What it's like to be a Libra

Dualism is a real bitch, sometimes.

My coworker messaged me about the LA riots against ICE and deportation of illegal immigrants.

I stopped ingesting the news years ago, shortly after Covid took hold. When every news story was a self-contradiction in terms. An attack on every individuals' critical thinking, a set of skills few had ever cultivated.

I’ve intentionally filtered every device and app to stop the non-stop onslaught of disaster headlines.

At 20 I moved to Washington state to train horses under a “master”. One of only 3 professionals in the world, at that time, teaching a specific type of French Classical Dressage.

Myself and two other young women were working students. We mucked stalls, fed horses, acted as professional grooms to anyone who wanted one, scrubbed water tanks, fixed fences, and other tedious physical labor in exchange for knowledge. A few formal riding lessons each month.

I migrated from southern Wisconsin, where very few equestrians believe horseback riding lessons have value. Where there’s something wrong with you if you don’t “just get on and go!"

In Washington, the subjects we covered were less about horses and more about art, philosophy, martial arts, and the art of war. We were being taught how to handle ourselves, because once you know how to handle your own person then training horses comes easy.

The Socratic Method was pushed as a requirement, not an option, in our equestrian development.

My teacher was brilliant and grotesque.

More than once he angrily threw water buckets at students, smacked us with whips while shouting instructions, asked me "are you on drugs?!" when I couldn't understand a concept he was explaining.

He would also champion the well-being and welfare of any horse entering the stable, regardless of their pedigree or repute.

There can be great things in terrible people. And terrible things in great people.

Don't let me forget to make more deodorant. I bought the Arrowroot powder to do it.

If you got this far it means I managed to captivate your attention, even as I lost my own. Dualism is a real bitch. Ericaism Libraism.