Breath our scents, walk our landscape, hear our melodic dialects, delight in our savory morsels, touch each rich texture, and the southern essence remains a mystery. The ethereal south, unfathomable to the five senses, lives in the heart. If you believe in magic, and can survive the devastating passions of an open heart, just possibly, you stand a chance of living a moment as a southerner. Most people aren't brave enough to be southerners, even the ones that are.

Saturday, May 03, 2008

Life's Fine Print


I don't remember where the title of this post came from when I started writing it. If it seems a little irrelevant, just overlook it. If you think about it some, it may fit, but don't strain your brain. After all, it's the weekender!

I've just passed up joining a web-ring group thingy of associated Carolina web sites and another of deep south sites. It seem that according to the fine print of their definition of "Child Friendly" that philosophically, I'm not. Now, I always considered myself to be very child friendly. I like most kids, even some of the ones that are brats, and I really resent their idea of what child friendly is. Their idea of child friendly is that your site passes the standards of uptight adults. Well, I doubt that I will ever do that. Naive me, thought child friendly meant that you wrote at a 5th grade reading level, and pointed out interesting things about the word.

I'm probably very very much way to open about real life and not complicating it, and just appreciating who and what we are and our place in the world as humans. I doubt I will ever pass the uptight parents test. My own kid developed his own uptightness way after he was grown. It certainly wasn't impressed on him by me. His mother, well maybe yeah.

Anywho, I just passed on being boxed in to someone else's idea of what's appropriate for my blog and what's not. I'll decide that, thank you very much. For example, I have in the past made a post about breast feeding, replete with picture. I sometimes make controversial political points and statements. So what? We are supposed to voice our opinions and exercise our rights. And, I'm a fan of breast feeding. I think it's good for kids. In fact I am pretty much an unabashed breast fan period. That's all a part of being human and being male, and I don't apologize for it.

I'm also a fan of art and beauty and find the combination of human art and human beauty, in one form or another, is magical and beautiful. I saved this quote when I came across it because it says a whole lot in a few words. I hate that I've lost the name of the author. But anyway I just came across this a few weeks ago. I saved the quote because it says so very very much in just a few words. I think it a master piece of writing. It says, "I was once sitting at a table in a bar when a young woman came up to the bar window, lifted her shirt and pressed her breasts against the window. When she left, there were perfect imprints of her breasts on the dusty glass. I didn't think of it as art at the time. If only I had known." Great quip, erh?

Then while scrolling through an odd blog this morning, I came across this article of interest from across the pond in the UK.

"Women in a County Durham village are painting plates with their breasts to raise money for charity. They cover their breasts with paint and make imprints on the plates which are then glazed and fired."We decided on Breast Cancer Care plates because we have customers who are going through breast cancer. You just want to help, " Joanne Scott, of the Buttercups Ceramic Studio in Hurworth, near Darlington, said. "And this is a fun way to raise money for a good cause."The women do several designs, including pandas, cherries, Christmas puddings and bumble bees." I think that's a neat thing they're doing. The plates are a bit whimsical for my decor, but still, it's a fine thing to do, and see the illustration for today's post up there. (Now you know what the picture is about.)

I also loudly, supported a bunch of local high school kids who were raising money for the fight against breast cancer, by selling pink T shirts that said "Save Second Base". The school board stopped them from doing this as a student project on campus, so they took it outside of school, and put it on the web. It was a stellar fund raiser! And, if you think about it, we were all 16 and 17 once, and second base always has been a reality. It's being human for crying out loud! It's part of our culture. Get over it!

I think women are beautiful, particularly southern women. I'm a southern male and find it incredible that it would be child unfriendly to admit that breasts are beautiful female attributes. And yes, they make a really great second base! Breasts feed children! So, why would writing about breasts be child unfriendly? I'm not going to worry about it. I'm not joining the web-ring or association linky thingys. I'm just going to keep enjoying and writing about everything I find beautiful here beneath the Carolina moon. If your children will grow up in a breastless world, then for heaven sake, keep them away from this blog! This probably won't be the last time I touch on this subject.

Posted by Dread, who's off to go dig in the garden and make something beautiful before the day heats up.

1 comment:

i beati said...

I always wonder who is the be all and end all of these determinations- aren't I free to make up my own mind.. Dresscodes in school are never endingly argumentative- live free??