There are some who say the School For Womanly Arts (SFWA) is a cult. They say it is unusual, destructive to established relationships and refuses to accept any other points of view.
By these criteria the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Booster Club is a cult. Ask any football widow.
Notice there are no Scrapbooking Widowers groups for men.
I'm writing this at the Borders at Madison Square Garden across the street from the Pennsylvania Hotel. There will be a men's question/answer session in an hour with the ladies asking us questions just as the men asked yesterday evening.
I won't go too deeply into the specifics of last evening. Courtesy demands discretion. Also I signed a confidentiality/media release - no photos or videos, no statements that would identify anyone in the room. So I can refer to Jim C and CN because you already know who they are - but the identity of lady in the Nurse costume has to stay undisclosed.
They were kind enough to let me video and take pics my friend's tango that opened the show - the choreographer, also a friend, got stranded in Portland due to the same thunderstorms that forced us out of the cab and made Jim forget his shoes.
The gist of the evening was to finalize the students' study and to give the relevant males (and others) in their lives a chance to ask questions about what they had learned and how it impacted daily life.
As far as I can tell the dominant priority of the SFWA is living with pleasure. That we all have needs and the first amongst equals is the need to be heard, respected and loved - starting with how we use those verbs in reference to ourselves.
That someone with a healthy personal relationship with themselves tends toward the same with others - either by building them or seeking them out. That is an expression of pleasure.
This last, I think, is why so many patriarchal voices are raised against the SFWA because this sense of health precludes women being beaten down - and it deeply, deeply acknowledges women's natures - especially the sexual and sensuous part of their personalities.
No, no reason patriarchal voices would be raised, not at all.
And that, if you'll connect the dots, is why we signed releases before we got in the door ...
... and why this is about as specific about the evening as I'm going to get here.
I will say that Jim C. and CN performed brilliantly - oh, we did get ahold of the limo service and the shoes were returned - just in time. As the crowd broke up and the stage was just sitting there (after Jim C. and CN took posed tango pics) someone put on "Reflejo de Luna" and Jim led a lady up to the stage to dance.
Not to be outdone and noticing the sound person's assistant was following the dancing closely I asked her if she'd dance. The reply of "I don't know how" was brushed off as it deserved and she made a fair nice job of it. Then as we were leaving the stage (platform) Jim and I both got tapped and there we were again.
Afterwards Jim went back to hotel and CN, her daughters, their paramours and a couple of friends went for a very classy burger at a place called 5 Ninth. Jim went to St. John the Divine for the Solstice concert - at 4:30 a.m. and I got home and crashed out. I remember him going out but rolled over and gave it a miss.
So I've had a great tango lesson at Triangulo on 21st. Street. More on the tango angle later as that part of the trip is getting ready to begin.
Eighteen stories above me the SFWA is getting ready to meet with us - the men started it by carrying Mama Gena in to the stage then disappearing for an hour. It was a little "Queer Eye" for the moment but kind of loopy fun. I'm going back over and have no idea - in a life singularly free of directional ideas - no idea of what the hell is going to happen next.
I love it.
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