As the tears roll down...

The Ninth Edition of the International Carnival of Pozitivities (ICP) has been posted at Creampuff Revolution, my friend Roro's blog from Canada. This marks the first time that the ICP has been hosted on a site outside of the United States, meeting one of my goals on founding the ICP in June, 2006.

Roro's introduction includes a recap of an episode of Designing Women, a situation comedy that ran in the United States for years starting in the 1980s. I think I had blocked out my memory of that episode in 1987. I had just lost my first close friend to AIDS in April of that year, and had been living with the disease myself for a mere year and a half or so. I think the episode touched a few too many nerves for me back then, and reading about it now brought me to tears.

After I regained my composure, I read through Roro's excellent summary of the ICP and then went for another cup of java and to let my dogs outside for a pee. When I walked outside, Canadian geese were flying in to land in the open lot behind my house . I have always found the sound of their songs to be melancholic, especially after having learned that they mate for life and when one of the pair dies or is killed, the other goose or gander will live a life of solitude. Their honking, this morning, reminded me of the sobs of my friends or their lovers who mourned their partners lost to AIDS over so many years of my life. The cries of the geese also reminded me of love and compassion and of the committment that Roro made to compile this first truly international edition of the ICP. It gave me a reason to release some of the anxiety and stress and fear and anger that builds up within me as I continue to live with HIV/AIDS. I had a good cathartic cry for a few minutes before coming back here to announce this edition of the ICP.

Please visit Roro's site and those of the many contributors in this month's edition. We have personal accounts from people, who, like me, are living with HIV/AIDS. We have poetry. We have videos. I have to admit that I dropped the ball and forgot to acknowledge a couple of the post's grant of permission, so those posts will be added today. If you have already visited and didn't see the entries from Visual AIDS, please come back after today to read and watch their videos.

I would recommend that you bookmark this edition and come back to it if you do not have time to read all of it today. It is very powerful and beautifully written by all of the participants. With your help spreading the word, we might actually see some progress in ending the stigma of HIV/AIDS and get on with preventing new infections.

Safe Journeys!

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