fashion (n). 1. a prevailing custom or style of dress, etiquette, etc. 2. conventional usage in dress, manners, etc. 3. manner or mode 4. the make or form of anything. 5. after or in a fashion, in some matter or other.-v.t. 6. to give a particular shape or form to. 7. to accomodate or adapt. -Syn. 1. fad, mode, vogue. (emphasis mine, thanks to Gretchen).

The Random House Dictionary, 1980.

to fashion. to fashion a world I'd want to live in seven generations from now (sez the Native American proverb). To fashion a world based on creation- not consumation or ownership. To fashion a world where community is based on trust, and not just musical aesthetics. to fashion a sense of belonging. to fashion a sense of self that does not crumble at the slightest provocation. to sow deep deep, but not so far away from the light & sun.

to water. to turn over the soil. to sew the clothes you're wearing. to tell your family's story with a quilt. to keep your grandkids lovers nieces roommates strangers staying or just passing through - warm and protected. to fashion a sense of connection. to express solidarity with people everything and nothing like you. to share in common. to shape. to form an alternative. to build what we are for and in this way destroy what we are against by eliminating both its appeal and its necessity. to remember. to envision. to paint a picture that is not rosier but just with more subtle shades of pink and blue- and the colors they make together- with bits of black and brown and red and yellow and white mixed in. to imagine practicing a skill. to learn the full meaning of embodiment. to occupy your limbs, feel the strength in those lifting thighs/buttocks and arm bones. to sweat and feel the plane that is your back. to lift from the ground and move. to alter. take in the seams, or rip them out altogether. make it fit you. feel comfortable in how you are. be a big girl wearing tight green shirts and feeling sexy. feel the stickiness of your bones if you're a thin one and love that with all your might.

to love the lumps and fashion them not with your imaginary chainsaw looking in the mirror. to love your sweet lumps of sugar, to melt them with your desire, your affirmation of life. to fashion an able body with your deep-inhaling lungs. to traverse the peaks of your fear and find freedom there, to see & drink in that magnificent view. to imagine a bridge spanning those missed connections. to make that leap - take that risk - start that fucking conversation, the one you've been avoiding for fear of the consequences. or rather, the discomfort that comes with conflict. to fashion a new language- beyond the dialect of hip/cool.

To see the mundane as radical. The windswept hair, the sun-chapped faces. The cooking. The chopping of carrots and leeks. The wind that is faith and support behind you. Your very own personal cheerleader/guardian angel, the voice through the pipelines and air vents. Whispering to every single blade of grass (in you): "grow, grow" (Jewish proverb). To fashion a sense of hope in resistance. To fashion a letting go.

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