ftlaudft
05-16-2011, 09:55 AM
When I was thinking about Michael Lucas in another thread recently, I was thinking of his work as an activist for gay causes, the insights revealed in his autobiography in which he tells of his early life as a Jew in Russia, and his discovery of Israel as a true homeland for his spiritual self. He has written passionately and contraversially in magazines such as "The Advocate"' and has even been a pro-gay voice in debates on college campuses. Thinking about him, I said to myself, "Why, you're making a saint out of him! He's a porn star! He's a porn filmmaker! He's a successful businessman making oodles of dollars! How can you call him a saint?"
Saint or sinner? Is that the question? Well, maybe it's the wrong question.
Just what is a saint? Just what is a sinner? A saint, like all of us, was born with original sin, but managed to find a better way of life that got him prime seating in the Golden Gates Hockey Arena way up there in the sky. A sinner likewise born in original sin spent his life playing with himself, goosing his younger classmates, and is now toasting marshmellows in a much warmer place.
But new theologians and educators are coming up with new ideas. Matthew Fox, for example, claims there is no original sin - only original blessing! (That's the title of one of his books, too.) So maybe the answers we've been reading in catechisms are couched in medieval language and thought. Maybe we need new answers for a new day. In fact, maybe we need new questions.
Maybe we should ask, what kind of footprint does a person leave on the planet? Has he made life any better for someone else, for the earth, for himself? Has he developed? Has he grown? Did he love anyone while he was here?
Perhaps the questions about saints and sinners and the definitions of the elements in those questions are no longer completely relevant. Perhaps we should explore more fully the idea of what kind of footprint a person such as Michael may be leaving on the planet. Where do we begin?
I remember one of Michael Lucas's first pictures, when he was starring as an actor for another company. The picture was "'Red Alert"' and it got very mixed reviews. I remember one critic who said Michael was doing OK in one scene with Kurt Stefano when suddenly Michael started munching on Kurt's feet - and the reviewer became confused!
Confused! Well, I wasn't confused. I knew exactly what Michael was doing, and so did Michael, and so did a lot of other people. It made me realize that there are two very distinct groups: people into feet and people who are not. I knew which group I was in. But the truth is, I wasn't very comfortable about it.
Coming out for many of us has been a long, long, oh yes, a very long process. And that's just coming out as gay. But even when we're out as gay, there's still that little matter about feet. You know, that messy business about sniffing, licking, slurping, and doing all those other inglorious things to a guy's bare feet. How do you ever get comfortable about something like that?
It took me a really long time. For many years I had a secret fear that I would drop dead and my surviving relatives would go through my things and discover - gulp! - pictures of barefoot studs, articles about feet, foot porn, videos with foot fetish titles such as "'I was a teenage toesucker"" and - well, you get the picture! Such anxiety! If anyone found out this kinky little secret of mine, I would just DIE of humiliation!
But I did get over it. And I'm eternally grateful for the help I got from a variety of sources. Michael Lucas in some of his films helped me along that long, long road. This site, and others like it, have aided me by letting me see that my love of feet is not a bad thing, or a twisted thing, or a kinky thing. It's different. Blue is different from purple. A cow is different from a tree. But nobody has to justify who or what they are, and neither do I.
I learned that loving feet is not a bad thing: in fact, it's something to celebrate. I became more aware of this as people on this very site, FootBuddies, not only posted but showed their faces. People like RopedFeet, our own moderator Boots, and others like that handsome rascal Cecchino, showed us that perfectly normal productive people are walking quietly around the globe, minding their own business, and enjoying feet as much as I do.
It saved me. It got me out of a feeling of discomfort and helped me not just accept who I am, but celebrate who I am.
Are these people saints or sinners? Wrong question! New times require new questions, new answers, new definitions and new heroes. Today there's a new army a-marching to the Promised Land. The Promised Land is here and now and it's theirs and yours and mine to enjoy. The grass is still green! Enjoy it with your eyes! Touch it with your heart! Caress it with your loving bare feet!
Saint or sinner? Is that the question? Well, maybe it's the wrong question.
Just what is a saint? Just what is a sinner? A saint, like all of us, was born with original sin, but managed to find a better way of life that got him prime seating in the Golden Gates Hockey Arena way up there in the sky. A sinner likewise born in original sin spent his life playing with himself, goosing his younger classmates, and is now toasting marshmellows in a much warmer place.
But new theologians and educators are coming up with new ideas. Matthew Fox, for example, claims there is no original sin - only original blessing! (That's the title of one of his books, too.) So maybe the answers we've been reading in catechisms are couched in medieval language and thought. Maybe we need new answers for a new day. In fact, maybe we need new questions.
Maybe we should ask, what kind of footprint does a person leave on the planet? Has he made life any better for someone else, for the earth, for himself? Has he developed? Has he grown? Did he love anyone while he was here?
Perhaps the questions about saints and sinners and the definitions of the elements in those questions are no longer completely relevant. Perhaps we should explore more fully the idea of what kind of footprint a person such as Michael may be leaving on the planet. Where do we begin?
I remember one of Michael Lucas's first pictures, when he was starring as an actor for another company. The picture was "'Red Alert"' and it got very mixed reviews. I remember one critic who said Michael was doing OK in one scene with Kurt Stefano when suddenly Michael started munching on Kurt's feet - and the reviewer became confused!
Confused! Well, I wasn't confused. I knew exactly what Michael was doing, and so did Michael, and so did a lot of other people. It made me realize that there are two very distinct groups: people into feet and people who are not. I knew which group I was in. But the truth is, I wasn't very comfortable about it.
Coming out for many of us has been a long, long, oh yes, a very long process. And that's just coming out as gay. But even when we're out as gay, there's still that little matter about feet. You know, that messy business about sniffing, licking, slurping, and doing all those other inglorious things to a guy's bare feet. How do you ever get comfortable about something like that?
It took me a really long time. For many years I had a secret fear that I would drop dead and my surviving relatives would go through my things and discover - gulp! - pictures of barefoot studs, articles about feet, foot porn, videos with foot fetish titles such as "'I was a teenage toesucker"" and - well, you get the picture! Such anxiety! If anyone found out this kinky little secret of mine, I would just DIE of humiliation!
But I did get over it. And I'm eternally grateful for the help I got from a variety of sources. Michael Lucas in some of his films helped me along that long, long road. This site, and others like it, have aided me by letting me see that my love of feet is not a bad thing, or a twisted thing, or a kinky thing. It's different. Blue is different from purple. A cow is different from a tree. But nobody has to justify who or what they are, and neither do I.
I learned that loving feet is not a bad thing: in fact, it's something to celebrate. I became more aware of this as people on this very site, FootBuddies, not only posted but showed their faces. People like RopedFeet, our own moderator Boots, and others like that handsome rascal Cecchino, showed us that perfectly normal productive people are walking quietly around the globe, minding their own business, and enjoying feet as much as I do.
It saved me. It got me out of a feeling of discomfort and helped me not just accept who I am, but celebrate who I am.
Are these people saints or sinners? Wrong question! New times require new questions, new answers, new definitions and new heroes. Today there's a new army a-marching to the Promised Land. The Promised Land is here and now and it's theirs and yours and mine to enjoy. The grass is still green! Enjoy it with your eyes! Touch it with your heart! Caress it with your loving bare feet!