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Fear and loathing and farewell

By on January 30, 2013

JESSE MATHESON

Can you believe it’s been almost two years since I began writing this column? How the time flies, but alas it is time for this column to come to an end.

It’s a new year and I couldn’t think of a greater time to hang up my columnist hat and spread my wings than now.

This column was originally created to give a youth’s perspective of the gay world, although I felt that to be restricting so I chose to write about issues that matter, issues that people really cared about… mostly.

Looking back, I can happily say that this has been a growing experience and that many of my views have changed, although some have not.

Bears will be happy to know I’m no longer opposed to body hair, in fact I’ve even embraced my ‘otter-ness’ to an extent.

Against The Glass was an allusion to my muse Hunter S. Thompson who was once said to write like he was watching life through a glass window, only he would get to a point where he’d just smash the window and work it into the story somehow.

I chose him as my inspiration because he was a man who knew the power of the word and the dangers of telling the truth.

I promised myself that I wouldn’t lie or try to save face like so many do, instead I only wanted to tell the truth and I like to think I achieved that.

“Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism,” Thompson once said, and so I’ll leave you with this:

If I’ve learnt anything from writing for this community it’s that we are a splintered and truly divided people.

We come from so many walks of life and backgrounds, but when we meet our worlds collide and, when they do, we bicker.

This bickering chips away at that fragile pane of glass that we call our community and I fear that unless we make a conscious decision to really listen to one another, to respect each other and to move forward as a collective, we run the real risk of losing this community forever.

There is so much anger, hatred and pain in this community, but there is so much love too, and now more than ever it’s that love which we need to focus on.

About Jesse Matheson

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