Soft Descent, Ever After

Humans portrayed as fragile beings in an era of hardness.

I grew up in a christian fundamentalist cult. When I came of age and realized I was gay, I progressed through an era of pain. This religious group, like many, was obsessed with sex and more so the control of sexuality. Now I'm a fully healed and realized man nearing 50. Today, I know myself to be a homoromantic greysexual; I am aware I'm not experiencing sexuality like most others. The thing that caused so much pain when I was young is a thing that's barely in me at all.  It's difficult to articulate, hence, these photos.

Over the last four years, this perspective shifted a bit. When I see displays of sensuality or sexuality, I often feel like I'm watching a film about a species that isn't me. In an era defined by meanness and stupidity, I felt a deep need to see this mental film, if you will, depicting humans as vulnerable fragile beings.

"You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves." -Mary Oliver, Wild Geese