Event Horizon

[originally posted to my WordPress]

It rained last night and is still raining this morning. That’s a good thing, since I’m in Southern California and I don’t want another wildfire scare like I had before.

There is a tree next to my apartment building. I heard something crack early this morning, and when I left my apartment I realized a big branch had broken off the tree. As I was walking down the steps, I saw a man walking his dog. The tree branch was blocking the sidewalk, and since it was right up against the garbage corral, he had no way to get around.

I had my leather gloves on, so I walked over to the broken end of the branch, grabbed it, and pulled. It took a few times, but I managed to drag it into the grass, getting the sidewalk clear. The man thanked me and walked on with his dog.

It felt nice to do something concretely good.

I notice that there’s a lot of late nineties, early aughts material that liked to crib from LGBT experiences / personal narratives.

What springs to mind at the moment is X-Men 2, and the scene in the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Joyce has found out Buffy is the Slayer.

“Have you ever tried… not being a mutant?”

“Honey, are you sure you’re a vampire slayer? …I– I mean have you tried not being a Slayer?”

Bobby’s mother saying “This is all my fault.”

Buffy and Joyce fighting, culminating in Joyce’s ultimatum: “If you walk out of this house, don’t even think about coming back”

None of these parents wanting to accept these children of theirs who turned out ‘not normal’. Denying it, bargaining for it not to be true, getting angry, throwing their children out (though yeah, Joyce does take her daughter back after Buffy runs away and is gone all summer).

This observation is not new or unique. I missed it when I was first watching BtVS in reruns, but I squirmed in the theater during the scene at Bobby’s house. I don’t like it. I don’t like the way it feels, hearing “mutant” in the place of transgender or lesbian or bisexual or gay or whatever else about us is unchangeable that our stupid fucking parents wanted us to change.

Yeah, I love the X-Men. Mystique’s powers are my favorite (for obvious reasons, I should think). The line just rubs me the wrong way. I think because it was laughed at, and I felt laughed at.

Not sure where I’m going with this. I just… have feelings to process right now, and this is an attempt.

[[Note: Tumblr is where I've been for a while now, but I want to break away from it eventually. And clean up this journal, because I screwed up on importing from LJ.]]