Dancing with Myself: Doing Other Things

I've been involved with my other life, that one where I'm Mugwump to the Snapping Turtle Clan of the Bearhead Creek Redbones. According to my cousin LV, a mugwump is someone who has his rump on one side of the fence and his mug on the other. It also got some use in the mid-1800s as someone who is pompous and pretentious, refuses to listen to reason, and won't go along. Just because. It also is an Algonquian word for Big Chief. I figure since I have DNA evidence of at least three races, I can only be mugwump if the high heel fits, and my experience is No high heel really fits. Usually we have to adjust if we insist on wearing high heels.

But I digress. My Redbone people are having birth pains. Our skin may be dark, but it is thin. We take umbrage easily. I was banned from one of their discussion groups for using the word fuck in an email to several members of the group. Since the conversation we were having was interesting, I was forced to organize a second group so we could continue.

I know a lot of people don't say the word fuck, but I do, so what the heck. Don't use it. Whether or not you find it offensive is a choice you make. You shouldn't use it. It's best not to mix up the roles of our senses. You have control over what you say, but not over what you might hear. You can determine the value you give to words, but you have no right to limit how others might choose to express themselves. If someone's language offends you, stop reading. See how easy that was?

This past week my new discussion group discussed what a Redbone is, as well as where the word possibly comes from. It was a very interesting conversation. We're a very interesting group of people, us Redbones, and while we don't want to talk about it all that much, we don't want you talking about it either. The internet has allowed us to form a virtual community, and like small town America everywhere, we've been going at it like Democrats and Republicans ever since.

Living out here in California forces me to know most of these people only cyberly. It disadvantages me in dealing with them. Frankly, from this distance I'm not sure which ones are the ones certifiable. I can't tell the difference just by how they carry on over the internet and in public.

Several of the important players don't like each other. That's too bad. A good conversation shouldn't depend on people liking each other. When people seriously detest each other, we go to a more formal format, but hopefully we don't stop talking.

I want all of the principle players engaged in the discussion of the definition of the people called Redbone. Getting them all into the same conversation has been like herding cats.

That's what I've been doing. As Mugwump to the Snapping Turtle Clan of the Bearhead Creek Redbones, I've been invited to speak to to the Redbone Heritage Foundation in Natchitoches, Louisiana on September 15, 2006. In other words, I'm taking the show on the road. I am presenting my stand up comedy routine called My Mother's People, or No Matter Where You Go, There You Are. Mugwump is a very important level achieved among the Bearhead Creek Redbones.

The status of mugwump is a self-assumed and self-proclaimed one, just as is membership in the Snapping Turtle Clan. Usually however, you find out about your membership in the clan because someone else notices how you unreasonably will not let go of anything you seize upon. It was one of my sisters who told me that I belonged to the Snapping Turtles. I remember it like it was yesterday. One of them, I forget which one, snapped at me and said, "You just won't let go, will you? Just like a damned old snapping turtle."

Anyone comfortable with all of the meanings of the word can declare himself enlightened and esteemed and reap the rewards for attaining such a great height. You know you're there when out of the blue someone who is borderline both mentally and otherwise, attacks you for no reason in front of your relatives. Know that when someone calls himself mugwump, he has the scars to prove it.

Comments

Yep, when you reach the pinnacle of success (or, as my Dad would put it, "the pinochle of success", borderline people will attack you. It's the price you pay for fame.
Please, please video your routine and post it.

Posted by: riannan | September 07, 2006 at 07:28 PM