Genius

I was thinking about genius this morning. I was thinking about being gifted too. About receiving the gifts of your gods, your faith, culture and the like. I was thinking about how so many of us use ceremonies to receive and prove that we are gifted people. But this is a little bit nonsense. We are not gifted because of the ceremonies of gifting that we have partaken in. We are just gifted.

It is a bit like this. Just because I don't have the postcard, doesn't mean I haven't been to Australia. You know? The ceremony is just a show, the lack of ceremony isn't the lack of the gift.

Today I will engage a fairly exciting ceremony as I begin to prove my gifts for caring, healing and health care. For even though these gifts already exist in me, my society needs ceremonial proof of their existence. I think this is fine. But it can be a bit nerve racking to have to perform these acts. Nonetheless, I am excited.

But this also hearkens on to an experience I had about a month ago. It happened while I was shower climbing for the first time. I had recently read about the grandfathers and grandmothers choosing to give their gifts to a little native girl, and the elaborate ceremonies she had to endure to receive those gifts. I was thinking, while a read about her experience, that I would never receive gifts from the grandparents of the forest, because I had no one to perform those rituals and ceremonies for me.

And yet, as I was climbing that waterfall, actually just after I finished climbing a rather difficult line, I found myself alone in a part of the river. The next member was still climbing, and it was just me, standing in the water, the sunlight trickling through the leaves of the forest. And as I stood there, I heard drumming. Simple at first, the drums became louder and more complex. The rhythm surrounded me and I found myself transported into a sort of still ecstasy. I stood still and listened and danced at the same time. I laughed because I realized just then how silly I had been to think it was the ceremony that granted the gifts.

Life grants gifts, whether we notice them or not, whether we celebrate them, stylize them, exaggerate them or ignore them. We are everyday receiving gifts from all around us. We shouldn't mistake the ceremony for the gift, and remember to give thanks for all our gifts. They are all precious and they are all real. And celebrated or not they are all valuable.

Topless

As summer heat drives millions to the beaches of the world the question and quiet discomforts surface once more. As a young woman the question and pressures return, to go topless or not? A recent article in the BBC Magazine suggests that these days more and more women are choosing to keep their tits in the tops at the beach. This trend is interpreted as evidence of the increasing failures of feminism to liberate women and allow them the equal freedom men enjoy when they doff their tops in the summer sun.

The article claims women feel sexualized and "stared at" when they go topless, attention they feel is demeaning, unfair and sexists (directed at them just because they are women). Therefore choose to remain covered. But ladies...let's be fair: when a guy with a nice body doffs his top don't you stare? Don't you sexualize him? Don't you think "mmm yummy"? Further when an fat old construction worker does it don't you sexually evaluate him too thinking yuck, hide that gut, cover that hair... we don't just sexualize women but all people. When given the opportunity to evaluate them in their natal state, we unthinking, instantly respond with these evaluations. We assess and make predictions about their virility and quality for breeding.

I don't want to make it sound as though all we do is spend our days thinking about who to mate with, but for brief moments now and then when given appropriate stimuli...of course we do.

So why are more women keeping their tits in their tops. Perhaps they think they look better there. Many swim suits are accessorized to make you look more colourful and attractive. Often tops are padded making breasts look larger and holding them on top of the chest giving them a more appealing shape. Perhaps women feel they don't need to reveal everything about themselves to the world when they just want to enjoy some sun at the beach. Perhaps it's true that women are simple responding to social pressures to keep themselves covered. Perhaps our generation has accepted what our feminist mothers tried to throw off, that women are just different, play different roles, accept a different place in our society with different expectations and rules...

Whatever the reason for the current trend it is not reason to ban toplessness, it should be an available freedom. For many women its is not a necessary practice. Just because it isn't necessary doesn't mean it needs to be banned. You know... like for many people drinking coffee isn't a necessary practice, doesn't mean it should be banned, or eating dogs...just because lots of people don't do it, doesn't mean we need to ban it, some people still enjoy it from time to time.