Funny Story

Yes, I am in the middle of a series on Facebook Withdrawal, but something amusing happened today.

I went to Norwood Hospital to see my Dad. He is in the psych ward because after his prostate surgery he stopped eating. I am happy to report that, after some strong psychoactive drugs, he looks MUCH better. And he is eating much better.

My mother was there, which I didn't expect, but didn't mind. My father wanted to watch the end of Godfather III, so we did. But then I wanted to let Dad know that I had blown off a friend today because Dad asked me to visit. I told (my Mom, mostly) that I was "helping a friend" run for office and she asked, "Oh, is he in the Pirate Party, too?"

Fuck. I had not told my mother I was in the Pirate Party. I had not told her when I was in the GREEN party. There is one acceptable way to be involved in politics in my family: BE A REPUBLICAN. My brother, Dan, won the Republican nomination for state rep out here in the sticks back in the late 90's. He only lost the general election by a small margin. But he ran as a REPUBLICAN. They (my blood) all voted for Bush and McCain. The only thing worse than being a Democrat, in their eyes, is being in a THIRD PARTY! "They will be rounding you up with all the other radicals," my father told me last week when I said I thought not only should there be single payer health care, there should be single payer HIGH SPEED INTERNET ACCESS!

Little did I know when we had this conversation, and I marveled at how he jumped to this conclusion from my tiny tilt toward socialism, that my mother had Googled me this month. They knew. They knew that not only was I in a 3rd party, I was 2nd in command of the troops. GROAN!

What did I do? I told her: I am NOT stopping to soothe your nerves. I CAN'T keep my head down while the world falls into chaos. If I don't actively attempt to keep things from going to shit, I will not be able to live with myself. Before I was active, I was miserable. Today, I have never been happier. IN MY LIFE. Never happier in my life than I am right now. Put that in your pipe, Mom. And, I explained to her, my husband is happy, too.

She totally believes in astrology, so I told her, Jason has a northern node in Aires. He was BORN to be a community activist. To resist this is to kill his very nature. This made her think, indeed. "I don't know much about the northern node aspect," she said. "Look into it," I told her.

So the cat is out of the bag. I can expect ridicule and derision every time I see a family member now.

Fuck it. They better step off. I am not changing my stripes.