Belated Happy Father's Day!
I completely missed the mark on Father's Day which was Sunday, the same day as the Summer Solstice, for those of you who don't know. I'll do my best to make up for that here but most of what I have to say is very simple. I think in a heartfelt post earlier this month, I really emphasized the impact he has and had upon my life.
I think that most of what I've done on Shhhh! Digital Media (aside from the griping about stalking and harassment) really represents much of what I've gained from the inspiring and influential people in my life, and my Father is certainly at the forefront.
He's in every story and book in some way, shape or form and that transcends everything that I can say on one day marked on the calendar to express an appreciation as such. It's nice to cite those aspects on this one day, but really, I believe that we represent those aspects of the most influential people in our lives every day, and that if you can weather the storm of those who'd try to rock your boat so as to misrepresent them, you'll find within yourself the dedication, perseverance, mindfulness, heartfulness, wisdom and strength that is your compass and that's the best way that you can honour them overall.
The people that try to rock your boat by stalking you or harassing you, really paint themselves and their influences in a bad way and most people know it without having to say it. They're saying the worst things about their influences. Just watch out for the ones who try to turn the tables on you, and make you appear the stalker and harasser by secretly bull baiting you into reaction against their obscured and secretive harassment. Hence, reaction to secretive abuse by others can be your worst enemy, and the worst representation of those inspirations in your life.
By the same token, beware of the people who take the inspirations that came from specific people in your life, and try to paint them as if they came from someone else. To take your efforts and your best and apply it to someone else's life so that your representation of the people for whom you care is completely redirected to appear as if it came from someone else and for someone else. That's their trick and unfortunately, we're living in a time where that's the modus operandi of many people, but far, far from nearly everyone.
Consider that if most people knew them the way that you did as a victim of their stalking or harassment, they'd have NO power whatsoever in life. As long as the best of what you gained from your parents and your inspirations and on this particular occasion, your Father shines through, then you're paying them the best praise that anyone can.
Having a day to remind yourself of that is what Mother's Day are Father's Day are really about as much so as having a Birthday isn't about one day in your life. It's about the fact that since that day you emerged (literally) into the world, you've had a plethora of experiences all leading you to that day. The day that you should stop, think and reflect upon your journey.
Don't let anyone sabotage that for you and certainly don't let anyone play musical chairs with your identity. Its yours.
I can't help but think how fortunate I am to have been raised by a man who dedicated 26 years of his life to helping me to find mine, and weathered that through thick and thin. He knows it, but not by what I say on one day. But by the modest sum of what I've been able to achieve with inspirations like my Father as the wind in my sails.
Happy Father's Day David, you are and always will be my Father!
Rest In Peace Wayne (Buttery), I wish I'd known you bit more!
Best Of Fortunes German Michael, you're a good heart in a rough sea!
To my deceased biological Father: I can't relate with the lifestyle you allegedly had or even empathize with it, but I can understand that some people choose such a self destructive path, never truly having understood the potential within themselves or any one of us. Often though, they leave a legacy to which their children can sometimes be confined simply by stigma and the ignorant pressure of the class stuggle by those who'd make genetics and blood into a prison. I'm grateful that my Father gave me the tools I'd need to avoid your path.
Hate isn't love and love isn't hate.
Update: After writing this post, I was harassed for the whole day and in a pretty extreme manner. Most of the people who do this are against David being my Father, so their harassment is geared towards drawing reactions that put me on the other side of the fence. Perhaps trying to make me appear anti-establishment or something of that nature (which I'm not).
Bullying, especially that occurs from groups of people is a horrible experience and can really upset you. Especially when its been going on for decades. I suspect that this way of doing things is the real culprit behind violent radicalization, so when I have a gripe post, please don't hold it against me that I'm being negative, because I'm not. I'm just being candid and keeping silent about something of that nature might be doing a whole host of other people a great injustice. The kind of people who do bullying like that, in groups and like a tennis game, they're using a method in attempt to throw their victims off balance and over the edge into the chasm of anger and anxiety. A socially competitive game where they try to throw their victim over the top in terms of reaction because nobody looks worse than the peaceful, quiet guy that gets pushed to extreme anger or anxiety. For the people that do this, its a game whereby they believe themselves to be controlling their victims.
For me, this cult are blood centric racists who are against my love interest being Mandarin Chinese. Instead their goal is to force me to be with someone of blood, specifically they seem to be aiming for someone Filipino simply because Filipino culture appears similar to other South East Asian cultures, many are partly Spanish as a result of Spanish and Porteguese colonialism in South East Asia, and the stalking cult is very blood centric. I have a bit of Spanish blood in me, so this cult is opposed to me breaking my blood by being with someone Mandarin Chinese. So instead, they try to force the idea that my love interest is Filipino, which she isn't at all with all due respect to Filipino culture. I think they're even trying to force a Filipino "rose" in my direction and quite honestly, if I have anything good to share, I want it to go to the culture of my love interest and her specifically. She really changed my life and at a time where I didn't have much hope at all.
My Father would back me up on this as well because he didn't raise a blood centric racist and our home was an open door to all of my friends, especially around summer party season and I literally had the United Nations of friends with just about everyone represented in some way. So this is something where I'm going to stand my ground and my heart is for her. Without her, I'd have never in 2010 continued A Lady's Prerogative or Butterfly Dragon, based upon two short stories I'd penned during my childhood. So most of what I have here on Shhhh! Digital Media is a shrine to the people that inspired me, but mostly as a result of my feelings for her.
I don't think my Father would stand for the kind of abuse and efforts there were to break us up, had something of that nature happened in his life. In all righteousness and with my own feelings, I have to stand my ground on this no matter the cost. I'm sure that Spanish people the world over, some of the most hearty and hospitable people there are, would whole heartedly agree.
Brian Joseph Johns
