BPJ Inc: Pickle Juice

The other day, I stumbled upon this wonderful video by the ever fabulous Tyler Oakley, and I felt that I wanted to write an extended comment on it. My problem was that I could only come up with thoughts and words I had already used and I really don't like to repeat myself.

Then two major Things happened. First, I was linked to this blog post by my newest (dare I say) online friend, Ben Patrick Johnson. And then SCOTUS made the radical decision that all humans should have the same rights when it comes to love. I know! Totally crazy, right? Suddenly, I knew what to write about that hadn't been talked about ad nausiem in this blog.

Background

When I moved to Dublin, I was all "New Place, New Life, New Everything!!" and I became a tad bit obsessed when it comes to being me, or who I believed me to be. Turns out that I am not an in-your-face-this-is-me person, so I dropped the pretense and feel much better about it. I have been handed something I've dreamed about for as long as I can remember, and I will not squander this opportunity by being someone I'm not or accept anything less than I deserve.

Topic

Pickle Juice. Most of you are probably going "Huh?" but I love the analogy of pickle juice (see Tyler Oakley's video linked at the top of this post). Life can be very easy or very hard, but it usually falls somewhere in between. We can take a path of least resistance and just float along, even if it hurts our hearts and our souls, or we can take a stand and say "This is me! You don't get to decide if I want the pickle or the brine."

Part1.

To be, that is what Pride is about. That is what the SCOTUS decision and the Irish referendum Yes victory stand for. It's telling people that everyone has the right to choose if they want the pickle, the brine, or the jar. It's standing up, knees bruised from being pushed down time and time again, and making our voices heard in a cacophony that would drown us out. The struggle is far from over. Yes, same-sex marriage has won two important victories in short order, but more countries are left. There are governments who still refuse equal rights to all people living within their borders. The LGB part of the initialization has won great ground, but the T, the I, and the Q are left, standing in the dust, waiting.

Part 2.

A part of "getting over ourselves" is conquering the sissyphobia. Recently, I saw an amazing video in which Van Darkholme, the Top of the Doms at the Armory in San Fransisco, describing, in depth, what makes him not give a single lick about what other people think of him, and it all boils down to him knowing who he is. He knows his work and who he is, which makes him able to either bring much stronger men to their knees, or scream in a pitch made to break glass during the Ice Bucket Challenge. He talks about owning your weaknesses, so that they can't be used against you, and throwing a "So what?" at those who would point out perceived flaws. Maybe this is what makes the Aussie rugby players mentioned yesterday on BPJ's twitter not care who they touch, hug, or pile up on. And maybe this is how we make our lives easier. We own our weaknesses and our strengths, we stand together when others would push us down, and we say no to the brine in that jar when we want the pickle.

DFTBA