tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post7656571774044177492..comments2024-03-05T21:04:43.133-05:00Comments on The Cahokian: World AIDS Day: In Memory of My Friend Johnishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-30790578909305373612011-01-13T06:14:20.091-05:002011-01-13T06:14:20.091-05:00Sure anon, what can I do for you? If you'd lik...Sure anon, what can I do for you? If you'd like to correspond by email post your email adress here. I will not publish it and drop you a note.ishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-1556686658988445262011-01-13T00:12:52.177-05:002011-01-13T00:12:52.177-05:00Hey ish. I'm a gay 19 year old reader of ile o...Hey ish. I'm a gay 19 year old reader of ile oxumare and I just wanted to thank you for being a personal inspiration to me and for sharing so much great music. Would love to chat with you if you have the time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-56993494136214211872010-12-05T14:39:36.461-05:002010-12-05T14:39:36.461-05:00it is hard, but i have made great friends througho...it is hard, but i have made great friends throughout my life and they are being very helpful. i think the connection to your story is this: you think you know things, and you think you have the experience to make the right decisions, but we never know what we don't know in life, do we?<br /><br />i think i'll be okay in the long run, and your writing is always enjoyable to read, so that helps too. :)freeboneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03131233817153602375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-51100283856360905852010-12-03T18:00:18.624-05:002010-12-03T18:00:18.624-05:00Thanks for your comment, freebones. Posts like thi...Thanks for your comment, freebones. Posts like this make me wonder if I'm oversharing--usually after the fact--but I tend to believe that's sort of my point in having a blog, to report on a perspective and period in an unexpurgated way. I actually feel very lucky to have experienced the orgiastic promiscuous gay male culture in its last moment pf possibility, and lived to tell the tale. At the same time I can scarcely picture the middle-aged me doing all those things over again. Time and the world has moved on. <br /><br />In retrospect I think it's so important to separate what happened with AIDS as a disease from any sense of morality. It's easy to confuse the two, and it was much different then, when the disease was unknown, from today when preventative measures are established science.<br /><br />Anyway, sorry to hear about your fiancee. That must be hard to go through. I wish you the best!ishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-42058615886578399132010-12-03T12:30:25.051-05:002010-12-03T12:30:25.051-05:00there's a lot at work here, ish. in a society ...there's a lot at work here, ish. in a society so ripe with heteronormative ideas, reading an honest and candid treatise on what conservatives might call 'promiscuity' from a gay man is a breath of fresh air. the funny thing is, substitute you or john for a woman and no one would have a problem with it. an interesting experiment would be to relay that story using non-gendered names (chris, jamie, ashley). <br /><br />but that isn't really the point of your writing, clearly. AIDS and other STDs are pervasive in all of society. two years ago, while still in college, a girl i had recently been sexually involved with called me to tell me she was positive for hepatitis. i got tested and am totally scot-free, thank god, but it was a scary time. more thankfully, i've never had to watch a friend pass on from a disease that is only still around because homophobic society hasn't allowed full attention to funding its treatment yet. HIV is a very simple biochemical problem. but the treatments and tests are sometimes amazingly controversial, although i can't really understand why. <br /><br />it's barely related, but my fiancee recently got cold feet and backed down, and so i am feeling a great sense of loss currently. you are a talented and passionate writer, and this was fascinating, shocking, and empathetic (if unintentionally) to read. thank you for this.freeboneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03131233817153602375noreply@blogger.com