Jabberwocky
Frumious Bandersnatch
We have plenty of age of consent laws and criminal laws against domestic and sexual assault of family members, we also have privacy and freedom of religion laws. Yet we all know of someone raped by a parent or sibling, someone daily assaulted or beaten behind closed doors, toddlers and spouses coerced into having incest or family sex time. Children cast away as an inconvenience to our own ambition. Do we tell ourselves they are hopeless? What about those of us left on our own who sexually experimented because we were curious, or scared of the dark, only to learn we are in the midst of a dysfunction the permeates everything and all our family relationships? Who is left to blame? People put into impossible situations who learned to think it's normal, or a badge of survival, survival of what? One of the biggest things I regret is not seeing or acknowledging maybe something terrible is happening behind closed doors and staying the course.
So when someone talks about aging or immortality, I'm thinking about, what did I do to at least be present and make an offer to help. I think that is going to determine the rest of the course of my life.
For every 1 person in need their are probably 10 available to help if asked, but rather than take it upon ourselves to ”help" someone in need who never asked for it, maybe we need to ask ourselves, are we seeing the same thing, are we asking the right questions, how do we get this person to the person they will trust and intervene? Should we intervene right now without being asked? Maybe they already have resources and know what to do, if not we can facilitate.
When I was writing about having gatherings with full medical and reproductive services, it could be just counseling, answering questions, providing an a safe place for people to talk in confidence to a trained professional, or referrals to like minded people interested in fostering, adoption, or surrogacy. Or contraception, morning after medications, sexually transmitted diseases treatment and prevention. Sexuality counseling, or reporting sexual abuse. Relationship and marital counseling, family counseling, mental illness or drug abuse counseling, suicide prevention. Or referrals to legal services, civil authorities, or clergy services of any kind. There are so many possibilities that communities can bring to the table.
So when someone talks about aging or immortality, I'm thinking about, what did I do to at least be present and make an offer to help. I think that is going to determine the rest of the course of my life.
For every 1 person in need their are probably 10 available to help if asked, but rather than take it upon ourselves to ”help" someone in need who never asked for it, maybe we need to ask ourselves, are we seeing the same thing, are we asking the right questions, how do we get this person to the person they will trust and intervene? Should we intervene right now without being asked? Maybe they already have resources and know what to do, if not we can facilitate.
When I was writing about having gatherings with full medical and reproductive services, it could be just counseling, answering questions, providing an a safe place for people to talk in confidence to a trained professional, or referrals to like minded people interested in fostering, adoption, or surrogacy. Or contraception, morning after medications, sexually transmitted diseases treatment and prevention. Sexuality counseling, or reporting sexual abuse. Relationship and marital counseling, family counseling, mental illness or drug abuse counseling, suicide prevention. Or referrals to legal services, civil authorities, or clergy services of any kind. There are so many possibilities that communities can bring to the table.
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