The Drum Beats On

My neck hurts.  Not just right now at this very second, but generally speaking all the time, every day.  There's one specific spot high up where the skull connects with the spine, only on the left side, that's been a problem for a while.  It causes me pain when I look over my shoulder, or when I look down for too long (ie doing Sudoku puzzles on an airplane), and certainly when I wrestle.  I don't think it's anything specific to my neck getting hurt at the World Team Trials a couple of years ago so much as simply one of those aches and pains that seems to generally come with getting older. 

I usually don't pay much attention to it.  I've learned to live with it.  I've come to expect when it's going to crack or when I need to move slower because there's a "crick" there.  Still, it doesn't slow me down all that much and I don't pay it too much attention except perhaps when I'm on the wrestling mat.

Friends have told me for years I should go see a Chiropractor to "align" my back.  I've never been to one and perhaps that's something I should consider.  We'll see. 

I suppose in the bigger picture it's one of those symbolic things, too.  How many of us have these kinds of chronic aches (physical, mental, emotional, or all the above) that we just accept and live with?  Sometimes we just deal with it as best we can and the only time we give it much thought is when it flares up worse than usual, or if we get too many of them piled up at the same time.  I'd argue that my gender "gift" was one of those things for a long time - it was always there, it was always a "bother", it sometimes flared to the point where I had to do someting.  But eventually, something changed and I couldn't ignore it any more.

Anyway - I digress.

Back to my neck.....  My wrestling coach here is a heavyweight.  By heavyweight, I mean he's a big guy.  We were working out Monday night and I did a move that ended up pulling him onto me.  In the process of being crushed I felt this big "crack" in my neck and I stopped for a moment thinking I'd done something to make the situation worse.  But as I sit here this morning I'm both surprised and relieved to admit that since it happened - it feels a lot better!  I don't think my relief is permanent as it felt better yesterday than today, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

Speaking of pain in the neck, I'm sure I'm not the only one already tired of the 2012 Political Circus known as the Elections.  Watching the clowns in the Republican Party has been admittedly amusing, but it's a little scary to realize that some people actually take them seriously.  The next key primary is here in South Carolina in a couple of weeks and they've already started criss-crossing the state to do speaking, polluting the airwaves with their commercials, filling the sides of the roads with signs, and generally taking control of things for a while.  Yuck.  This is a "conservative" state so they've got quite a few people willing to listen.

I appreciate that some who read this may actually be Republican and I respect that.  All I can say is let's not talk politics because the platform of "Anyone but Obama" is not a platform the same as "Anything but a Republican" isn't either.  But the cross-section of social, religious, and financial conservatism that passes itself off as Republican political dogma these days is fundamentally contrary to everything I believe in and support.  As I said in an earlir post I'll do what I can to make sure that President Obama gets 4 more years to finish his work.  Getting through these next several months leading to the elections are going to be hard to take, though.

Some things never die...

The had of ABC Entertainment said he doesn't get why "Work It" is being assailed by transpeople as being harmful to transpeople (read here).  That's obvious - since someone should have stopped this mess from ever being produced in the first place.

There's still continuing conversation about a recent New Zealand tampon ad.  Here's a recent perspective (read it here).  One transwoman wrote an op/ed piece explaining why she found it offensive (read here).   For the record - I personally thought the ad was actually kinda creative and wasn't bothered in the least by it.  But then again, perhaps I've got a unique sense of humor.  :)

And lastly for today, there's more backlash against the Girl Scouts for it's supportive policy on admitting trans kids.  One girl is getting publicity by putting a video on YouTube calling for a national boycott of Girl Scout Cookies because of it (see here).  Oy.

And...the drum beats on.....