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comm<br />
—unity chest<br />
mental health<br />
OPINION:<br />
Ray<br />
O’Neill<br />
Body Shame<br />
“Don’t fix your life so that<br />
you’re left alone when you<br />
come to the middle of it,” is<br />
a sage piece of advice given<br />
by an older gay man to a<br />
young woman in a film I<br />
watched over Christmas. It’s<br />
something we could all do<br />
well to listen to.<br />
In the midst of lazy Christmas downtime, watching films and<br />
eating delicious food that cannot be good for you (carbs!),<br />
came 1998’s The Object of My Affection. I hadn’t seen it in<br />
a while and remembered it as pushing the Will and Grace<br />
dynamic of gay guy and gal pal into a more honest, tender,<br />
raw space. Now I’m in my mid-40s, my point of poignant<br />
identification no longer came from the gay/gal dynamic, but<br />
from the supporting role of ‘older gay man’ played by Nigel<br />
Hawthorne, who in his singleness sagely advises Jennifer<br />
Aniston’s character: “Don’t fix your life so that you’re left alone<br />
right when you come to the middle of it.”<br />
We make New Year’s resolutions at the beginning of the year,<br />
but they always come from the middle of our lives’ experience.<br />
And so, I proffer this same sage advise to myself and others<br />
that in this year, you don’t fix things so that you’re left alone.<br />
This ‘not being left alone’ isn’t ever merely about dating or<br />
“<br />
All of us have skills, talents, time,<br />
space and money that can be shared,<br />
given, circulated. But how many of<br />
us actually share them?<br />
relationship (it is more often the coupled ones who realise just<br />
how left alone they have chosen to be, though this is never<br />
really spoken about.) This is about making choices, indeed<br />
fixing things for your life that bring you genuine experiences<br />
and expressions of company, companionship and community.<br />
We can often be deceived into confusing having lots of people<br />
around with not being ‘lonely’ or ‘alone’. There are lots of places<br />
and spaces hiding us from loneliness, but badly.<br />
Most people ‘couple’ as a way of staving off fears of<br />
loneliness, and ‘fix’ their lives this way, becoming either<br />
dependant on the idea of the ‘couple’ to hide in, or the<br />
performance of the ‘couple’ to hide from. One only has to<br />
look at the numbers of ‘married’ and ‘partnered’ folk online<br />
still seeking something they aren’t getting at home. But there<br />
are few apps and websites fostering community, fellowship.<br />
Instead, they drive people to consume, to be consumed by<br />
their consumption, be it alcohol, drugs, sex, products, things.<br />
So, to all of us, myself included, I ask what, in <strong>2018</strong>, are we<br />
going to do that reinforces those experiences and expressions<br />
of company, companionship, community. Who are we going to<br />
reach out to, and who are we going to let reach us?<br />
Resolutions have become such a cliché. Stop listing<br />
things you are going to lose or gain and instead choose one<br />
opportunity to bring into your life that allows a real experience<br />
and expression of company, companionship, or community.<br />
Something that involves time and space, dates, taking a<br />
stand, a commitment, an engagement, vowing, duty, all those<br />
‘coupley’ words that don’t only belong to couples, but to any<br />
individual who genuinely commits to anything and anyone in<br />
life. In doing this, we already move from resolution to revolution.<br />
All of us have skills, talents, time, space and money that<br />
can be shared, given, circulated. But how many of us actually<br />
share them? I applaud anyone that wants to lose some weight,<br />
or get fitter, or quit smoking, or cease using porn, especially<br />
if they are doing such things for themselves. But when we<br />
do things for others, for community, for groups, then our<br />
resolve is different because we have others’ support, needs,<br />
responsibilities.<br />
I took so much pride in <strong>GCN</strong>’s ‘New Year, New You’ piece last<br />
month because it was a personal call to get involved, and as<br />
within all social altruism, there is a personal gain. We are less<br />
alone when we fix things to share some of our lives, energy,<br />
time with others.<br />
As the LGBT+ scene moves from pubs to Apps and our<br />
culture becomes more and more assimilated and flat, the<br />
need to gather, to join, to have pride and take part is lessened.<br />
With marriage equality and an ‘out’ Taoiseach we are told we<br />
have it all, but who is telling us this, and why?<br />
So, in the reflections that can often be part of a more sober,<br />
and definitely thriftier start to the year, instead of listing<br />
resolutions, perhaps some of us can resolve to make a change,<br />
a real change, one that engages others, that builds community.<br />
My nerdiest highlight over Christmas obviously had to be<br />
the new Star Wars film, during which, in the midst of all the<br />
CGI drama, one line of dialogue stood out: “We’re going to win<br />
this war not by fighting what we hate, but saving what we love.”<br />
Maybe the battle for LGBT+ equality is over and we no longer<br />
have to fight, but the war continues and now, in the middle of<br />
it, more than ever we have to save something of and for our<br />
selves – we have to love.<br />
The need for community, camaraderie remains and<br />
continues. Don’t leave such things alone. The revolution should<br />
keep turning. Long live the revolution!