Best Laid Plans, And So Forth
Jan. 5th, 2005 01:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
revenaWell, I meant to sit down and write some more of the next Valmai story. But as soon as I opened up Word, an inspiration for the New Year's Resolution challenge over at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
tucson_writers kinda smacked me upside the head.
"Write me!" it shouted, whilst bludgeoning me about the ears. "Write me!"
Fortunately, inspirations tend to be pretty light-weight and ephemeral, and the blows didn't hurt much at all. Neither were they much of a distraction, in the end, and I managed to crank out "Resolved" within an hour or so. It's kind of depressing/disturbing, but is, I hope, ultimately sort of uplifting or at least hopeful.
The idea came, I think, from a conversation several of us from thetucson_writers community had been having in AIM the other night about abusive relationships. It's been a long time since I did a community self-defense seminar with Peaceful Warrior, but I still remember the stories that women would come up and tell me after my presentation vividly. Women who had been emotionally abused, or physically, or both at once, would tell me their stories. Women who had been raped would tell me. It was always horrible, horrifying, overwhelming, almost incomprehensible. I wrote about my own experience with a form of sexual assault once on my blog (click here if you missed it and want to read it), but I've never really written about any of the things that have happened to other women I've known, or met. I've heard a few stories from men, too, which I've never written about.
I don't think I can do them justice.
"I liked what you said, about sometimes how deciding to submit instead of fight is the right choice, and that it always is a choice, and it doesn't make you weak," one woman said to me. "Because, he had an axe..."
"He asked me for my wallet, and I gave it to him," another told me, once. "Then he asked me for a kiss... I shoved him, harder than I've ever pushed..."
"My aunt said," another woman told me, "that it was normal for my cousin to do that to me, and not to be a tattletale, and not to tell my parents..."
But I guess this story is yet another attempt on my part to do one of the only things I think I can do - raise awareness. People do terrible things to other people, kids. If you think you might be in an abusive relationship, you're almost certainly right. Get out now. And listen to your friends. One of them might need you more than you know.
On that very happy note, I think I'm going to go and cuddle with Jameson right now. At least one of us needs a hug.
tucson_writers kinda smacked me upside the head."Write me!" it shouted, whilst bludgeoning me about the ears. "Write me!"
Fortunately, inspirations tend to be pretty light-weight and ephemeral, and the blows didn't hurt much at all. Neither were they much of a distraction, in the end, and I managed to crank out "Resolved" within an hour or so. It's kind of depressing/disturbing, but is, I hope, ultimately sort of uplifting or at least hopeful.
The idea came, I think, from a conversation several of us from the
tucson_writers community had been having in AIM the other night about abusive relationships. It's been a long time since I did a community self-defense seminar with Peaceful Warrior, but I still remember the stories that women would come up and tell me after my presentation vividly. Women who had been emotionally abused, or physically, or both at once, would tell me their stories. Women who had been raped would tell me. It was always horrible, horrifying, overwhelming, almost incomprehensible. I wrote about my own experience with a form of sexual assault once on my blog (click here if you missed it and want to read it), but I've never really written about any of the things that have happened to other women I've known, or met. I've heard a few stories from men, too, which I've never written about.I don't think I can do them justice.
"I liked what you said, about sometimes how deciding to submit instead of fight is the right choice, and that it always is a choice, and it doesn't make you weak," one woman said to me. "Because, he had an axe..."
"He asked me for my wallet, and I gave it to him," another told me, once. "Then he asked me for a kiss... I shoved him, harder than I've ever pushed..."
"My aunt said," another woman told me, "that it was normal for my cousin to do that to me, and not to be a tattletale, and not to tell my parents..."
But I guess this story is yet another attempt on my part to do one of the only things I think I can do - raise awareness. People do terrible things to other people, kids. If you think you might be in an abusive relationship, you're almost certainly right. Get out now. And listen to your friends. One of them might need you more than you know.
On that very happy note, I think I'm going to go and cuddle with Jameson right now. At least one of us needs a hug.
