There are theories about Seven Sisters myths showing up almost universally across cultures. This is only an idea, but a lovely thing to consider:
There are only six main stars visible in the Pleiades, but these myths have a seventh sister, often one who went into hiding. 100,000 years ago, you could see the seventh star.
We can’t carbon date a myth, or the way it changes to suit the needs of the cultures, but we can look to the history of the stars for hints of just how far back they might go.
Can you imagine a story living like an organism, passed down for 100,000 years unbroken but evolving? Can you imagine, over dozens of generations after generations, a star we know as a person and part of how we make sense of the world… fading away?
It’s beautiful to me how different cultures understood this differently, according to the needs of the culture, but whether Maori, American First Nations or Australian, Indonesian myth, Norwegian–we’ve all kept it alive as the Seven. She’s there, we just can’t see her anymore
“Ulysses Grant Dietz grew up in Syracuse, New York, where his Leave it to Beaver life was enlivened by his fascination with vampires, from Bela Lugosi to Barnabas Collins. He studied French at Yale (BA, 1977), and was trained to be a museum curator in the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in American Material Culture (MA, 1980). A decorative arts curator at the Newark Museum for thirty-seven years before he retired, Ulysses has never stopped writing for the sheer pleasure of it. Aside from books on Victorian furniture, art pottery, studio ceramics, jewelry, and the White House, Ulysses created the character of Desmond Beckwith in 1988 as his personal response to Anne Rice’s landmark novels. Alyson Books released his first novel, Desmond, in 1998. Vampire in Suburbia, the sequel, appeared in 2012. His most recent novel, Cliffhanger, was released by JMS Books in December 2020.
“Ulysses lives in suburban New Jersey with his husband of 45 years. They have two grown children, adopted in 1996.
“Ulysses is a great-great grandson of Ulysses S. Grant. His late mother, Julia, was the President’s last living great-grandchild; youngest daughter of Ulysses S. Grant III, and granddaughter of the president’s eldest son, Frederick. Every year on April 27 he gives a speech at Grant’s Tomb in New York City. He is also on the board of the U.S. Grant Presidential Library and Museum at Mississippi State University.”
And frankly, the novels sound like they slap:
Desmond was nominated for a Lambda Award.
“With his husband of 45 years.” You kids don’t know … they got together before AIDS, at the peak of the Gay Glam Life. They stayed together as their generation died around them, and made through it to the point where they could marry and have a legal family. He looks like a chipper preppie who never had a serious thought or care in the world, but it took *incredible* determination, commitment, and also luck to get here.
Imagine, if you will, a hot New England summer in the year 1702. It’s August in Massachusetts, and the humidity is oppressive. You’re a subsistence farmer in the small agricultural town of Wenham, on the post road between Newbury and Boston. It’s time to harvest the flax, and the sun is blazing down on your field, blazing down on you. It’s far too hot today to take on work this hard, but it must be done. From flax comes linen, a valuable textile.
As you begin to pull the flax under the unyielding heat of the sun you think, “No one’s around. What if I just shimmy out of these clothes? Who is to see? Who is to care?”
And so you do. You are alone.
Time grinds by, the sun grows higher, you bend low, you pull flax. You sweat, your naked limbs ache, you bend low, you pull flax. Your muscles burn, your hands bleed, you bend low, you pull flax.
After a good while you pause in your labors, stretch up to your full height to relieve the unbearable strain on your back and directly in front of you, you see:
You start, and he stares at you, agog, from atop his horse.
It all takes a moment to register, and perhaps you’re a bit dazzled by the sun, but then the sickening drop in your stomach confirms that you know this man. It is Judge Samuel Sewall of Salem, of witchcraft trials fame. He is a frequent guest of your pastor in Wenham, Reverend Gerrish. And his face is quickly turning a garish, arterial shade of crimson.
You look down. You are utterly naked, covered in flax stalks and dirt. You feel an errant bead of sweat travel slowly down your shirtless chest and lodge in the muddy cup of your uncovered navel.
“Goddamn it,” you mutter, and the flushing judge, apoplectic, opens his mouth to speak.
(At least, that’s how I imagine this entry in Judge Sewall’s diary from August 11th, 1702 came about:)
For years I would look at posts and questionnaires about neurodivergence that takes about being so focused on something that you forgot to eat and be like, “Couldn’t be me. Being hungry is so uncomfortable! Your stomach is growling and cramping? How do you ignore that?”
Then someone informed me that neurotypical people have a whole bunch of “hungry” sensations before they get to that point…..
They what
Yeah, I don’t get it either, but apparently this is a Whole Thing…. Like they somehow detect blood sugar dropping and go, “Ooh, time for lil snack!”
See also: there is a feeling of “oh, I need to pee” that happens before “fidgeting around in my seat to finish this thing before running to the bathroom”
I read this and was like, “this can’t be real” and then I looked for sources and like–
“This can be very harmful for neurodivergent people, as many neurodivergent people struggle to feel internal cues and bodily sensations, including hunger and fullness. An emphasis on “only eating when hungry” can result in neurodivergent people delaying eating until they are so hungry that they are shaky, highly irritable, or even on the verge of passing out. A focus on “stopping when full” may cause neurodivergent people to overthink every bite they take and scrutinize whether they are truly hungry or truly full.
To modify Intuitive Eating for neurodivergent people, it may be important to focus on eating enough and eating consistently throughout the day, rather than eating according to one’s hunger and fullness cues. Neurodivergent people may need more of a structured meal and snack schedule than neurotypical folks in recovery, as well as some guidelines around a minimum amount of food. This does not make their eating less intuitive or their recovery less real - it is an important way of honouring their body’s needs and unique ways of functioning.”
about re-emerging into the public sphere as butch.
ID: Teddy is pictured hips up to just above his nose in a cropped image. He is white with brown body hair, and is wearing a white v neck shirt, multiple silver rings, silver drop cross earrings with chains, and black white-stitch pants. He is smirking with a visible sharp tooth, and holding up the white shirt to expose his stomach. A thematic tattoo from one of his earlier works depicting the word “DYKE” in gradient gothic font is visible on his lower sternum. His other hand is hooked in the belt loop of his pants. On black flaming banners above and below the portrait, red text reads “I LOVE TO MAKE YOU UNCOMFORTABLE”. The background is also red. End ID.
