Marbles and Their Owners Model Multiplicity - #84

While attending the First Annual Des Moines Marble Show, I observed thousands, dare I say millions of marbles. Marbles of all sizes and colors and materials. Antique marbles and newly created marbles. Marbles that glowed under black light. Marbles in mint condition and marbles with scars. 

Marble Collectors displayed their treasures by color, by size, in wooden display boxes, in zip lock bags.

The multiplicity of marble collectors pleased me: Harley Davidson fans, down home folks from MO, glass artists, business men and women. One especially nice dealer was Jay Steward - note the marbles in the background.

When attending the First Culturally Competent & Ethical Social Work Practice with LGBTQ Individuals Workshop on September 20th, I found it ironic that the audience wasn't as diverse. 

All of us white-middle-class-women in attendance learned that sex, gender role, gender identity, and sexual orientation can all be seen on a continuum. According to our presenter, none of these categories is an either or proposition. Think of the diversity that makes possible!

By her very presence our presenter Julia McGinley, LMSW, demonstrated the power we can access by believing in and living out of our own uniqueness while we honor diversity. 

Julia wears men's ties and sports a traditional men's haircut. She reported she doesn't feel like a lesbian but prefers to identify as gay. Julia's face was feminine in the traditional sense but her body type, movements, and gestures were masculine in the traditional sense. 

For the first few hours of her presentation, my brain scurried about trying to undo either/or conditioning. I needed to develop new neural pathways that would honor continuum's for sex, gender role, gender identity, and sexual orientation that she was modeling for me.

Why is it so difficult for us in the twenty-first century to appreciate and accept the differences in people when we appreciate variety in other settings?

How do you handle diversity?

Congratulations to Nina Hiatt who won last week's contest! Here's her observation: OK, the obvious is that marbles are all different colors but basically the same in shape & content and all beautiful and make life interesting!

P.S. I bought a bag of beautiful marbles from Jay and my toes are practicing picking them up. Still not easy but possible.

Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall