nature

Of this time

/ Michael Michael / Leave a comment

Dear Oscar,

Just to let you know that I have not forgotten you.

The genger battle of our age is no longer solely about sexuality but increasingly about transitioning from male to female, or vice versa. There are now, in certain countries, protected rights to choose gender, and the more I research into it the more apparent it is that some level of choice has always existed. It is about whether or not one accepts the interplay of gender stereotypes as they exist within any given culture or whether one subverts or challenges those self same stereotypes.

The debate also undermines the definitional stance that many cultures assign to gender as a concept, something I am increasingly coming to question. Oppositional definitions and binary polarities seem to me to do a disservice to the potential of whole human experience. It seems to me that the possibility of merging opposition would be preferable, and that losing the pretence of clear cut definition would serve humanity better.

Were you a saint or a sinner – who is to decide?

As ever, your friend,

Algernon B. Duffoure.

A Glorious Day

/ Michael Michael / Leave a comment

Dear Oscar,

I hope this letter finds you well; I hope that in the midst of your prison of misunderstanding you get some pleasure from the letters that I send to you. Thank you for taking the time to read them; I appreciate my voice being heard.

I was out walking, just taking some air, with no real purpose and no direction, just ambling along, looking around me, taking it all in. It struck me how much there is to take in. It struck me that I live within absolute abundance, and that everywhere there is the teeming and the multiplicity of humanity, with its impact on every horizon. That in itself made me appreciate all that humanity is able to do, without judgement, seeing the homes and the thoroughfares, the protections from the elements, shelters simple and elaborate, walkways and byways and mountain paths.

Of course we tread upon nature, the natural world, the world that grows and flourishes around us despite our every intervention. It struck me that though we tread on nature, nature very quickly treads back, filling our paths with its plants, finding all the nooks and the crevices where it can seed, multiplying endlessly. I noticed that no matter how I was feeling small trees would continue to bud and shed their almond shaped leaves, pale and yellowing in Autumn, green and piquant in Spring, and that blossoms would open, infusing the air with scent both strong and subtle. There would be wind and energy, flight and function all around me, whether I took the time to see it and to sense it or not. There would be so much of it going on that I would not be able to encompass fully its impact, not through sight, or touch, or smell – there would always be an endlessness from times I knew nothing about and into times I will not experience. A cold day, a warm day, just the vibrancy of it all whipping around me, caught in still tranquillity, lost in a windy squall.

I am, like you Oscar, beset by all the problems of the world, that weigh themselves upon my shoulders, that keep my head bowed and my vision small; just looking, without effort, just letting the world in, put all that away.

Your friend,

Algernon B. Duffoure.