Weekend self-care open thread: An homage to "Everybody's Talking About Jamie" and acceptance

So, last night, I and my brother from another mother, the Gaybrarian, hied our way through the Los Angeles evening to the Ahmanson Theater in Downtown LA to take in a performance of the run of the North American premier of the hit West End musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie. If you have Amazon Prime, you can watch the film based on the play, and I urge you all to do it.

The short synopsis: The play is about a young gay man living in a rough area of England—think of the constituencies which went from Labour to Conservative in 2019—and his coming to terms with his true identity. It is, as they say, the feel-good event of the year. (Even though the musical has been wowing audiences in London Town since 2017.) Now, firstly: Yeah bitch, suck it NYC, LA got the North American premier, not you Gothamites. But, more seriously, and more to the themes I shall address, this got me to think about matters of accepting yourself as you are, and being accepted by those around you.

I and the Gaybrarian also make time to watch Ted Lasso, which has similar themes about acceptance and kindness as the mainstays of any decent human life. So often, society imposes on individuals. You must be this way. You must wear this clothing. You must act a certain way to be accepted as a functioning adult. Well, it's all hogwash.

The worst thing we do as humans is to try to fit square pegs into round holes. Humanity, at its best, is a wonderful complexity, messy and roiling, a cornucopia of billions of people all finding their way as best they can in a confusing world. Societies which try to force people into certain roles will, in my estimation, ultimately fail as societies. Although it may be hard to discern, we are past the era of strict tribal loyalties. We are past the time when "fitting in" provides security. Although many still resist it, we are a global civilization, a truly human civilization. We are still divided into nations and have boundaries separating us. But what is a line on a map compared to two people at opposite ends of the world sharing a love for the same music? What are demarcations on a globe compared to the shared wonders which bind us all as mere fallible, wonderful human beings? 

I see, every day, that we are coming out of our long adolescence, one in which preening and violent displays have ruled civilization for thousands of years. The likes of Vladimir Putin are yesterday's people. Day by day, bit by bit, their worldview is upset by what's going on on the street, by person to person contacts. I don't want to go to war with Russia; most Russians, I'd wager, don't want to send their sons to die on the Ukrainian plains. If we as a species have a future, it's one based on the acceptance of difference, both between cultures and within cultures. Acceptance of the differences inherent in us human beings is the key to us becoming what we can become. It's why when I see the divisions fostered by some among us, like the followers of Donald Trump, I'm both saddened and gladdened. Saddened because this will be more work we will have to do. Gladdened because the work is being done. 

I'm not a Pollyanna. But I am a proud and unapologetic optimist. As a child of immigrants, it's in my mental and spiritual DNA. I am  more myself than I have ever been at any point in my life, when I was trying to fit some role. I have the wisdom of 52 years spent on this earth, learning from my mistakes and my triumphs equally. I love fiercely and make no apologies for it. I laugh loudly and revel in it. The world will not be inherited by the mean-spirited, but by those who see a brother or sister and accept them as fully human, perfect in who they are.

So, for this weekend's self-care, music about acceptance, accepting yourself, and others.

All of us are beautiful. We simply have to be brave enough to accept that incontrovertible fact.

As always, be ever kind to yourselves and those around you.