The Stand

I wrote this some time ago for my short lived radio program. It seems to me just as relevant to me now as it did then. If you missed it the first time around now is your chance. So ... Enjoy.
 
I don’t believe I’ve ever struggled so hard over a piece of writing. For days I’ve pondered the approach. Should I be light hearted, or should I come straight down the chute? I started, and then stopped again. One attempt began something like:

“36 years and some months ago I came into this world Kicking and screaming.”

Really? I thought as I read that disaster over. You cannot begin that way. And by the time I read:

“I didn’t see the humor in it then, wide open mouth granting entry between the thighs of the laughing fat lady.” I’d decided I had to begin again.

I knew I wanted to say something that would catch and hold your attention. I knew that I wanted to thrust you into, and leave you deep in thought. I knew I wanted to surprise and stun you and leave you wanting more. I was aware that my delivery had to be eloquent and articulate and that my voice had to be deep and strong and it had to resonate out over the airwaves and touch your ears like a gentle whisper, and be pleasing.

I considered writing this in the rhythmic staccato of the spoken word poem. A delivery method I am familiar with and good at. I could say something like:

Words are like air to me
Everywhere and possessing all things with meaning
Giving the day a name and making death a pain
Words are like air to me.

But, I’m not a real poet to begin with and it all sounded so forced. I decided at one point to take the easiest road and give you an hour of my music art and stories. I thought to regale and entertain you with my greatness, talent and skill. Live raps, and stories and poems, all wrapped up in the silky sheet of my voice. Internet radio as a shameless vehicle of self promotion.  And don’t doubt that selfish self promotion will play a part here, over time, never fear. All good things in small doses I told myself as I crawled back into my humble pie.

 I struggled with how to tell you who I am and with how to make this a moment you remember and long to return to week after week. I want you to love me, I want you to tell your friends about me and why they should love me too. Stories about my childhood I decided were trite, boring and only relevant from the perspective of who I am today. And who I am today is your humble host D.K. Renaissance man, friend, lover, and father. What I am today is a man with a radio show. What I was yesterday was a man with a radio show to write. What I will be tomorrow we can only wait to see. That is truly in your hands.

This show is not just about me; this show is also about you. This show is about dialogue and discovery. This show is about exploring the boundaries of reality and truth as we know it and should we find them lacking, tearing them down and casting them aside. This show is about bringing the things that affect our lives out into the harsh light of day. And in this world, vampires don’t sparkle. The minutes following this dialogue are where you, get a chance to find your voice, to state your viewpoint, to shout out at those things that frustrate you. Everyday we are surrounded by so many lies, half truths and misleading leaders there is a feeling that no one can be believed. Our jobs are lies, our coworkers are lies, our television is a lie, or politicians, teachers, police, judges and ministers are lies. This is the time when your moral compass must be your guide and this is the place to stage your war. I ask of you only this in the end:

Stand together with me! Raise your voice so that they might hear our cries and understand. WE WILL NOT GO EASILY INTO THE DARKNESS!  

The Compleat Libertine

Clearing up the Libertine Confusion

I am a Libertine. Not because I’ve read much of the famous Libertines, not because I am a fan of the likes of John Wilmot or the Marqui de Sade, or the 2nd Earl of Rochester. Not because I love the movie “The Libertine” starring Johnny Depp. I am a Libertine because that’s what I am. I choose to live a life free of the social and moral constraints that cause us to fear and doubt and question the one thing we should never hold in doubt … ourselves.

Now I know that many of you are shaking your heads at the thought of having no moral constraints. Well that’s why I am here to help clear the fog from your heads. Being a Libertine is not about having a LACK of constraints, it’s about NOT subscribing to the social and religious moral constraints that make no sense. But, before I get into why I am a Libertine let’s look at just what a Libertine is.

Libertine as defined by dictionary dot com::

noun
1. a person who is morally or sexually unrestrained, especially a dissolute man; a profligate; rake.

2. a freethinker in religious matters.

3. a person freed from slavery in ancient Rome.

adjective
4. free of moral, especially sexual, restraint; dissolute;licentious.

5. freethinking in religious matters.

6. Archaic . unrestrained; uncontrolled.

Synonyms
1.  roué, debauchee, lecher, sensualist, amoral, sensual, lascivious, lewd.

This translates to me as FREE.

Free to live my life as I see fit. As an example: For you, dear reader, the idea of having more than one sexual partner or love interest may be immoral or indeed amoral. For me it’s a natural course of human existence. We are social creatures and, especially in this age of super connectivity, our lives are largely defined by the social connections we make. The people we keep in our lives speak as much to who we are as the people we dismiss from our lives do. For me those people are important and I am not one to hinder the growth of the relationships in my life based on some ideal of morality dictated to me by the church or the state. Instead my morality says, “Make, and strive to keep, friends. And if you get the chance to fuck one, do it”. “Where is the morality in that, “you may be asking yourself? I prefer to earn and retain friendships based on the people involved and not based on their personal lives. Just as I am free to live as I please so too are you. I will never judge or hinder you in your existence because no one but you can live it. Where is my right to judge you or ask you to change so that I can feel justified, or justify to the nay sayers in my life, knowing you? That wouldn’t be fair to me or to you.

So, what are Libertines really like? Let’s break it down shall we?

Libertine Morality

Dare I continue along this slippery, rocky, narrow, steep grade? Yes, why not? Let’s begin by definition.

mo·ral·i·ty
   [muh-ral-i-tee, maw-]
noun, plural -ties for 4–6.

1. conformity to the rules of right conduct; moral  or virtuous conduct.

2. moral  quality or character.

3. virtue in sexual matters; chastity.

4. a doctrine or system of morals.

5. moral  instruction; a moral  lesson, precept, discourse, or utterance.

The definition itself is a moral stricture. Words like virtuous and chastity are used to describe something that comes down to holding a personal stance. Maybe your stance is virtuous, maybe it isn’t. Maybe you are chaste and maybe you are not but sliding into debauchery does not make you an immoral person. The so called “rules of right conduct” are dictated by those who hold to certain values and so those values dictate morality. I say pah, pshaw, and humbug. Morality is a personal thing that begins with one idea:

And ye harm none do as thou wilt; let that be the whole of the law.

Morality is a personal stance. Personally I would never place any moral stricture on another person. That alone, to me, is a moral stance. Some people wield the rod against their children, committing violence against a being that has no hope of recourse or retribution. To me that is reprehensible and worthy of a like punishment and so completely immoral. Some feel that it’s their god given, and state given, right to harass, harangue, and abuse people for the choices they’ve made in their lives. Some feel that subjecting their families to years of missionary work and closing them off from society at large is a perfectly moral thing to do. I call it social abuse. None of us will ever agree completely on what is right and what is wrong. Right in my world boils down to leaving people to live as they please accepting them, or not, for who they are and leaving the rest to the tests of time. I expect the same in return. If you are going to be a part of my life then the fact that I can be a rapscallion and a lothario are just part of the package.

You live yours, Let me live mine.

Libertine Sexuality

Sex. We all do it we all love it. Sex is a natural part of human existence yet somehow it’s become a complicated morass of emotion, morality and plain foolishness. Some seem to think that sex and sexuality should exist in one dimension. For these people sex is one man, one woman, missionary in a bed in the dark for the purpose of procreation only. Now, tell yourselves the truth, while this happens now and then, how many of you do this every time you have sex? Only this and nothing else? The crickets are chiming in. I can hear them but not a single hand is going up. Why?

Because sex is an experience. It’s designed to be enjoyable and full of feeling and pleasure and to bring people closer together. What better way to get into someone's soul than getting into their pants? When your bodies are intertwined, skin on skin, flesh slapping in a staccato rhythm, your breath in each others ears, and faces, sweat mingling and pooling beneath you as you work yourselves into a frothy climax … whew, that’s getting me hot. The sight, the sounds, the smells of sex are intoxicating, invigorating and familiar to us all. While designed to be pleasurable so that we propagate the human race, they are decidedly NOT there for that reason alone.

We should engage one another in the act of mutual pleasure and we should do it as often as possible. We should do it in many different ways, in many different positions and with many different people. We should engage in fantasies and fulfill them for one another. We should spank and bite and scratch and go hard and deep. Sex is an experience not to be missed or taken lightly. Like all things we are discussing here however there should be no harm done to unwilling parties. This isn’t about throwing all morality, personal responsibility, and caution to the wind. This is about experiencing your life, in the now, as you please and avoiding all delusion and self deception.

Libertine Lifestyle

Some of you might be thinking, “who is he to say what a Libertine Lifestyle” is? Good question. I am a self professed life long Libertine to begin. I’ve lived in the now and for the pleasures of life since I first reached down and realized touching my dick was fun. Fighting was fun. Fucking was fun. Drinking, smoking, dancing, driving, chasing women, were, and are, all fun. These things and more are what life is all about and the Libertine Lifestyle is about indulging yourself and others.

Some may say that life is all about the pursuit of a higher spiritual state or the relentless drive for material wealth or the passion for higher ideals and they would be right. Life is also about the things you do in between the spiritual, the material and the idealistic. It takes all of these things to live a truly fulfilled life and one piece of life shouldn’t be neglected for another. No one way of living should supersede another. To hinder and restrict yourself in this way is to lose in life, to miss much of what life has to offer.

There is a saying that goes something like, “slide into your grave sweaty, panting and apologizing for being late”. The thought is appealing to me. Not that I necessarily live my life hard and fast, well not THAT hard and fast, but I do tend to take the bull by the horns and drag that fucker into the dust, cut his throat chop him up, throw him on the grill and invite people over for a Barbeque, B.Y.O.B. of course.

Libertine Thought

The thought? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. You’ve heard that before right? We live as free people, or we like to delude ourselves that freedom is a real thing. Either way freedom is ours to believe or disbelieve as we see fit. You may be a Liberal. You may be a Democrat or a Conservative. You might be a Christian or a Commie Bastard ( I love saying that). Gay, Straight, Unsure it’s all your right to be or not to be. This is my life, or in your case it’s your life, and individually we are the only ones who can live it, or them (the lives I mean). We are the masters of our own fate and the captains of our every moment. I can’t dictate the morality you should live by and you should not dictate morality to me, if you know what’s good for you. I am a Libertine and to the best of my knowledge that doesn’t affect you one bit. And I am not the only one. We are legion and we are amongst you. Educate yourselves and learn to accept it. We aren’t going anywhere.