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| JP+O |
as pong and i were recently discussing, not everything goes on the blog; i have been wondering about what - if anything - i am willing to write about my three weeks in colombia. in the end, i´ve decided not to write much about it at all, just have a rant about a few other things that have been on my mind and pepper it with a colombian picture show. i will, however, summarise those three weeks with one sentence:
reality is even more sublime than fantasy. what do you reckon jp? hmmm...
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| day two: hiking out to tayrona national park |
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| day 2-4: camping at tayrona |
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| the wetland in front of our camping area |
i have been wondering about love and i have been wondering about non-heterosexuality. when jp and i were at the santa rosa thermal springs near manizales a few weeks ago, i watched as a woman in the hot bath opposite us gazed into her husband´s eyes, and then without thinking, leaned in and kissed him on the lips. she was so light, and so free. she was completely in the moment. she didn´t ask our permission, she didn´t look around to see who might be watching (angry parents who wouldn´t want their children exposed to such things at a young age), it didn´t even cross her mind that she might need to hide her love away for fear of provoking some sort of reaction. how could an expression of love be provocative? and yet one week earlier, when jp and i gazed into each other´s eyes on a caribbean beach and kissed, a whole group of people about 50 metres away started screaming and jeering at us. that was ok - we´re tough young men with thick skin - but the sad part of it is that even before the jeering, we were not light and carefree - we felt heavy and encumbered, but still determined to prove to ourselves that we could kiss each other in a situation that for the woman in the hot bath would have been a simple act of spontaneous love, laden with romance. come on, yes we can do this! but by the time we kissed, it was less about love and more about politics, and a battle to prove a point in the face of fear and an oppressive self-censorship. auto-censoring your love: a very gay art! i believe that this is the most unkindest cut of all.
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| days 4-6: free at last! camping solo on palomino beach |
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the view from our tent :) behind us was a tropical jungle,
with the snow-covered peaks of the nevada range visible above that.
does it get any better?! |
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an old man with a machete opens some coconuts
that we cut off the palm next to our tent :) |
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| torches along the beach on easter evening, right past our little tent :) |
arriving back in berlin and now in madrid, there are same-sex couples expressing natural intimacy all over the place. kissing, cuddling, holding hands: whathaveyou. the best part of it is that for these men and women (and i include myself among them), it is completely thoughtless. it is carefree, spontaneous, and natural. thank fucking god for western civilisation.
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| why drink one delicious juice when you can have two? |
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| the bus back from minca. we missed it and took motorbikes instead :) |
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| hummingbirds everywhere in minca: amazing creatures |
it wasn´t always this way. i remember in 2001 i was simply unable to walk down fitzroy street in broad daylight holding sibastian´s hand. and believe you me: the one thing i wanted to do more than anything else in the world at that moment was walk down fitzroy street in broad daylight holding sibastian´s hand. to be honest, that experience was a bit of a catalyst for me. i realised that something was deeply wrong with my own auto-censorship anxiety, and i started forcing myself to do things publicly. before long, forced political acts became carefree loving acts, and during the three years that g lived in melbourne, i can´t remember ever not holding his hand when i wanted to, and i can´t remember anyone ever staring at us when we did (or perhaps if people were staring, i simply didn´t notice or i didn´t care). life has changed in such a short period of time. we´ve evolved as individuals and we´ve evolved as a society. how wonderful it is to realise this.
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JP reckons i say ´go fuck yourself´ more than any
other phrase in english. this photo was therefore a must. |
so if everything´s so cozy for dykes and faggots in australia, it makes me ponder the question of gay marriage. i think we all know that it´s a given. even julia thinks it´s a given. i´m looking forward to it, and of course i support it 100% because i think laws should reflect the equality with which we regard, or at least aim to regard, other forms of love, and whilst these laws are driven by societal change, they drive societal change themselves.
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| santa rosa |
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| thermal springs at santa rosa |
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| my colombian piece :) <3 |
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| JP+O at santa rosa |
but another part of me wonders whether or not the hoo-haa about gay marriage hasn´t hijacked or at least derailed a more important push for sexual liberation. it is true that historically, marriage has been a union between a man and a woman, seemingly with the purpose of creating a family, with the intention being that this relationship will be life-long and monogamous.
and this is where i falter. why do we place such a high premium on long term relationships? why do we place such a high premium on monogamy? are these natural expressions of our human sexuality, or are they cultural prisons driven by the sexual repression that is the basis for judeo-christian society? and is it not possible that this enduring repression may be one of the most psychologically damaging aspects of modern day culture? with gay marriage, are we not just creating a sanitised, pseudo-heterosexual version of love that is pre-packaged and palatable for our sexually conservative societies? where is the sexual revolution?
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| nature park near manizales |
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| a gorgeous chrysalis |
i don´t want to dismiss long-term monogamous relationships. if you are in one: good luck to you. if you aspire to be in one: good luck to you. what i am saying is that i don´t think that this is the only form of love that we should be validating in our societies - it is not the only form of ´success´ in love. if you choose to love more than one person with honesty, either in a parallel or consecutive manner, then i don´t see how the value of this relationship could be less than that of one that is long term and monogamous. if you choose to love no-one at all then that´s fine too. your relationships and your love are there for you to choose and engage in freely, and should be a daily affirmation, regardless of how long you´ve been together. so yes, go and get married if you wish! perhaps one day i will too (despite everything i say about it). however, please don´t allow an internalised version of what society says is right and normal to overpower your own desire for happiness. marriage is not an end in itself, it is simply one of the many valid ways of expressing an enormous, personal, infinitely variable thing called love. let´s remember that, and get stuck into it :)
love to you all!
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| camping out near mondo nuevo |
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| dinner! |
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| my sleepy colombian |
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| my pussy juicy, my pussy clean |
