Confession. I was sure that a good number of my male Mudcat correspondence would dry up once I posted my photo. How wrong I was. It's as pungent and silly and frisky as ever.

I posted it anyway feeling like the time had come to see what would actually happen. I counted on some of you seeing ME. I did not know most of you would. In fact, the only one that didn't-- I posted it knowing that would send him far from me, and thanked God I had a tool at hand that would. The rest of you have been there when I needed more than I could have anticipated, and helped in such a way that I knew you must have really seen me all along.

Now be dears, boys, and go click that pink ribbon in the Breasts, Again thread, again.

Another thing about folkies. The men in it do not limit what they think a woman is supposed to be, much. As your comments above reflect powerfully, it isn't just the packaging expectations that can be limits. In the other circles I move in, left and right, there are definite limits. I can barely move without going over the limit to the left, or the one to the right. (I move anyway.) But folkie men, and MudMen in particular, care first that we sing or make or feel music-- and not perfectly, no, or even real well, not even that limit-- just that we do it from the heart and soul.

In this world, that's a pretty amazing thing for a girl to run up against. I know I'm not the only one who feels that way. I love all my dear MudMen for it. And I begin to expect it elsewhere, too; I think that is even better for the world than it is for me.

~Susan