Now to vent.
I was very surprised and disturbed at the lack of help we got from our local BDSM community. Andrew and I have been part of these peoples lives, and have donated heavily in money and time, for the past 6 years that we have been together. The dead silence from some people that I have considered "friends" for a number of years is just, well, shocking. I knew that there would be those who I would expect stoney silence. Dead quiet. They would be the ones watching people drowning along along the shore, and ignoring everything. I expected that from them. But then there are a whole other group of people. People who I at least expected an "I'm sorry" e-mail from. They are the ones that I wonder about. I wonder just what is going on that would make them turn their backs on us. It makes me wonder what Andrew and I DIDN'T do within our local BDSM community to generate this indifference towards us. We were certainly generous with our time. We donated countless hours in the groups we belonged to just so others in the groups could enjoy themselves. We donated money so these groups that we loved and the people in them that we had come to know as friends could hold functions where we could all come together and have fun. And now when we could use just a tiny bit of what we gave back, we are met with coldness, and rejection. Andrew posted "Our Desperate Plea" on the Local BDSM lists. We opened out souls to the people who we thought were friends. These are people that we ate with at the Munch. People we laughed with at the parties and chats. Going through this has taught me who my friends really are. I am happy for that. Unfortunately it has also taught me who my friends aren't, and that was a lesson I could have done without.