Today i would like to talk about skin. Not the organ, or the things we wrap tobacco in, i mean the metaphorical thing we live in. Like our gender, our race, our appearance. I read an article today about a man who attempted to reassign his own sex by hacking away his penis with a Stanley knife and it got me thinking about acceptance. This man was willing to risk his life so he didn't have to keep living it as himself. Is this something we all struggle with? Is it a chemical imbalance? Or is it just an emotional thing? People say you can be born in the wrong skin, but why is this? The NHS now offer breast augmentations for people who are 'desperately' unhappy with their size, who's to say this wont lead to all kinds of unnecessary surgeries done on the basis of vain fancy? If i walked into a hospital now and said that i was supposed to be born a shoe, would they send me to a psychiatric facility, or would they put me under the knife and start attaching laces to me? Don't get me wrong, i'm not against reassignment or plastic surgery, i just think we should have a better system in order to differentiate between people with a real pathological need to be different and those who simply need a little help with self-acceptance. Obviously I, like the majority of the people, would be totally down with many procedures, a new nose, new boobs, wings? But i think that if these things were available to everyone we'd lose all sense of individuality and end up looking like this http://beyondbeautifulbabe.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/ugly-barbie2.jpg
and who'd wanna shag that aye?
I'd also like to bring up that trust thing i keep harping on about. It's a dodgy little subject that one. We can throw it around however we wish, some don't trust anyone, some trust too easily and some like me pick and choose using a very complicated screening process and those people like me, are wrong. You can not trust anyone in this day and age. Some wise man once said 'drunken minds speak sober hearts'. That man was both entirely deluded and incomprehensibly accurate. Sometimes when we've been poisoning ourselves with alcohol we say things we don't mean, we say things that we shouldn't, and whenever this happens we always, always, regret it. I hate that i talk when I've been drinking but it's impossible not to, alcohol dissolves our social filter and everything merges in to one horrible blob of awkward secrets, embarrassing facts and painful memories. But this does not give someone the right to pass on the information, if anything it should do the opposite. If someone confides in you while they've been drinking please do not take this to mean what they are saying means nothing, it really means the opposite- it means everything. It is something they can only say while not entirely knowing they're saying it: so guard this information with your life. Or you may find you're risking someone else's.
The next thing i'd like to bring up is something a lot lighter than usual: i'd like to talk about the avengers. I am super totally excited about the new film that is supposed to grace out silver screens some time around next summer, but there was something i noticed today that horrified me. As a ravenous graphic novel fan (anime and manga included) i like my films to be spot on with accuracy, and although they rarely are it's nice when the Hollywood big shots make an effort. So i was absolutely disgusted to find out that they'd cast the guy who played the human torch in the fantastic four, as captain america. what? WHAT? how is that supposed to work, he can't be both? This isn't the parent trap? Get it together marvel. I know this isn't exactly top news but it just really bothered me. I know Chris Evans is beautiful and has a perfectly manly chin, but that doesn't mean he can defy the laws of physics. Is it really that difficult to hire two actors? This has totally destroyed the point of the film, all the heroes in the same time period inexplicably and fighting the same cause. Now i don't even know what they'll do, and no amount of Samuel L. Jackson can fix this.
I had that feeling again today. The vast emptiness, mixed in with the sensation of being totally complete. This always tends to happen with a realization of beauty. Today for example, i was sitting on the bridge next to my train station, the sun was about to set and the whole sky was a blood colored haze. I had a coffee and a cigarette and i realized how brilliant everything was when we let it be. Then i got thinking, and came to a very weird conclusion. We are taught throughout our lives that the ends of things are beautiful, the end of a day, the end of life, the end of a rainbow. We are also taught that the beginnings of things are, the beginning of a day, the beginning of a relationship, the beginning of time. This may not seem so unfathomable to you, but the thing that mystifies me is the fact that we never celebrate the middle. No one ever says 'oh i saw the most amazing midday yesterday' or 'there's a light inside the tunnel.' but friends, we should. The middle is worth singing about. The middle is the best bit. The middle of an oreo, the middle of nowhere, the place where Malcolm is. I don't see why we are so eager to skip past the middle, that's where we should be most comfortable. That's the point in which we are past the rocky start and we have everything to look forward to. Where we can take a step back and observe, this is the calm between storms, this is the moment between the rock and the hard place. This is what we live for. Those not busy being born aren't busy dying, they're living. And so are we.
And in that spirit i'd like to bid you ado, i can only stand so much of my own inner monologue. And it is the middle of the night - which in my opinion, is the best part.
it actually semi pisses me off how well you can write
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