Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom

This is my youtube debut:

SYRF in Action

Everybody’s Doing It… Even Your Parents.

I discovered yesterday that my mom has an injured hip. I asked how she hurt it and she got coy and looked at the floor. A little while later, my dad leans over and says, “You know how your mom hurt her hip?” with a nod and a big old grin on his face.

Way to go mom and dad!

I grew up in a family that appears to be a rarity these days. Not only were sex jokes commonplace at the dinner table, but my sister and I were encouraged to ask questions and speak freely about sex and sexuality. As a result, I think, I never gained that learned embarrassment that most folks have when hearing about their parents having sex. I grew up with the knowledge that my parents were having sex; it wasn’t gross or disgusting, but natural and expected. In fact, there was even music that meant it was parent private time. When Sade “Lover’s Deluxe” was playing, you stayed clear of their bedroom.

I didn’t realize until late high school that most people were grossed out by their parents having sex. The fact that most people are taught to get the jitters when thinking of their parents in coitus, rather than celebrating the act that made them just shows how little our society values sex. Most of our parents are probably having sex, if they are lucky. It doesn’t gross me out. In fact, I am happy that my parents are doing it. They have been married for almost 40 years. They are still totally in love. I hope I am still having sex on the verge of 60 and I don’t mind if my children know it.

Fingers

these fingers
pallid
dry
scratch and bend
disfigured phalanges
cold
tired
rifts like ancient valleys
in the surface
of the skin
made, with lines
like paths
that life has taken
long to be hidden
soft
childlike
young again...