A Letter Home

Dear Brother:

You asked why I haven't replied to your messages. I was tempted to reply "Because we're busy here dealing with a plague." But really, that's quite recent.

I haven't responded to your letters because they offend me. Alison's mother and I aren't interested in your opinion on the matter. The fact that my daughter wishes to be called Alison and not her birth-name of Alexander is not something you get a vote on. Earth doesn't either for that matter. Only Alison gets a vote about who she is.

Rest assured that Katerina and I are keenly aware of the poison you've been sending Alison. Your little religious pamphlets about evolutionary psychology and neuroscience: we know the arguments you're trying to make. I'd ask you to stop sending them, but really, that would be just more adult interference in Alison's life. I respect her autonomy. So does the rest of her nurture-stream on the station. Maybe you should try that too.

For the record, our household shrine is devoted to the Many-Handed Engineer. Ganeshashiva has no cares about gender identity, nor about stable forms. All who take her trunk in hand must learn to keep up with her enormous, unpredictable strides. Her syncopated beat creates ripples of change across the universe. The Engineer cares little for human conventions like gender; she recognizes the ancient philosopher's truth that no identity is absolute or fixed; they are the "motion of light in water."

One of those identities could be "brother."

But I'm starting to wax philosophical like another stinking intellectual I know. Take care of your self.

I'm headed off to do my part to stop this plague.

Regards,

Bronx