Journey to Ixtlan

My poetry writing seems to be spit between activism, ponderings of depression, celebration of dance, and a bit of naughtiness. The poem “The Agenda” is a poem of activism and celebration. I was inspired by a picture I saw in Tumblr. It featured a young man looking at a book labeled “The Gay Agenda”. A page inside said “Today's Schedule: Be Gay”. The last pane shows the same young man acknowledging success. We all have our struggles to be honest to our “schedule” of propensities, beliefs, desires, and that magic soup of human drive. Those with a bevy of beliefs will label us with the stamp of having an agenda. This may be, but the plan's goal is for us to be ourselves.


The Agenda
Poem for Day 157 – 20150606

Allow me to reveal a secret,
one that enemies will leap on.
Allow me to share aspects of myself,
with the risk of saying too much.

There is an agenda firmly in place,
lived by us on each and every day.
The focus of determination,
the agenda to live the human life.

To be honest to ourselves is
quite a challenge all by itself.
Too many brothers and sisters
are locked in cells of their own.

To appease can bury the soul.
Just to be true is hard enough,
when loved ones' opinions clash
with the human felt honestly.

Finding one that you love:
almost an impossibility.
No plotting plan at work here,
instead just a quest for happiness.

The world has its little boxes.
They would like to stuff us in one,
but we are more than they believe,
we are human and we deserve to be.

The activists may plot and scheme,
this is true the whole world over.
Know that they are a minority
to those who struggle to survive.

Please take note of our agenda,
the one embraced by larger whole.
To be ourselves is our sweetest goal,
life lived with the ones we truly love.

© 2015. Sean Green. All Rights Reserved

I've come across another mask topic. This is one about the internal vs. external mask. A friend of mine is having problems with a co-worker. Previously there was a friendly relationship. Now he ignores my friend. The background on this is that the co-worker can be a passive agressive jerk. My friend wrote the the following. Below is my response.

"I think he LIKES being a butt to me-it's glaringly obvious that he is mean to me and not other people (at least, not as much). It is bizzare. I want him to admit it because it would be honest--otherwise, he's lying. I'm not sure how to go forward with that one. Know that he's a dishonest person and avoid him?"

You want him too admit that he treats you differently from other people? You already know that, and it's a sure bet he is aware that he is doing this. Is he verbally stating something contrary? Is he telling people that he's buddies with you and everything is OK? Is this the source of his lying?

If this is not the source of his lying, then consider that people have a private side that does not match their public side. It is not always possible, or even appropriate, to expose the private side. Our public presentation can be a mask for those feelings inside. There are good reasons we don't always publicly proclaim our internal feelings. There are societal contracts and agreements on how life is conducted. The irony of this human arrangement is that the same public behavior can belay different internal motivations.

For example, what if I am cordial to a person, but think they are an asshole? What if I am cordial to the next person, but think I want to jump their bones? Would it profit to share these things with the people? What if the person I lust after is already in a relationship. What if the person I distain is a co-worker who I have to get along with, at least enough to get the job done. Under normal conditions it would not be appropriate to share those eternal feelings. Should I be completely honest, and tell everyone that I love/lust how much I love/lust them, and likewise, tell everyone I distain what my true feelings of distain are? Over time, to do so would make me a social pariah

Are you so completely honest with everyone around you? If you do, than kudos. If you are not completely honest with your eternal feelings, then don't hold others to too high of an alternate standard. We are all human. In fact, even if a person was super honest with all internal feelings, it is not reasonable to hold others to the same measure, as we all have free will on how to interact with others, be it good, bad or ugly.

You have a work relationship with your co-worker. People who work together are expected to get along well enough to get the job done. They are not expected to be buddies.

Consider if you are lying to yourself instead of your co-worker truly lying to you. Consider what your expectations have become in comparison to the reality of the situation. THEN, love yourself irregardless of what the assholes are doing.

Does anybody have words of wisdom that I can share with my friend?