there are a whole set of numbers in my head
good numbers
like the day i wed
or the days God gave me children
but there are bad numbers too.
the day my father crashed
the day he died
the day i lost veronica
and the day my daughters told me that they had been abused
the day Jesus died
today we remember His death
all my shadow days fall beneath this one day
when the world went dark
in grief and deliverance
Who, my age, did not want to be in movies like Goonies or ET? There was a group of child actors who appeared in movies like these who elicited at least a mild level of envy. These movies looked like fun to be in!
But something was wrong somewhere. A number of child actors from my generation have spoken out about sexual abuse in tandem with their acting career.
Corey Feldman has spoken out about his belief that his friend’s life was marred by sexual abuse and that it is a problem in Hollywood.
My heart goes out to Corey Haim and the way a predator’s actions may have ultimately contributed to years of pain and a premature death.
Victims have the right to speak out, pursue legal action, warn others, and get help. They need to know they are not alone.
I like to use abuse survivor as much as possible, but I think that in this case, Corey Haim was a victim. His story is a tragedy.
Talked about the experience of being sexually abused at a very young age. I am grateful for her candor about such a painful part of her story. When we see Ashley or Oprah or Ellen or other people who have spoken out about their abuse, I tell my children that these people are in their community. They need to know that they are not alone and that they are not only victims of sexual abuse. They are survivors
I remember reading/hearing Ellen’s story of surviving sexual abuse and being angry with the person she told. This person ignored Ellen’s outcry to maintain the relationship with the man who had abused her. As a mother I thought, no!!!
Ellen was one of many public voices who prepared me to handle the unthinkable by sharing her story.
THANK YOU ELLEN!
Okay, so my plan is to highlight the stories of sexual abuse victims for the month of April. If you are a private citizen and have told me your story, don’t worry, your story stops with me. But I do want to honor every last celebrity who has identified being the survivors of rape or child rape as a part of their story because each one has given me strength to tell our story. Tomorrow I will explain the story of how all that happened but today I just have one word, one name–
Oprah. I would not have the courage to tell our story without you. Thank you Oprah, for my voice, my children’s voices, for the knowledge that we are not alone.
Thank you
has haunted me ever since i learned that she was sexually abused by her half-brother(s).
she is forthright about it in a sketch from the past. i believe this abuse was contributing factor in her struggles.
is April, terribly ironic considering she is a survivor of sexual assault. She has taught me how to look bravely into the truth, into living through and past what was done to her and her community, her family and her friends.
In honor of this month and all the victims of sexual abuse, I would like to remember some of them each day.
For yesterday I would like to remember three sexual abuse victims from the Bible–Tamar, Dinah, and the unnamed concubine in Judges 19.
you could take a mirror and draw things on your face
smudge out lines,
erase gray hair
or add stuff
like that handlebar moustache you have always wanted?
what would you erase
or embellish?
and how would you face your heart with the truth
of all you had done
hidden
or defaced.
we are constantly required to make decisions, bread or soup? bus or vespa? helmet or baseball cap?
these decisions define us public/publically, private/privately. the more public our lives, the greater the chances that yahoo will trumpet the strangeness of our latte choices (as in…j.lo, vente mocha chai, who knew?)
but then if our lives are private there are people we abide with who will not only know about the chai, they will know about our control issues, weakness for french fries, our flashpoints of anger. in other words, our weaknesses, our sins. they may not know all of them (who knew?) but they will know enough.
i have heard it said both that we are defined by who loves us and by what we love
Who loves you? What do you love?
Palm Sunday
one day i would like to be secure enough to publish a book of verse called simply “old words.” I have the ability to do this thanks to J.’s patronage and createspace, and the sheer existence of old words, some of which I have put together in abstrusely meaningful units.
I recently received a great gift in regard to some of these old words. A dear, dear cousin and I connected and in the connection we have had some wonderful conversations about our family history and literary heritage. I told her I had written a couple of poems about her mother and unearthed these poems and emailed them to her.
I was surprised at how good it was to share them with her and also to see myself again the way I was when I wrote them.
old words, ordinary words can offen capture beautiful people, eternal stories, lives joined by blood and water.
Carrying Light 