Gifts

It seems like if you are woman who achieves the appropriate gender-assigned milestones, you'll receive recognition.  Whether it be a gift or a thousand 'Likes' or FaceBook comments, you will invariably be rewarded for what society expects you to do.  When you marry, there are wedding gifts.  As a bride, there's potential to get double the gifts because she also receives gifts at her bridal shower!  Hearty congratulations abound for not being a lesbian, for finding a man willing to commit his life to you, and for not being a 'babymama.'  When you have a baby, whoa!  It's like gifts--expensive ones--rain down from Heaven, irrespective of the circumstances under which the child is coming into the world.  It's a celebration of not being barren and of your sense of self being totally defined by your ability to bear children. 

I think it's really nice to celebrate the important milestones in your life.  But this is an honor that should be bestowed upon the rest of us.  Where are the expensive gifts for the man that has decided to commit to one woman for the rest of his life when the ratio of single women to single men is like 20:1?  Where is are all the gifts for the single father that has sole custody of his children?  Where are the greeting cards for the battered woman that finally decided to leave an abusive relationship, and made a better life for herself?  Or the battered man?  Where are the FaceBook 'Likes' and comments for a lesbian or gay couple who has decided to adopt a child that no one wanted before they arrived?

We should all have an opportunity for recognition for things that for many are nearly impossible.  The next time I hear someone who pursued and earned their PhD, I'm gonna throw them a PhD shower.  The next time I hear a couple adopted a child--same sex or not--I'm gonna throw them a non-traditional family shower.  The next time I hear a woman left a toxic relationship, I'm gonna throw them a thank-God-she-finally-got-way-from-that-fool shower.  Let's celebrate breathing!  Let's celebrate speaking!  Let's celebrate each other!  One. 

Birth of blogger

I’ve kept diaries for many years.  Some of the entries chronicle the celebrations of triumphs and life’s important milestones; others contain the mildly neurotic musings of a painfully inadequate colored girl.  I still appreciate the mellifluous sound of the roll of a pen on paper, and often pen my thoughts that way.  But the digital gods and goddesses have given me another medium through which I write—the blog.  I decided during a moment of utter counterproductivity that I needed an outlet (besides poetry) to free my right brain from the constriction and repetitiveness of scientific writing.  Matter of fact, I’m blogging while I am supposed to be working diligently on something I am expected to deem important.

The title of this blog is a play on my pen name, Indigo Lee, and each entry will undoubtedly put someone on notice about something important or totally inconsequential.  The complete liberation of blogging has the accompanying responsibility of addressing topics as diverse as my friendship circles are.  That being said, here is an open invitation into the matrix of my curiosity and madness to share your perspective on…whatever.  My only request is that everyone who posts be respectful of one another’s opinions.  I mean, the best soups have a variety of ingredients, right?

I’ll end my inaugural blog with…goodbye.  Peace, always.