This post may be the most powerful piece of counter-programming that the Super Bowl has ever seen – and I’ve made more than my fair share of counter-programming posts for Super Bowl Sunday. Here we continue the magnificently opulent opening of The Divine Diva Tour: A Fairy’s Tale which finds a stripped-off and stripped-down before-and-after scene, where ruffled lace bloomers stand-in for more hidden lace and ruffles. The essence of a woman intersperses with the essence of a man – and who can tell which is which? We each play a part, usually several, in any give day. To even attempt to dull the shine and sully the sparkle of another creature because you do not fully understand them… is a certain destroyer of one’s karma. There are places in hell for that kind of behavior, even when you don’t realize you’re doing it. Ignorance is not bliss, nor is it an excuse for hatred.
Glitter and be gay
That’s the part I play
Here I am in Paris, France
Forced to bend my soul
To a sordid role
Victimized by bitter
Bitter circumstance…
Ah, ’twas not to be
Harsh necessity
Brought me to this gilded cage
Born to higher things
Here I drop my wings
Ah!
Singing of a sorrow
Nothing can assuage
And yet, of course, I rather like to revel, ha ha!
I have no strong objection to champagne, ha ha!
My wardrobe is expensive as the devil, ha ha!
Perhaps it is ignoble to complain
Enough, enough
Of being basely tearful
I’ll show my noble stuff
By being bright and cheerful
Let us not be saddened by worldly wear and cynical tear; let us instead escape on clouds of ruffles and lace, lit by lamps of beaded glass fringe, and hung by ropes of diamonds.
Pearls and ruby rings
Ah, how can worldly things
Take the place of honor lost?
Can they compensate
For my fallen state?
Purchased as they were at such a, at such an awful cost?
Bracelets, lavallieres
Can they dry my tears?
Can they blind my eyes to shame?
Can the brightest brooch
Shield me from reproach?
Can the purest diamond purify my name?
When questions of a darker time plague the mind, and shadows elongate into the fierce and deadly, the sparkling lot of a jewelry box is sometimes the only thing that will pierce the blackness. We’ll make our own damn stars if the universe refuses to deliver. We’ll don our own starlight – and we’ll stay in the glorious fight.
“During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night. The dance kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for. It didn’t look like we were going to win then and we did. It doesn’t feel like we’re going to win now but we could. Keep fighting, keep dancing.” – Dan Savage
And yet, of course, these trinkets are endearing, ha ha!
I’m oh so glad my sapphire is a star, ha ha!
I rather like a twenty carat earring, ha ha!
If I’m not pure at least my jewels are!
Enough, enough
I’ll take their diamond necklace
And show my noble stuff
By being gay and reckless!
~ The Divine Diva Tour: A Fairy’s Tale ~
