Welcome to The Spin Cycle. I'm your co-host Bucko

My co-hosts and I welcome you to our experiment in revolution and dissent. We each will bring a different perspective on politics, society and sexuality as it effects our lives as people living with HIV/AIDS. I won't pretend to write from anything other than my heart and my gut. I'll always give you the truth, along with way too much information. But that's how I've always been and have no inclination to offer apologies. And I'll only play the pathos card when it's in my best interest to do so.

My Manifesto

HIV and AIDS have been part of my adult life for almost twenty-five years. It has altered my destiny in ways beyond anything I could have otherwise imagined. It has touched the lives of everyone I have met since then, and claimed the lives of nearly everyone whom I've loved.

I have rewritten my dreams and expectations dozens of times in response to the shifts and stresses that the virus has perpetrated on my life. My goals in life have been fluid and relativistic. Aspirations are very different when one is not sure he'll be around in five years.

I have been hitherto forced into a permanently reactive position.

This must stop!

Beginning today, right now, I swear:

• I shall take control of my life again. I shall not be bullied or bowed from pressures to conform to anyone's phobias or loathing of me, my actions, or my spirit.
• I claim the right to dream of a future. I shall set and attain the personal and professional goals that I had written off or deferred as unrealistic.
• I shall never again feel ashamed of my past. I have lived and loved according to my own rules, no one else's. It's time that I regain pride in my accomplishments and use them as a foundation upon which I can build afresh.
• I shall call out the hypocrites and frauds who attempt to judge me without knowing me. Fuck them all!
• I shall reclaim my sexuality. My libido is back, better lock the doors! Or better yet, come over and join the fun!
• I shall pontificate as I see fit. If you don't like what I have to say, get you own damn blog.

I shall post my thoughts, feelings and observations as a forty-five year old queer man with humour and pognancy, each in their proper place. Sit back and enjoy the ride. A little anarchy and absinthe are good for the soul.

B