Glad it helped.

Whoever thought beads could cause such furor! Or an inadvertent word by a woman commenter, who wouldn’t let go of it either.

Do you know how long Dale spent emailing me holding my hand through this until I felt I could. Mediators are the grace of the earth; being a hothead, I have nothing but admiration for mediators.

We’d kill each other over words otherwise. Dynamic opposition, toothsome saws, perpetual motion machines like dentist drills that continue to dig long after the hands have let go.

Whoever said beading was like basket-weaving sunny California 60s classes?

I love beads. Once I strung together large rose quartz beads (1/2″?), 108, to use as mantra beads, the feel in my fingers, beautiful, and kept them in a covered basket under my alter, a small table from northern Africa, like a pink serpent.

But Nigeria and Zimbabwe are two entirely different countries in Africa and each has shaped a very different perception and sometimes even the beads clash.

Peace to all, goodwill on earth…

A word is a bead.

Should a word be shunned? By poets?

Where I come from, conversation can become quite passionate without people feeling attacked simply because their positions are attacked. But if it isn’t fun for you, don’t leave comments.

What am I feeling at this point? That I used a word that’s one of those “flags” and got in a mess with a club of guys. No-one seems to have a clue (clew) about my position, nor that I do know something about ‘white privilege,’ nor that there’s a club. That’s why St Antonym’s lighting into me was defended, even though I tried to point out how unfair that was, how it was an erroneous view of my beliefs, actions and life, and how deeply I was offended by the accusations.

I’ve been watching the play of group dynamics here, through this comment thread. It’s been interesting to observe.

I’m not sure if I’ve been lynched. But in a way it feels like it.

And, no, please don’t say, I’m sorry you feel you’ve been lynched. That’s too patronizing.

It’s given me quite a bit to think about, day after day, and hasn’t been a very pleasant experience. And, no, please don’t say, I’m sorry you feel like it wasn’t a pleasant experience. That’s too patronizing.

Yes, I have been playing with it, suspecting it at first, verifying it again and again. It’s a tight club, and I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, except it hasn’t been fun being, oh, if you think about it enough you’ll come up with a term…

I think Dale is right that the word “primitive” in ordinary usage implies a focus on beginnings.* Whether he is correct in his other assertion — that the impositions of our storylines on other peoples is inherently unjust — is to me a more interesting point, which I think may relate to St. Antonym’s umbrage about supposed white privilege as well. This goes well beyond considerations of political correctness — i.e., whether we might be hurting someone’s feelings. At issue here I think is whether these storylines have any real validity at all, and also whether narrators may be warped in the telling and audiences in the hearing.
_________

*Here for example is the Compact OED definition, which i think covers most major contemporary uses if not all connotations:

• adjective 1 relating to the earliest times in history or stages in development. 2 denoting a preliterate, non-industrial society of simple organization. 3 offering an extremely basic level of comfort or convenience. 4 (of behaviour or emotion) instinctive and unreasoning.

• noun 1 a person belonging to a primitive society. 2 a painter employing a simple, naive style that deliberately rejects subtlety or conventional techniques.

I think noun, 2 is the sense that Bill’s poem mostly explores.

(Yes, I know it’s really really pretentious to include a footnote in a blog comment!)

primitive
c.1400, “of a thing from which something is derived, not secondary” (a sense now associated with primary), from O.Fr. primitif (fem. primitive), from L. primitivus “first or earliest of its kind,” from primitus “at first,” from primus “first” (see prime (adj.)). Meaning “of or belonging to the first age” is from c.1526. In Christian sense of “adhering to the qualities of the early Church” it is recorded from 1685. Of untrained artists from 1942.

Of untrained artists from 1942 is absolutely hilarious.

First Nations, yes, but obviously not… Origins or Birthplace of Homo Sapiens, but obviously not…

It’s a politically incorrect term, and that’s obvious. I have no disagreement with not using it in those ways.

But, c’mon, we all had origins Dale, and middles and ends. I don’t see that primitive privileges origins over ends or middles. It’s just a word to indicate primal, originary. One that I like, in its meanings, though not in its inferences. It’s the three i’s – like a drum beat- pri mi tive.

I’m a primary text person… not favouring secondary sources or criticism… does that make me pri mi tive? Or just untamed.