spirituality? Donald L. Boisvert, Ph.D     Outside Looking In Edward J. Ingebretsen     Poetry: Between... Arial Imagine yourself, if you can, as an electron... ( Angels exist between electrons) that is part of a carbon atom... that is within a molecule of graphite... that is part of a written letter... which comprise the printed words... that make up the sentences... that are part of the paragraph... that is part of a page... that comprises a chapter... that is part of a book...   Imagine that book... ( Angels exist between the pages) which is part of a series... that is part of library... which is one of all libraries that exist...   Imagine those libraries... as part of a world-wide network of information... which, in turn, is part of knowledge a solar system... that, which itself, is a part of the network that comprises the knowledge of the universe... and know... that Angels exist between universes... We invite you to join us... in the Dance... that exists between breaths... In Light...     Poetry: Song 99: The Adoration Robert L. Giron   Faith Gary T. Boswell   The Third Great Covenant Rev. Dr. Thos. F. Krahn A Christian Biblical Theologian explains that the word "eunuchs" used in the Bible refers to what we'd call "gay people" today. And reports that eunuchs have a special calling from God.	Marginalia: The Archetype of the Sidelines Bo Young One of the things I look for in my old bookstore digs in Maine and elsewhere are books the former owner loved enough to make notes in the margins, notes to the unhearing author, notes to themselves, or to no one in particular: Marginalia. Some people think it's defacement; I think it can add value: a new, occasionally heckling voice to the conversation between me and the author. I know a lot of gay people whose only observable similarity is that they have sex with and fall in love with members of their same sex. Artists, white collar Log Cabin gay men, multiply-pierced, parti-colored lesbians, urban and rural faeries, two-daddy family men, two-mommy family women, activists, passivists, closeted and public person-alities... I know them all and then some. The odd thing is, if there is ever a common thread I find among them it's this: they all allow that they're not joiners or report that they frequently feel like outsiders. Nevertheless, and almost in the same breath, many of these very same people assert that they're no different from straight people. We all want the same things, the story goes, we're just different "in bed." Somehow we want to stand in both worlds. Somehow we do. The Native American two-spirit is a perfect example of the archetype. "Eccentricity" was not a word that meant much to American Indians. Everyone carried medicine and all medicine was necessary for the community. The rarer the medicine, the more value it had. The more "eccentric" an individual, the more he or she was likely to be viewed as having particular &special"medicine." This is not to say they weren't teased or ridiculed on occasion. They frequently lived outside the community. On occasion, two-spirits were outright beaten and banished for stepping too far outside the lines of accepted society. But it's just part of the role. Outsider, mediary, contrary, clown. All of these manifest facets of the "third gender" person. We busily try to explain ourselves to heterosexual society and demonstrate to them "how much we're like them" when all along the crux of the matter may very well be that we're NOT like them. And of course, we're not. I used to think that when people would argue for the similarity between gay people and straight people that they just didn't get it. I blamed it on ignorance. But now I understand that if gay people's Natural Purpose (see Reproduction for Heterosexuals) is mediation -- holding the middle, sacred ground, wherever it may be. Then of course any acknow-ledgement of differences, any insistence on distinction that might contribute to separation and perceived discord would be anathema. Well duh! How do we collect a group of people whose natural inclination is to move to the perimeter and observe and reflect? I'm not really sure I have an answer for that question yet, but it sure seems to me that our future depends on the value we place on marginalia and what it adds to the Book of Life.   The Lone Rangers Among Us Schu Montgomery   Gender at the Margins Ted Senecal
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Queer as Friends Ann Anderson A lovely short piece by a straight woman celebrating her gay best friends   Loneliness Stephen Mo Hanan A thoughtful piece about loneliness as a consequence of living outside the mainstream   Point Reyes R.A. Horne I no longer believe in the metaphysical. There is, I am rather disappointed to report, no world other than the real world, no world beyond, or behind, or co-existent with the world of physics and chemistry. So, at least, that martinet reason tells me. Yet, many year ago when I was a boy, twice, I think, I had a mystical experience. I remember one--I was dissolved in a brilliant light, a light perceived, not by my eyes, but by my whole being. . .
The Grand Design Dr. Li The ant looked up from the carpet to see the heavens. It filled its gaze with clouds that seemed to shine. It sensed the beauty of the pattern that lay beneath it, but it did not know it was part of the Grand Design. The carpet is rich with intricate flowers and scripture. Its colors declare the glory of the Divine. Its symbols contain the wisdom of the ages for those who read the secrets of the Grand Design. How like the ant we are as we move unknowing through a world of meaning that we cannot define. Above us, we see the stars that are always glowing. Beneath us, we sense the mystery of the Grand Design.     Life in Liminality Land Phillip Bernhardt-House A metagendered theologian living in Ireland tells about his life and spirituality   Sidebar: Werewolf Spirituality...?! Phillip Bernhardt-House	Welcome Darrell Grizzle   Welcome to the ranks of those who feel deeply. This is not an easy path. You will be subject to both anxiety attacks and random attacks of grace. You will have days when everything is crystal clear and days when everything is murky grey. You will have days when you will feel such joy you'll think you might explode. And you will have days when you will feel despair so deeply you'll long to be shallow again and wonder if you can ever return to normal. The answer is no. Your capacity for love--the depths of your compassion-- your ability to experience the emotions that make life worth living--these are directly proportionate to your ability to feel pain. This is your blessing and this is your curse. Welcome.

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Bodhisattva Watch: This is what you shall do

This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,

have patience and indulgence toward the people,

take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men,

go freely with powerful and uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families,

read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life,

re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book,

dismiss whatever insults your own soul,

and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but

in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes

and in every motion and joint of your body . . .

--Walt Whitman

 

 

 

Joseph Campbell: Live as Though the Day Were Here

 

The modern hero, the modern individual who dares to heed the call and seek the mansion of that presence with whom it is our whole destiny to be atoned, cannot, indeed must not, wait for his community to cast off its slough of pride, fear, rationalized avarice, and sanctified misunderstanding. "Live," Nietzsche says, "as though the day were here." It is not society that is to guide and save the creative hero, but precisely the reverse. And so every one of us shares the supreme ordeal--carries the cross of the redeemer--not in the bright moments of his tribe's great victories, but in the silences of his personal despair.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces, p. 391

Marys

Scott Pomfret

A sweet short story about Catholic Church ladies

 

High School Reunion

Colin Brownlee

An account of an experience most of us has shared AND a wonderful discovery

 

 

Reviews

 

The Marginalization Of Gay Literature R. A. Horne A report on the state of gay publishing

SlaveCraft by a Grateful Slave with Guy A. Baldwin reviewed by Mark Thompson

Praying from the Margins by Glen O'Brien reviewed by Toby Johnson

Blood of the Goddess by William Schindler reviewed by Steven LaVigne

Gay and Lesbian Asia ed. by Sullivan and Jackson reviewed by Steven LaVigne

Wounded In The Name Of God by Brent Coleman reviewed by John Hoffman

Earth Spirit Warrior by John R. Stowe from The publisher

Gift of the Soul by Dale Colclasure & David Jensen reviewed by Toby Johnson

The Soul Beneath the Skin by David Nimmons reviewed by Toby Johnson

 

For Your Information

Call for Submissions

 

Called one of the most significant scandals to rock the Catholic Church since the Middle Ages, the current investigation into pederasty and the cover-up by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church is already being used as an attack on gay men in the priesthood. Who better to respond to this slander than the readership of White Crane? Because we feel this is such an important issue, we are changing the Winter issue topic from "Pilgrimage" to "Gay Priests" and invite you, the readership, to tell your stories. Probably one of the most open secrets in history, current estimates of gay men in the priesthood have been placed at anywhere from 50 to 60%. This very journal was founded by a former Catholic priest and many of the most forward thinking members of the gay spiritual community are themselves former priests or monks.

-- Speak truth to power. Now is the time to tell our stories and tell the truth. --

Bo Young will be editing this issue. Please send submissions directly to him at WhtCraneJournal@aol.com

 

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the articles and all the art in a handsome hard copy