The Total Femme

I’m not sure where I came across this story, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. A great teacher has grown very old and is preparing to die. Her most devoted follower attends her in her last days, trying not to give in to the devastating sorrow she is navigating as she watches her guru fade. As the old woman lies very close to death, she beckons for her student to come closer and whispers, “You know how I was always eating peppermint candy to soothe my delicate stomach, even though sweets are strictly forbidden?” The younger woman nods; even now, she has a few of the medicinal lozenges in her pocket. The teacher lets out a weak but heartfelt cackle. “Well,” she whispers. “My stomach is like iron. I just ate those peppermints because I like them!”

I love this story for what it teaches: we are all human. No matter our status as great teachers, or great anyone, no matter our positions of power and knowledge in any discipline, there is a not a one of us who doesn’t have a few or more very human foibles. If the student in the story was at all tempted to deify her teacher once she was dead, she won’t be able to do it now, because the teacher left her with this priceless gift: I was just a person, and so are you.

I think most of us have a tendency to imagine that the people we look up to, from whom we gain inspiration, are somehow more elevated than we are. That their daily lives and private moments are free from odd habits; that their wisdom provides them with a shield from the little crotchets and weaknesses we all experience. And then when we find out that, say, our beloved religious figure relaxes by watching porn or that she lied about her credentials or background, we lose all respect for her. Even if her teachings had liberated us from despair – maybe especially if her teachings had liberated us from despair.

This demand for our leaders and teachers to be perfect just doesn’t do us any good. I wish our demand instead was for them to be perfectly human. To me, that would be the more nuanced, layered and powerful example. What if our most respected teachers said things like, “Look, I have a wicked temper I can’t always control, I fucked up a lot when I was younger and did things I still regret and I know a few things that I’d like to share that might be helpful to others.” or “I binge watch ridiculous reality shows while making myself sick on salt water taffy, and I am the Executive Director of a cutting-edge non-profit where I do incredibly complex, healing, beautiful thinking about climate change and it’s really making a difference.”

I’ve written before about how queers in general and queer femmes in particular often feel the pull to present to the world as if we have it all together. As if we are model femmes with much wisdom to offer to both other queers and to straight people, while secretly worrying that we are flawed and fakes because we actually don’t have it all together. And we’re afraid that if “they” saw our distinctly human side, that all would be lost. My dear femme sisters, I know this is a complicated subject, and we queer femmes must do whatever keeps us safe in this turbulent world, and if that means holding up a shield of Don’t Fuck With Me, whatever that looks like for you, I am behind you one hundred percent.

And I also implore you: when you look in the mirror, when you’re home alone, when you look in your heart and you see HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN flashing in rainbow colored neon, be of good cheer! Our most revered wisdom holders light up that very same sign, and you, queer femmes, you are wisdom holders. You hold queer femme wisdom in every molecule of your queer femme self, and I revere you and am so grateful to you. The world benefits from your passage here.

Human. Queer. Femme.

Unending wisdom.

Every Monday, I offer a Meditation for Queer Femmes, in the spirit of my maternal grandmother, Mimi, who was fabulous, and from whom I inherited her Meditations for Women.

At the Total Femme, my intention is to post three times a week: Meditations for Queer Femmes on Monday, Pingy-Dingy Wednesday on Wednesday and Femme Friday on Friday. Rather than play catch-up in a stressful fashion on those weeks when life prevents posting, I have decided to just move gaily forward: if I miss a Monday, the next post will be on Wednesday, and so on. Thank you, little bottle of antibiotics for inspiring me in this! (“…if it’s almost time for the next dose, skip the missed dose and continue your regular dosing schedule. Don’t take a double dose to make up for a missed one.”)