most people

Stacie has tagged me with a meme: "five things most people don't know about me."

I guess this depends on which 'most people' we're talking about here. In the internets, for example, most people don't know me at all (let's be real - how many internet users are out there?). But I would venture to say most of y'all who stop by and read this blog have no idea what my real name is, what my day job is, etc., and generally I prefer that because the moderate anonymity lets me keep a bit of a fantasy-life in which to craft and commune with all of you.

Then again, some of the readers of this blog are among my closest and dearest friends. They know all kinds of things, from my bra size to my family crises. The blog world is funny that way. In some ways we're like a big mess of sewing circle participants who get together in this really intimate way, without really "knowing" each other very well. Slutty sewing circles.

Well, for some of you, none of this may come as news, but here are five things that most of y'all (and maybe most of my colleagues or neighbors, for instance?) don't know about me:

1. I don't believe in God. This is not to say that I don't believe in something much greater than myself, human society, or the "world," because I do, very much. But I don't believe in deities, or a Deity, or that there is any plan for humanity or destiny for any individuals. I believe that hell is something we make for ourselves here on earth through greed and ignorance, and the "kingdom of God" (if you are Christian) or Nirvana or heaven is also something we make for ourselves through compassion and unconditional love. It is all our own choice.

2. I do believe in prophets. Jesus was a brilliant teacher of compassion. So was Siddhartha Gautama (the man who became the Buddha). As humans we are blessed with tremendous intelligence and compassion, and among us there are sometimes prophets who call us to our own better natures and nudge (or shove) us back onto the path of righteousness. Dr. King was such a prophet, and so are Aung San Suu Kyi and the Dalai Lama. I do not believe in "worship," but I pay great respect to these prophets.

...lightening up a little...

3. I was a junior-high cheerleader. In 7th, 8th and 9th grades I cheerleaded (cheerled?) for my school's basketball and football teams. While I was always completely oblivious to whatever game was being played or what the apparently hunky (to an 8th-grader) boys were doing out on the field, I loved doing snappy, coordinated movements with friends in matching outfits. Once I started to clue in to all the subtextual sexual messages and popularity contests going on in the world of cheerleading, I had to give it up. Nowadays I get my need for synchronized moves met by watching old They Might Be Giants videos, and of course from radical cheerleading, which warms my heart in at least a dozen ways.

4. I'm allergic to latex. It was such a relief to finally figure this out after so many very-uncomfortable visits to the gynecologist and ironic punishings for safe sex (waay back in my wild single days). An itchy, weepy rash is not what you want to wake up to on the morning after, people! I always have to remind all my doctors and dentists to use the ill-fitting blue gloves (because they only ever keep one box of one-size-fits-none non-latex gloves in the office), and my choices of contraceptive technology are somewhat limited (latex is a little over-used in that particular industry), but learning to avoid what hurts you is a good lesson for all kinds of things. And the female condom is non-latex, FYI. In case you were wondering.

5. I just love trashy romance novels. The smuttier, the better! If they have a good story, I generally consider that a bonus. Basically I just skip from sex scene to sex scene. It was HWWLLB who got me hooked on them. He swaps them with my Grandmother, who keeps paper grocery bags full of them behind the couch.

tag, you're it: Billie, Jenn!