WICKED PATH, CROOKED LAUGH
Jac’s Rant and Rail

SHOCKINGLY SPOILED
(painting by Jac)

Is it just me or is the world of fashion, media, and mayhem UN-SHOCKABLE?

If you say what you mean poetically it’s dismissed as dull and dated. If you say what you feel, making yourself emotionally vulnerable, don’t expect sympathetic applause. If you say what you want crudely and as quickly as you can, maybe you have a fighting chance to be heard, recognized, appreciated. But just barely.

The truth is these days nothing is nasty enough, dirty enough, daring enough, tough enough, foul enough, or rebellious enough. For me the phenomenon of ‘nothing is too far’ has me (yes I’m getting on a bit in years) wanting to just turn around and speak my peace in quiet, delicate phrases as it suits me in the moment. And F*** ‘em if they can’t hear it or they think its too prim.

We’re living in an eternal bad girl high school aesthetic gone haywire. To be hip, cool, enlightened, spiritual, politically correct or whatever seems to entail an openess to all that is. anything less than outrageous is…well, passé.

I love edge pushers. I admire people who seek new definitions of the ordinary and the bizarre. I strive to stay open to new ways and ideas. But I don’t choose to live them all. And as a woman trying to make her work creative, political, and goddess willing profitable (i.e. feed and clothe family plus) I am at a loss as how to communicate what there is to communicate without offending a minority people and boring the rest.

1. Sex is Sacred.
2. Violence MUST end.
3. Cynicism is not love.
4. Boys, Girls, and all other genders or otherwise named are equally entitled to rights and pleasure.
5. Pleasure is good.
6. Peace is Best.
7. Effecting positive change is a worthy effort.
8. Judge less, Act more.
9. Be proud.
10. Enjoy.
11. Laugh, and look for humor.
12. Do not do things just to be cool, especially to your heart, body, and soul.
13. Let us all preserve some element of ourselves to be shocked. Or we’ll have to do something drastic to get your attention.

If we can not be shocked we lose some potency. Being free is still defined by who we are. If we only do outrageous things because that’s all that’s left in the cool department where does the subtle nuance of discovery go? Progress is not always heavy handed. In the quiet of ourSELVES is the truth a BITCH and only a BITCH or is she/he/other?/ a variety of tenderness and ferocity? And isn’t it these unique places that make us happiest. I implore the enlightened world to rethink the need to outdo the last generation.

As much as I want to be an angry earth-shaking punk I more deeply want to be a happy little girl, a woman at peace, and an inspired artist. And under the weight of all the edge cracking dirty talk I’m finding it hard to be heard. Please, listen.-for a minute. Is LOVE too sweet for these times? Or can we allow the sap to flow just a little? Spring is just around the corner!

Signing off of the Boudoir for a time…I wish you all tenderness and good times.