Don Clark on being Gay and Aging:
I hope that everyone who can will read and ponder the front page gay
story in October 9th's New York Times, "Aging
and Gay, and Facing Prejudice in Twilight." It is one of my
core concerns and has been for more than thirty years.
There has been commercial interest underway for more than
ten
years in developing long term care facilities that cater to (or are
friendly to) gay elders and that is slowly evolving now but I believe
there is
a noncommercial change needed that each of us can help to get moving.
I believe it involves our putting effort into a major shift
in
attitudes and prejudices about aging within our gay community. The
desirable outcome of this shift would be that younger gays are
motivated (similarly to the ways the young are sometimes motivated in
wartime) to learning how to give loving care to their gay elders via
professional work, volunteer assistance or simple affectionate
friendship - with keen awareness that if they are fortunate, they will
one day be the elders who are the recipients of that same loving care
coming their way from younger gays.
And (since this
question usually comes up when I put it out for
discussion), yes, of course, I would assume that there would be
affectionate, erotic touch involved since it is something that we all
need in order to be healthy and happy and there need never be any shame
in it. The feared shame in such erotic contact is a familiar management
tool our keepers have used to keep us in line during campaigns of
oppression.
This package of
social attitude change comes with a bonus, by the way, since the
motivated youngers will be able to tap into the reservoir of wisdom
earned by their elders.
--
Don Clark
Shankari's
New Radio/PodCast:
"I had a sinking
feeling in my gut and I was overwhelmed
with fear that this was all there would be to my life! For the rest of
my days, the greatest challenge was going to be building a verandah on
my beach house! ... I had become aware of the insidiousness of
my comfortable prison and I was ready to leave my old life behind. I
had a vague distant notion that I needed to set off on my adventure
before it was too late, that I needed to search for my real
dream."
Shankari
the Alchemist is as world renouned jewelry designer, she is also famous
as a spiritual teacher of the mysteries. And Shankari
is Donny's and Kirk's teacher. Experience the
Shankari Online Audio Blog.
Shankari is entertaining and yet empowers her listeners with
potent truthful insights. You may tune into her radio show, "Truth
Speaking with Shankari the Alchemist" live on Universal7Radio.com or
you can download her podcasts from Shankari33.com Be inspired, be
curious, your life is full of synchronicities! Come and check it out
now!
"Don't
Stop Thinking About
Tomorrow ..." by Board President Gary Ost: One
of the ways in which our Board has advanced Flesh and Spirit's event
program is to schedule ongoing monthly and special events at the
James Howell Studio,
66 Sanchez ST, SF. This space gets raves from everyone who attends an
event there with us.
Our regular monthly events, of course, include Reiki
treatments
the first Wednesday of the month, the Peaceful
Warrior workshop the first Saturday (not all months
- check the calendar), the Board
meeting the second Wednesday (open to all Flesh and Spirit Brothers),
Community Potluck on the second Saturday (open to guests as
well as F&S Brothers), Drumming Circle on the third Sunday,
Community
Building Night the third Wednesday, and Ecstatic Massage the fourth
Saturday.
This schedule is beautiful enough,
but we also have special events upcoming. Our Gala Fundraiser
is
just about upon us -- Oct. 20th, 7 - 10PM at Kirk and Donny's home, 55
Graystone Terrace, SF. And our annual retreat, whose theme this year is
"Shaman's Dream," is scheduled for May 1-4, 2008. Why am I
mentioning these two special events in virtually the same breath? It is
because the two are linked in a very interesting way which will make it
much easier for
Brothers to afford the Retreat. We offer the clever idea of reducing
Retreat cost when Brothers sell raffle tickets for the Fundraiser. This
will enable any Brother to initiate a Retreat Scholarship Contract.
This Scholarship Contract specifies that for every dollar's
worth
of raffle tickets sold, the same dollar amount will be reduced from the
cost of registration for the Brother selling the raffle tickets. Read
elsewhere in this Newsletter about how to obtain raffle tickets so that
you can benefit from this clever idea.
The
bottom line is we have lots of activities to be excited about right now
-- but don't stop thinking about tomorrow and the "Shaman's Dream"
Retreat it will bring!
Keep touching
skin, opening hearts and raising Spirit! Love,
--Gary Ost, President, Board
of Directors
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