Growing up in the shadow of our ancestors where they and those before them were so set in their ways didn’t allow for much room for patience and understanding. Children were raised with ignorance towards understanding and dealing with their feelings. No one wanted to take the time to help their children work through the emotions they were struggling to hold on to. Each day children questioned who they were and couldn’t understand why they were experiencing those feelings. Parents were not raised to deal with feelings, in fact it was once considered to be shameful or embarrassing to do so. A Woman couldn’t even raise a child out-of-wedlock and keep the child nor did families deal with mental health issues.
Looking back through time there were signs of women and men enjoying same-sex relationships. In some cases it almost seemed like it was a sport to see how many men and how many women could be intimate with one another at the same time. Somehow this was not shunned at that time. At times it was like watching a boxing match or an old black and white movie. This is true going all the way back to the time of Sappho. Anyone who has read Greek mythology can tell you that relationships in general didn’t really conceive of sexual orientation to identify with who an individual is as we now do in modern times. While most men married woman 20 years their junior and had relations with men similarly aged. It was just what happened. This makes one wonder how behavior could be so acceptable at one point and become so socially unacceptable during more modern times.
Most people try to raise their children to believe in themselves for the person that they are and tell them that they have to follow their dreams, whatever they may be. We all know that no society or other person should decide who and what any person chooses to be. Each individual lives their lives within their own body. The skin that covers them is their own. The eyes they see themselves with are their own. When they look in the mirror, they may not always be happy with what they see, but it shouldn’t be because they feel trapped inside their body as someone they feel they were never meant to be. You, nor I can decide that for another person and we should never think that it is right for us to do so.
The Story of Bruce Jenner is a sad one. I’m just proud that he found the strength within himself at age 65 to make the choice that’s right for him. I only wish that he had been able to live a fuller life as the person he had truly wanted to be. I’ve enjoyed seeing him evolve through the years. I idolized his athletic stamina back in the day and was proud of him when he walked into the Kardashian family and loved them all for who they were and they in turn were able to do the same for him.
I look forward to seeing what female name that Bruce will choose to take on. It’s only now known that it will start with the letter “K”. I hope that his strength will motivate and allow everyone else that struggles from within to find their true self to feel empowered enough to follow their own dreams to a path of happiness. As best said by a beautiful Doris Day: “Que Sera, Sera.”
Update: Follow along with a day in the life of the now “Caitlyn Jenner” on her Facebook page.
The Writings of Felina Silver Robinson 