I woke up thinking I was going to write a pretty powerful blog entry. I’ve been trying to comprehend MAGA people and how they can so blindly follow trump. Something about it seems familiar to me, and I realized, I can relate it to somewhat in my devotion as a once die-hard Morrissey fan, even in the face of his bigotry again and again. It was the media against him! But he made his allegiances pretty clear in mid 2019 when he wore a button of a far-right racist British hate group on Jimmy Kimmel live.
This blog entry, about how I do somewhat understand trumpees, is something I’d like to write eventually. However, it brings up years of pain and mental health crises that I realized, I don’t want to think about this morning! Although I mapped it all out in my head while tending to the chickens (distracted much?) and I felt the surging energy to get the words out NOW, I felt my heart racing and I just realized, this isn’t the time. This also made me realize what an positive impact giving up this cult hero had on my life.
Something I’ve been wrestling with is writing about trauma. I used to do it mindlessly, and if I may say so, quite well. I’ve been told I really capture the feelings in my work of what it is like to be in some horrible situations, such as isolation, abuse and rape. I was disconnected from it though. And it hurt me. Writing it and sharing it almost always lead to drinking, drug use, and self-harm. And in worst scenarios, pretty verbally abusive behavior towards my partner, following a reading of Show Trans in Boston. I haven’t really written in a while. Not anything that I was very connected to, but now I am. And I want to do it in a way that is healing and healthy.
I started a more creative piece (I did write those blog entry updates recently, but was pretty dissociated) about the past few years: my time spent in the psych ward, addiction problems, and probably the most traumatic of all, Joey’s and my year long breakup after 6 years together. It was a breakup I thought would be forever, and in fact, for the first 3 months I thought I’d never see him or my chosen family again, because it was too painful for me. It was one of the worst traumas I’ve been through. It is something I think I need to write about to heal. But when I’ve tried lately, and even shared some of it at my writing group, I feel awful.
I’m taking two writing courses over the next few months. One is called I Am Here: Affirmations as Forms of Resistance. I’ve only gone to one zoom meetup so far and it was AMAZING. This workshop is three more weeks and it’s free, with a suggested donation to the cafe in NYC sponsoring it. I highly recommend it so far. The other one is starting tomorrow. It’s called Writing for Happiness, Healing & Health. This one is 8 weeks, twice a week, and I paid for it. I’m hoping these two workshops will help me get some ideas about how to approach some of these difficult topics.
In other news, I’ve been working a lot of my visual art, namely my marker drawings. I want to start selling it, starting as prints. I’ve ordered some samples, and I should have at least 3 up for sale on my etsy store within a few weeks. I find real refuge in my art. It is pretty purely joyful, featuring expressive animal portraits and vibrant patterned backgrounds. I’ve been working on these types of pieces for about 6 years, and I plan to keep going with the series. Sometimes, that’s just what I need. So instead of writing that article about current events and cult mentalities, today I am working on a portrait of a sea slug. And I feel pretty good about that.
Elliott DeLine, Author 