~ kusala
[ ku-sa-la: Pali term meaning wholesome, skillful, good, meritorious. ]
[ Action characterized by this quality (kusala-kamma) is bound to result (eventually) in happiness and a favorable outcome. ]
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kusala.diaryland.com

2005-06-23 - 5:24 p.m.

"Disease Free"

This has been bugging me for a long time, and I guess I feel like I finally need to vent it, write it down, and maybe get one step closer to "getting over it."

I HATE the above phrase for so many reasons, which should be obvious. I doubt if people who use it in personal ads, online, and so forth really think about how it sounds, what it means, and what exactly they are expressing a preference for. I think what ticks me off most is just thinking about what the opposite of this highly-desired trait would be. Yes. "Diseased."

I'm sure that's not exactly how anyone on earth would really like to greet themselves in the morning: "Hello, Diseased. Rise and shine!"

Of course, technically, that's what "we" are, I suppose. But I guess it would just feel a tad more humane to be using some other phrases, like "poz" versus "negative" or something like that. Not to trot out Political Correctness for its own sake, but I think we should (out of courtesy? propriety? whatever?) put behind us references that evoke centuries of "Le Peste."

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On a similar note, I perused an interesting online article from The Village Voice, by someone named Patrick Moore, regarding Crystal Meth use, HIV infection, self-hate, societal condemnation, and personal responsibility.

While not dismissing the responsibility of the individual, I have lately felt very strongly that "we" are quite a product of our environment, and that living in a gay-hating society like this one is extremely destructive to the individual psyche on a very deep and "subconscious" (whatever that means to you) level. While a great many of us certainly do not feel persecution on a daily basis, and may even live in gay "meccas," I think the idea of how much of the country truly despises us must and does creep into our self-concept. It is hard to draw a line as to where personal psychology ends and a "collective psychology" begins.

Ask a Jew, or a Roma, or an Armenian -- or a German for that matter -- if any of their cultural histories impinge on their own individual psyches.

What does that make the Queer? The Gay? The Poz? The "Diseased"?


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