For most of my friends, it wasn’t all LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, or even BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. I come from Nebraska, BOYS DON’T CRY country. Every person I know with any kind of alternative gender or sexual preference issue lived through hell while coming to terms with it.
So when I think about my son and anyone taking issue with his evening gown and chiffon scarf, I get all worked up. Violent images run through my mind, the kind that end in lawsuits. Good mothers do not commit assault, do they? But what do they do? Warn their children about the dangers of complete self-expression in social situations?
I found the answer in Homer.
Yes, Homer. THE ILIAD. Which I’m slogging through as research for my novel-in-progress. Guess what I found out yesterday? Achilles’s mother, Thetis, knowing her son wouldn’t survive the Trojan War, tried to keep him from being recruited into the Greek Army by dressing him in women’s clothing. Now this isn’t a scene you’ll find in the Brad Pitt film, TROY (why not?) and also, it didn’t work. But it reminded me that there are worse things in life for a child than falling outside the mainstream.
And you can bet that if they reinstate the draft, in about fourteen years I’m lending my son that slinky black number with attached feather boa to wear to his Army interview. Can’t hurt. Might help.
Happy Monday!
Harley
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Tags: Family Matters
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