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The air in Northeastern USA is not only infused with humidity ... 80-90-100% and heat, but with the media shrieking and shrekking about the Trayvon Martin killing, the discovery that Paula Deen had used a racial eithet, the Dems and the Reps, Liberals and Conservatives and the world splitting into factions, it may be an odd time to be talking categories. Still, the subject came up for me in response to an online friend's comments about her priorities.

I wondered what categories moved me. Ah, but let me explain how I think of such matters. It occurs to me that we human-folk tend to see ourselves as predominantly this or that ... where this+that adds up to a hefty percentage of the population. Let me give you an example. Some time ago, eating with an old friend, she explained that where she grew up there were Whites and sub-Whites and that my geneology placed me on the sub-White side of the street. I attributed her loose-lips to the wine that accompanied dinner but didn't resonate, at all, about skin color. Skin color doesn't work for me as a category ... I don't feel that I belong to one side of this "divide" or the other.

I listed a few for my on-line fiend; here are those and a couple more:

• Kind .... Unkind (that has a place in my mind ... I leave unkind groups)
• Liberal .... Conservative (a kinda muddy distinction)
• Quick-minded .... Slow-minded (Holding less and less for me as my brain seems to be seizing up)
• Educated ... Less-Educated (I don't think so but I did have a lot of schooling)
• Having Children ... Childless (which am I? ... the kids all left except GuntherDog)
• Male .... Female (I don't think so)
• Old ... Young (Something works there ... heading down to VA for weekend with friends ...
• avg age       just below 70 ... must say something)
• 'My religion' ... 'other religions' (I do feel I belong in/to my religious tradition ...)
• 'My skin color' ... 'other skin color' (Feel no belonging on any side)

I've long been suspicious of those who teach multiculturalism, as if I could know another better by knowing their skin-color or religion. I was once castigated in a workshop when I presented the history of an African American woman who would consult with me. The more I thought it silly, the more the group wanted to offer me up on some altar as a burnt offering. The fact that we both grew up in similar areas, in intact families with religious affiliations, etc .... meant nothing to the mob that wanted to hang this so-designated "White Male." (Anyway, as I said, at least one of my friends thinks me "sub-white" [and I don't think she meant 'under Vanna White'] and I don't play football or drink myself silly.) I don't know whether knowing where I fit in the above splits does anything either ... but on this night when an arrhythmia disturbed my sleep, I did, indeed, come back to ask "where do I belong?"