Way back in a past life, when I was working the 7a-3p shift in a Parking Enforcement Office because it would pay my way through a graduate degree I ended up dropping out of, I read Gloria Anzald\u00faa and had a miserable time. It was not long after I\u2019d woken up hungover on a friend\u2019s church and perused some Christopher Hitchens until the coffee was ready, so I was big into not being attuned to the spirit world.<\/p> What a catastrophically ignorant mistake that was, dismissing Gloria Anzald\u00faa because I felt like I could make line edits to her poems and didn\u2019t care about Tejano paganism. These books stayed on my shelf because I wasn\u2019t certain that I wasn\u2019t totally wrong about them, and goddamn, have I never been happier to be wrong. Anzald\u00faa captures the feeling of being inbetween\u2014on la frontera\u2014with so much depth that I am reeling at every other sentence. As someone who both loves and despises their homeland, as someone who has felt like I\u2019ve had personal encounters with demons and gods or at least been sympathetic to those things as metaphors? Man, I don\u2019t think that stuff is real, but I\u2019m not doubting the experience. <\/p> There is also something relevant, in terms of double consciousness, that I think applies to more than we\u2019re willing to admit. There is something to existing within the space between extreme dualities, there is a new consciousness that is worth developing. Oh hey look at the links:<\/p> LINKS!<\/strong><\/p> Here is the excellent poet Kai Cheng Thom on whether or not joy in transitioning is possible<\/a>. Turns out it is! But this point will somehow be contentious, five years after this essay. Hope this doesn\u2019t come up later in this post. <\/p><\/li> God help me, I am a sucker for \u201cinstructional\u201d flash fiction. Except when it\u2019s bad, then it\u2019s unbearable. What\u2019s the difference? Ask Potter Stewart. But I love this piece by Nic Anstett from earlier this year, \u201cInstructions For Meeting The Man Pretending To Be Your Husband,\u201d in TriQuarterly<\/a>. With these types of stories, I kinda always assume the \u201cyou\u201d is the speaker. But the \u201cI\u201d comes in at the midway point, and God help me, I love a first-person story that is not remotely about the \u201cI.\u201d This story is the genuine article of a friend pleading with a friend, with enough specific details to really make you feel it. <\/p><\/li> Beautiful essay from Emme Lund on the joy of coming out trans.<\/a> It includes the line \u201cimagine a gleaming in the eyes of a straight, cis man for his trans woman colleague!\u201d Reader, that line broke my heart. I\u2019m a straight, cis man, and people have come out to me as trans\/nonbinary before. One time, it was a coworker who hadn\u2019t told anyone else on staff. We cis people need to fucking do better. No matter how transphobic you might be\u2014even if the whole concept just doesn\u2019t make sense to you\u2014always remember that the trans person is more afraid of you<\/em>. Do you want to be the kind of person that doesn\u2019t<\/em> create warmth and welcoming to those around you? If so, please don\u2019t bother reading this blog anymore. <\/p><\/li> Not the first time I\u2019ve linked to Parker Molloy, aka on Substack, aka Chief Media Critic Of Chicago. Won\u2019t be the last. Any time you are tempted to read Jonathan Chait, stop yourself and read Parker. Here\u2019s an oldie but a goodie<\/a>. <\/p><\/li> Please enjoy this reading of \u201cThe Garden\u201d by Jade Phoenix Martinez. Consider that it is pretty explicit in laying out one person\u2019s<\/em> journey, light up the empathy signals in your brain, and consider that other people have similar journeys, other people have different journeys, but this particular person chose to bear their soul and be vulnerable in this way, and be grateful that gift of vulnerability was given to you:<\/p>![](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/a77e5b6c-08a6-423c-93cf-f5e6151a0a41_3024x4032.jpeg\"\/)
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