Seven Secrets

I recently made a new friend, Dimi, an enthusiastic new blogger in Greece.  She's a lovely woman and quickly leaped into my affection.

Dimi's hometown looks like the kind of Greek resort where movies are made -- a place with ancient white-stone homes built on seaside cliffs where Julia Roberts visits to escape a bad marriage and unexpectedly falls in love with a handsome Greek waiter...

Dimi has a cool job -- she rides in a helicopter over forest-fires and helps translate among the rescue-workers.  It's exciting, dangerous work but Dimi is up for the task.  She's strong and courageous and even a little irreverent.

Dimi just tagged me with a game called Seven Secrets in which she (and now I) must reveal seven private facts.  You guys know that, for me, that isn't hard!  Anyway, I'm grateful to Dimi for the excuse to confide and hope you'll visit her blog.  Although she only started blogging in January, she's very active and I've seen her comment on dozens of blogs by mutual-friends.  Her input is always valuable and interesting.

Here we go!

1. I'm open about my transgendered nature to anyone who can handle it.  Some people can't, so I don't impose the burden of wrestling with it on those people.  I'm cautious about disclosing this information until I've felt someone out and believe they can accept it; deciding whether I can tell someone is often a delicate matter. 

2. I want to tell people who I am.  I hunger for real relationships based on true candor.  I haven't always had that; to the contrary, during most of my life, I felt I needed to hide who I am.  That's what my parents taught me.  I never adopted their belief that it's shameful, but I did learn deviance isn't widely-tolerated.

3. Often, the hardest situations are with people I've known for years.  With someone new, if they don't like me after I tell them, it's no loss.  But with someone I've known as a friend for ten years, I can't bear the prospect of losing their friendship, so I'm extra-careful.

4. I've learned from experience that women are more accepting about this than men.  I'm not sure why -- do you have a theory?

5. I believe that you can tell a lot about someone from which section of the Sunday newspaper they grab first.  I always head for the Style section.  How about you?

6. I have a domestic streak that is deep and undeniable.  At parties, I have to restrain myself from helping to clean up with the other women because, whenever I do, it makes people uncomfortable and causes them to crack dumb jokes about traditional gender-roles.  I still help but I've learned to do it in subtle ways that don't draw attention to what I'm doing.

7. My favorite joy is surprising the people I care about with unexpected presents.  One of you -- and I'm not saying who! -- has a tripod on its way.  It's dangerous to tell me you need something...

Have A Great Weekend!