Fabulous letter
I saw this linked on
cleolinda 's LJ and I just had to share it. It's a letter by Stephen Fry to his 16-year old self.
It's officially a letter on gay rights, but I think it has a lot to say for anybody. And I love Stephen Fry for many reasons--for being a fellow Cantabridgian, for making me laugh, for calling his autobiography *Moab is My Washpot* ( I am so glad I am not the only person who finds that funny.)
Just a bit of it, to whet your interest:
Gay people sometimes believe (to this very day, would you credit it, young Stephen?) that the preponderance of obstacles and terrors they encounter in their lives and relationships is intimately connected with the fact of their being gay. As it happens at least 90% of their problems are to do with love and love alone: the lack of it, the denial of it, the inequality of it, the missed reciprocity in it, the horrors and heartaches of it. Love cold, love hot, love fresh, love stale, love scorned, love missed, love denied, love betrayed ... the great joke of sexuality is that these problems bedevil straight people just as much as gay. The 10% of extra suffering and complexity that uniquely confronts the gay person is certainly not incidental or trifling, but it must be understood that love comes first. This is tough for straight people to work out.
I think you may enjoy it.
cleolinda 's LJ and I just had to share it. It's a letter by Stephen Fry to his 16-year old self.
It's officially a letter on gay rights, but I think it has a lot to say for anybody. And I love Stephen Fry for many reasons--for being a fellow Cantabridgian, for making me laugh, for calling his autobiography *Moab is My Washpot* ( I am so glad I am not the only person who finds that funny.)
Just a bit of it, to whet your interest:
Gay people sometimes believe (to this very day, would you credit it, young Stephen?) that the preponderance of obstacles and terrors they encounter in their lives and relationships is intimately connected with the fact of their being gay. As it happens at least 90% of their problems are to do with love and love alone: the lack of it, the denial of it, the inequality of it, the missed reciprocity in it, the horrors and heartaches of it. Love cold, love hot, love fresh, love stale, love scorned, love missed, love denied, love betrayed ... the great joke of sexuality is that these problems bedevil straight people just as much as gay. The 10% of extra suffering and complexity that uniquely confronts the gay person is certainly not incidental or trifling, but it must be understood that love comes first. This is tough for straight people to work out.
I think you may enjoy it.