Never Assume Someone is Fluffy Until Proven Otherwise

I had someone come to me who I'd met once before at a Pathworking meditation session I was hosting. The initial input from the person seemed a little fluffy the mention of pretty winged fairies came up, which raised a few eyebrows from the none Pagans in the room, I did my best to explain that they weren't weird & that some people put a face to spirit of place to feel comfortable, please see my older post on faires about that, which abaited the raised eyebrows & could see where the person was coming from in a way through my explanations. It also didn't go unnoticed by the person who spoke & the person felt I was non judgemental in my approach or too away with the fairies either. They had come to see me again, but the fluffy notion painted seemed a little inaccurate n this occasion. I can't go into the initial reason of contact as that was a personal issue, but a question afterwards is what had changed my mind about them, it came to the subject of spiritual blockage & going through the magical & meditational practices didn't seem to ring as suitable as the practical solution of just unburdening yourself of worries & stresses by talking. It appears as I misjudged completely & that for once taking someone at face value did not work, I could blame many a thing but mainly the buck stops with me. I should know better than to think of people who put a face to spirit of place will automatically think things can be cured by unicorn-rainbow-dolphin-reiki-crystal therapy.

Drag Queens

I'm starting to find the older I'm getting the less entertaining drag queens are getting, or is it that there are too many around doing the same old thing. There are some who are funny in their own rights as comedians, but that has more to with the fact that they actually have some talent, but the scene does seem to be saturated with drag queens that do little more than mime badly to songs & yet some people still go mad for them. What is the appeal? Is the art of drag just heading into one trick pony territory? What happened to art of satire with them? Are current crop getting lazy & thinking all you have to do is put on a frock, do bad make up & flounce to Lady Gaga is enough? Because the only time that is entertaining is when a child raids their mothers bedroom, bursts in into the living room, proud as punch because they are emulating their favourite popstar & that is only funny because its cute, if you are an adult inject humour into it, be topical or at least be interesting. The original cabaret was controversial & was aware of the current climate & not just musically, in general & they had stuff to say even if it was put it in a funny, mocking way. Congratulations to all the drag queens that do still do that, to those that don't, try harder for goodness sake or you will degrade the cabaret seen as a poor shadow of what is was & what it stood for.

Eccentricity

I have my quirks, I'm proud of them, many people, call me weird or strange, I take those phrases as a compliment. I would hate to think I was ordinary, though when I was school I tried my best to 'be normal' & fit in. I was always one of the geeky kids but didn't particularly fit in with them either as they were all sci-fi & I was all nature. But when you are an adult you try your best to be different, try not to be boring & mainstream, as it the things that make you stand out that make you more appealing, people like a sense of mystery in the initial part of meeting you. Vacuousness doesn't hold people's attention for too long before they get bored & walk off. And those who are bland really on the look at me attitude & then get uppity when you don't pay them attention. Indulge in your slightly more unusual hobbies (& I do mean that in the plural as if you only have one subject to talk about again you would fit in the dull category), because even things like nature watching can prove interesting to people if you present it right. Plus some of your experiences might then go on to inspire other people to do things out of the ordinary & become extraordinary. If you are quirky but shy try finding a group of people first who you share at least one common interest in & if possible make it one where it requires feedback or where comments are welcome. this will boost your confidence in your quirky side & when you come out off your shell people appreciate it more, you may end up fitting in more to the wider community too as you will have found your voice. So geeks, freaks & eccentrics around the rejoice in your quirks & never be normal again. Yours freely, Pagan Chaplain

Fun is Not Just for Us Younger People

So as promised here is my Monday posting, a bit later than planned but I do have an extremely busy week this week. So I was at the Rammstein concert on Saturday & absolutely enjoyed myself. For those who haven't come across Rammstein they are a German metal band, it was a brilliant night with loads of pyrotechnics & fantastic music. Now not everyone is a fan of that kind of music, in fact most people certainly would not think of a fan of such music would be in their 70's but there was a woman there who was, even though she had a walking stick for support she was there to rock with the rest of us, but it did get me thinking about how cool the older generations can be, just because they may not be at your prime any more doesn't mean they should stop enjoying themselves. I needn't look any further than my own grandparents, well the two who are still alive, my paternal grandma was never really one for getting up & dancing at parties until fairly recently, I don't think I can get the image out of my head from my cousin Sasha's wedding day, when my Grandma was up & dancing to Kings of Leon- Your Sex is on Fire, it's not something you would normally expect, but then again this also the same woman who was regularly taking vegetarian food to the Birmingham Northern Relief Road protesters & got me into Hedgewitchery in the first place. She has now recently taken to Greek mythology in a big way too, huge bonus points from me for that one. My maternal Granddad is very much online & is in fact one of my Facebook friends, he is involved with the local theatre (from which we have a photo of him as an Ugly Sister) & still gets out & about & is dedicated to his family & possibly keeping an eye out for the ladies. I have also met a woman who when she broke her foot wanted a bed by the window, why? it was blowing a gale & it was funny watching people fall over, struggle with umbrellas, etc. I met a motorcycle veterans club one holiday. Plus we should not forget some of the more famous showings of older people having fun like the Good Charlotte video for Girls & Boys, Sigur Ros video for Hoppipola, various parodies of youth culture on Youtube & the Haslemere Nursing Home that had a resident die one year from cardiac arrest due to a called resident Gladys Elton doing striptease & the following year another resident Harry Meadows dressed as the Grimm Reaper for fun leading to 3 further fatalities. So just because someone is of an older generation don't judge them as boring as they surprise you.