In the South, coming out is the language of debutantes, those rosy-cheeked young women in long white dresses and matching white gloves up to the elbow, floating like feathers down marble staircases the size of Texas. Their introduction to society is a celebratory time of champagne and parties, of photo opportunities in green backyard gardens, of laughter and back-slapping, of proud fathers and stressed-out mothers - a kind of nuptials trial run.
That fanfare is a far cry from the coming out of the boy I birthed on a chilly midwestern morning just seventeen summers prior - the boy who has my heart, the one who measures his words to me as carefully as a carpenter measures the wood before he feeds it to the blade. It is in that space between his voice gathering its steam and my mental chatter slowing to a crawl that I intuit the words before he even says them.
Mom, I'm gay. I've known it for as long as I can remember.
Wood to the blade.
Wonderful first post, Meredith! Bravo! You've whetted my appetite for more. Following your blog.
ReplyDeleteWow, Meredith! This is awesome! Can't wait for the next installment! :-)
ReplyDeleteWonderful way with words. Anxiously waiting for the next one!
ReplyDeleteYou are an artist whose medium is the written word. Beautifully done, your coming out blog is beautifully done.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully written. This is your gift and talent!
ReplyDeletePerfectly captures a mother's heart.
ReplyDeleteSweet one, you write so beautifully ... and you understand our hearts.
ReplyDeleteYou are a poet! I love this. Can't wait to read more. :)
ReplyDeleteThis is beautifully written and as a Mum, eerily familiar. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteMeredith, what a beautiful start! I love the contrast between the old southern idea of coming out and our kids coming out as gay. And congrats on joining the blogosphere! Bravo!
ReplyDeleteLiz, I mistakingly read as 'odd southern idea'. Funny, that worked, too. Although I've always lived in the south, the debutant coming out process seems stranger to me than the LGBT coming out process.
DeleteBeautifully written, Meredith! Love this images. The old coming out is about preserving tradition of presenting a daughter in hopes of "securing a favorable marriage." The new coming out is about overthrowing tradition in favor of people being who they were meant to be. Looking forward to this!
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