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psalm_onethirtyoneFeeling unusually depressed and worn out (I need to remember to call the mental health services to-morrow and see whether I can get an appointment, but the problem is that I work the same hours everyone else works, which means most places are closed after I get off) and really, really hating humanity, so I am going to write about two small serious things.
I really like this site because it's a very frank and thoughtful look at sex and sex stuff from a conservative point of view. For those who don't want to click, it's a Q&A page of advice on sex for Christians who try to adhere to the Bible. It discusses things like anal and oral sex, masturbation, and swearing when having sex. The nice thing, as I say, is that it doesn't give in to the kind of NO JUST DON'T DO THIS!!!! hysteria that you sometimes (often?) see from conservative sources; it actually looks for Biblical guidance and, where there isn't any, precedence to make the judgement. Excerpt:
And what if one spouse in unable to have sex because of sickness or physical limitations? In this situation masturbation seems a reasonable option, but we would suggest it is best done in the presence of the spouse. This significantly reduces the chances of wrong thoughts, and allows the partner to be a part of the activity by holding the one masturbating, offering some form of stimulation, or describing what they could be doing if they were both able to have sex.
A different issue is a couple watching each other masturbate. Most men, and many women, find this very arousing, and it can also be informative. As a frequent [bolding theirs] alternative to more interactive sex it could be a problem, but we know of no Biblical or medical reasons why it would be wrong or unwise to do this from time to time.
I would personally feel good about recommending this site to a conservative Christian couple looking for a guide for sex. It's obviously written from a traditional Christian point of view and it isn't going to be supportive of homosexuality or other things the Bible treats as sinful, but for a heterosexual couple it's a very honest discussion of Biblical sex information.
Secondly, and I have been noticing this a lot in my drives back and forth from Altoona, there are a lot of people in the central Pennsylvania people who have Confederate flags hung around their homes. This never, never fails to make me resentful and sometimes angry, and the reason for this is that these people have no idea what that flag means. I think in general in central PA it's supposed to be a redneck symbol, a 'we're proud of our unsophistication', or an emblem of rebellion--'those Southerners rebelled against the government and so do we'. I really don't think it's supposed to imply racism, and in fact that a lot of people don't make that connexion at all, and that's why everyone's always mildly surprised when the display of that flag makes people angry.
And the fact is that none of these are what it means, none of these are what it represents. The South, the Old South, was not industrial the way the North was. All our economy was built on these huge farms, these plantations. I'm not saying that slavery was in any right, because it wasn't and it isn't, it's wrong wrong wrong, but it was also a way of sustaining the plantation economy, and the North was so far removed from that they didn't understand it then and I don't think they really understand it now. The abolition of slavery would have broken down that economy, and that was what the South was reacting to. People still tell me, oh, the South wanted to keep slaves and the North wanted to free them. That's what they taught me in school here, when I still went to school. And that's not the truth. The North's reason, the North's interpretation, may have been that this was a war about slavery, but in the South it was a war about rights--the right to secede from the United States when it felt an unreasonable demand had been made upon it.
You only have to listen to a few Confederate Civil War songs to realise this. They don't talk about slavery. They talk about rights. They talk about the complex honour and caste system that was part of the Old South. And when the War Between the States ended, the North said it's done, it's over, the end. And you know they still tell you up here, oh, those Southerners, they're so bitter, they just can't get over it, such bitter people. Well, Jesus Christ. Most of the war was fought on Southern land. The North's economy was in factories that weren't even touched by the war. The South was decimated. Marching Through Georgia, a Yankee war song, talks about how everyone wept with joy to see the Union soldiers when they came through Georgia and liberated it. What it doesn't say is that Georgia was completely destroyed. It was looted and raided and the plantations burned and the fields all but salted--I'm not being dramatic, this is the truth: that the war touched the North mainly in immediate death, but it touched the South in death and poverty that went on long after the war was done. There's a reason so many areas of the South are filled with such crippling poverty. It had to rebuild from the ground, and it had to rebuild in a way it was completely unfamiliar with.
This doesn't excuse the Jim Crow laws. This doesn't excuse the murders of black folks, the word nigger, or any of the racism that burned up our wide wide stretches of land and made them unfit for people who are as much people as anyone else to live in. But it is why we're still bitter down there, it's why the South had to have somebody to blame and to hate, and it's why I can't stand it when I see Pennsylvanians flying Confederate flags off their porches. They don't know what it means. They don't know what it means to be a Southerner and they don't know how much we lost in a war people up here don't see much except in museums.
On a lighter note, Daddy bought me an Arthurian murder mystery for my birthday, and I have a bowl of fresh strawberries from Clark's Hill here beside me on my table, and my little attic is cooling down now that I have the fan in the window. So hopefully I will start to feel better.
I really like this site because it's a very frank and thoughtful look at sex and sex stuff from a conservative point of view. For those who don't want to click, it's a Q&A page of advice on sex for Christians who try to adhere to the Bible. It discusses things like anal and oral sex, masturbation, and swearing when having sex. The nice thing, as I say, is that it doesn't give in to the kind of NO JUST DON'T DO THIS!!!! hysteria that you sometimes (often?) see from conservative sources; it actually looks for Biblical guidance and, where there isn't any, precedence to make the judgement. Excerpt:
And what if one spouse in unable to have sex because of sickness or physical limitations? In this situation masturbation seems a reasonable option, but we would suggest it is best done in the presence of the spouse. This significantly reduces the chances of wrong thoughts, and allows the partner to be a part of the activity by holding the one masturbating, offering some form of stimulation, or describing what they could be doing if they were both able to have sex.
A different issue is a couple watching each other masturbate. Most men, and many women, find this very arousing, and it can also be informative. As a frequent [bolding theirs] alternative to more interactive sex it could be a problem, but we know of no Biblical or medical reasons why it would be wrong or unwise to do this from time to time.
I would personally feel good about recommending this site to a conservative Christian couple looking for a guide for sex. It's obviously written from a traditional Christian point of view and it isn't going to be supportive of homosexuality or other things the Bible treats as sinful, but for a heterosexual couple it's a very honest discussion of Biblical sex information.
Secondly, and I have been noticing this a lot in my drives back and forth from Altoona, there are a lot of people in the central Pennsylvania people who have Confederate flags hung around their homes. This never, never fails to make me resentful and sometimes angry, and the reason for this is that these people have no idea what that flag means. I think in general in central PA it's supposed to be a redneck symbol, a 'we're proud of our unsophistication', or an emblem of rebellion--'those Southerners rebelled against the government and so do we'. I really don't think it's supposed to imply racism, and in fact that a lot of people don't make that connexion at all, and that's why everyone's always mildly surprised when the display of that flag makes people angry.
And the fact is that none of these are what it means, none of these are what it represents. The South, the Old South, was not industrial the way the North was. All our economy was built on these huge farms, these plantations. I'm not saying that slavery was in any right, because it wasn't and it isn't, it's wrong wrong wrong, but it was also a way of sustaining the plantation economy, and the North was so far removed from that they didn't understand it then and I don't think they really understand it now. The abolition of slavery would have broken down that economy, and that was what the South was reacting to. People still tell me, oh, the South wanted to keep slaves and the North wanted to free them. That's what they taught me in school here, when I still went to school. And that's not the truth. The North's reason, the North's interpretation, may have been that this was a war about slavery, but in the South it was a war about rights--the right to secede from the United States when it felt an unreasonable demand had been made upon it.
You only have to listen to a few Confederate Civil War songs to realise this. They don't talk about slavery. They talk about rights. They talk about the complex honour and caste system that was part of the Old South. And when the War Between the States ended, the North said it's done, it's over, the end. And you know they still tell you up here, oh, those Southerners, they're so bitter, they just can't get over it, such bitter people. Well, Jesus Christ. Most of the war was fought on Southern land. The North's economy was in factories that weren't even touched by the war. The South was decimated. Marching Through Georgia, a Yankee war song, talks about how everyone wept with joy to see the Union soldiers when they came through Georgia and liberated it. What it doesn't say is that Georgia was completely destroyed. It was looted and raided and the plantations burned and the fields all but salted--I'm not being dramatic, this is the truth: that the war touched the North mainly in immediate death, but it touched the South in death and poverty that went on long after the war was done. There's a reason so many areas of the South are filled with such crippling poverty. It had to rebuild from the ground, and it had to rebuild in a way it was completely unfamiliar with.
This doesn't excuse the Jim Crow laws. This doesn't excuse the murders of black folks, the word nigger, or any of the racism that burned up our wide wide stretches of land and made them unfit for people who are as much people as anyone else to live in. But it is why we're still bitter down there, it's why the South had to have somebody to blame and to hate, and it's why I can't stand it when I see Pennsylvanians flying Confederate flags off their porches. They don't know what it means. They don't know what it means to be a Southerner and they don't know how much we lost in a war people up here don't see much except in museums.
On a lighter note, Daddy bought me an Arthurian murder mystery for my birthday, and I have a bowl of fresh strawberries from Clark's Hill here beside me on my table, and my little attic is cooling down now that I have the fan in the window. So hopefully I will start to feel better.
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 12:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 12:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 12:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 12:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 12:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 12:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 12:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 01:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 01:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 01:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 03:00 am (UTC)Point #2: I totally cheer for the gentlmanly Christian Southern generals everytime we study the Civil War, and considering their military training, home-turf advantage, and .so many other factors, there is no logical reason they should have lost. That said, I am not at all upset that the North won, and the South needs to get over it. I respect the Confederate flag in the same fashion I respect the Nazi flag: as an important historical symbol. Doesn't mean I'm going to hang one outside my house.
Point #3: Best address to send you things this summer? You can reply to this or message it to me.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 03:04 am (UTC)2. Right now I can't remember your home state, but I feel like it is high mideastern. I think that these strong feelings are definitely related to my upbringing divided between Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 03:20 am (UTC)2. I cheat like a cheating thing, because I am Californian born and bred, and my family comes from South Dakota and Minnesota on one side and Nebraska and Iowa on the other. I'm just really into history and like to but into other people's conflicts.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 04:37 am (UTC)2. I lied! Oh, well. But no, I think you have every right to talk about it. I just think a person feels more passionately about it when s/he's sort of--connected.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 09:03 am (UTC)They are obviously trying to do a good thing (and in some ways are doing well at that) which is awesome but the wannabe sex educator in me is cringing aaall over the place.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 09:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 12:04 pm (UTC)And yeah, I wasn't totally enthused about the bondage section, because I was pretty sure that you are right--if it hurts, you're doing it wrong.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 05:10 pm (UTC)I kind of want to e-mail them corrections. >.> Except I'm not sure they'd appreciate the input of a kinky queer heathen. It's just so neat to see a clear attempt at a sex-positive resource for conservative Christians, it'd be really nice if their actual sex-ed type information showed the same level of care as their biblical analysis.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 06:52 pm (UTC)