I am a homosexual man. It took me a long time to admit this to myself, much less proclaim it from the proverbial mountain top. You see I grew up in the Caribbean... well actually, Guyana is in South America, but because it is the only English-speaking country in that continent, it is culturally connected to the Caribbean. However cultural and locational differences aside, I, like you, grew up in a society firmly rooted in Western binary opposition.
This complicated sounding term provides our language with opposites: right versus wrong, holy versus sinful, male versus female. However more importantly, it denotes mutual exclusivity: one cannot be the other. This system is essential for communication -- turn it off, not on... take me up, not down. However problems can arise when life and humanity are viewed through these contrasting lens.
Hollywood blockbusters exploit these polarities for our entertainment, but we know intuitively that they do not reflect the full spectrum of our lives. Our reality is never black and white, if it were, life would be forever simple, but we know life is often complicated. There is a reality that resides beyond these perceived dichotomies and there have always been individuals born outside its walls, but much of our society still offers silence or a selection of dirty words for coping with us... and who wants to be a dirty word?
Into this world I was born, crying I'm sure, as all babies cry. Naturally, I adopted the beliefs of my community, even when all the pieces did not fit. "Children, obey your parents..." the Good Book says, and obey I did -- I was a good little boy, but my good behavior did not save me.
I don't remember the first time someone hurled a dirty word at me, but I do remember how the realization of its meaning shook me to the core. The word attempted to cast me into the hellish world of "them" -- the perpetual opposite of "us." Once that line was drawn, the troops could be called in to destroy the newly identified enemy -- the only problem was, that enemy was me! Of course at that age, I couldn't articulate this, but I understood on a gut level that I was in danger.
The attack began with random teenagers tossing the ugliness from across the street, and luckily, it never escalated (we all know what can happen once ugliness escalates). My physical body remained intact, but my emotional and spiritual bodies didn't fare as well. All those dirty little words banded together and generated the desired effect in me -- shame, and planted in me, like in so many others, the desire to hide. I think I only succeeded in burying my head in the sand and wasting precious years.
It wasn't until I was studying Economics at NYU that I, with the help of some free counseling sessions, began to lift my head out of the sand. I remember one exceptionally helpful group that invited us to share our life stories -- particularly the details we usually hide from the others. That was the first time I publicly expressed my sexuality. That experience opened the door and I realized I didn't have to be a dirty word. I could define myself for myself using whatever words that best suited me. That began my fifteen year quest for encouraging words, supportive words, accepting words, and yes... loving words.
Music played an important role during that time. My writing transformed much of my pain and confusion into lyrics and melodies. This is the power of art: to transmute our human experience into beauty... beauty is truth and truth sets us free.
The dilemma, I now realize, with viewing life through these contrasting lens is our tendency to promote one side to goodness and demote the other to evil, instead of realizing both sides, like yin and yang, define each other. More importantly, it overlooks a fundamental truth - opposites coexist in all of us. We all "do right" and "do wrong" from time to time... we all have moments of holiness, and then... well... you know... and we all have male and female elements roaming around inside us.
If we realized this, we wouldn't try to cast those we perceive as different into darkness, because we would realize that difference is only an illusion. News headlines inadvertently remind us of this truth when uncovering the private deeds of certain public individuals - how often the prejudice and bigotry we subject others to hangs us in the end.
Thankfully the opposite is also true -- the acceptance we offer to others is the acceptance that washes over us, and the compassion we give to others is the compassion that returns to us with love. Our world is a brilliant spectac