Adoptee birthdays. Always best if celebrated day before, or day after.

Thanks to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday today or this weekend, or whenever. It really means a lot. It's not always easy for us adoptees on our actual birthday. Sometimes it's best to celebrate before (as I did this weekend) or after (as I may do next weekend also, hey I am a Scorpio, we do like to drag out the party, you know). Because the 'day of' can sometimes be rather tough - unless you're in your '20s and just want to cut loose. Why? Because there are no 'this is what happened on your birthday' stories. We might get 'when we brought you home' tales, but it's not the same. No matter how well meant. It's one of those things, where the cliche 'you have to be one to know one' totally fits. It's one reason I'm so happy that my son popped out looking like me. My first blood. And thankful to all my friends who cared to take a moment for me today. Being human isn't always easy. Thanks for being there. Please let me know when/if you need me there for you. xoxoxo. Tracy

Help Asheville High Cougar Band rep us proudly at the 2013 Presidential Inauguration Festivities

No matter who gets voted into office in November, one thing IS for sure. The youth of Asheville High School Cougar Band WILL be at the 2013 Presidential Inauguration festivities, as they have been invited to perform. And they need help. Yours and mine. No matter your favorite school. First benefit for these cool kids in our community is BBQ Dinner tomorrow (Friday, Sept. 21), AHS Cafeteria at 5:30pm before the infamous AHS Cougars / AC Reynolds Rockets Varsity football game. It's a true Friday Night Lights, folks. Come on out ASHEVILLE, let's help get these kids to DC and show the world what Asheville youth are all about. $10 and $5 for ages 10 and under. Stay for the game, or not.

West Nile Virus and a Judaism prayer? Works for me.

Well, seems like I've been quite the slacker in posting on here lately. Busy summer. Yep, that's it. A busy summer. Not that other times aren't just as busy, but yes, it's a good excuse.

So, a post of some sort seems obvious and I'll try to keep it short because I do believe I've got a 'touch' of the West Nile Virus that found its way into Buncombe County. And those damned skeeters do love me. I say it's because I'm so white and they'd have to be wearing blinders not to see and smell my shiny white self. Even with overloads of bug spray, they find me. And whatever I'm feeling, it's been a definite 'flu-like' affect. Fevers, chills, horrible headaches, and achy muscles. But no upset stomach or hacking, cough and spitting up the nastiest of stuff deep down from my lungs. So I don't see any sense in going to a doctor who is going to gladly take my hard earned money to tell me what I already know: Rest, drink plenty of fluids and I'll be just fine in a few days.

Besides, I'm not delusional, at least not any more than ususal, and I'm told I'm not contagious if I do have the West Nile. Just cantankerous and over being down for so long.

But I did find comfort in a devotional I came across today that I'd like to share with everyone. Hope it brings you come comfort and a moment to stop and think about the words. Hope it gets my butt back up and out into the world ... Peace!

'May we appreciate our family and friends and remember those who are alone. May we appreciate our health & remember those who are sick. May we appreciate the freedoms we have and remember those who suffer from injustice and tyranny. Peach on earth.' ~ Judaism prayer.

My email to Asheville City Council regarding BID proposal

Dear City Council Members,

As a citizen of Asheville, I am against the Asheville Business Improvement District proposal. Many reasons I have stated publically and do not need to repeat here.
However, I do want to say that as someone who knows about and helped quite a bit with the revitalization of downtown Asheville, in essence the BID proposal is a large Community Watch program. I am in complete agreement with the downtown community if they would like to form such a program. However, I do not believe any taxpayer dollars need to be given to this privately-run group (even if Council decides to select the board and oversee the organization). The City of Asheville already provides adequate services to downtown. In all honesty, I believe the money, if given to BID, will most likely go towards administrative costs and not at all be used for the greater good of downtown.

If you agree to give this group money, then every other community in Asheville has the right to form a similar 'BID' group and come to City Council, expecting a similar percentage of dollars be given to their Community Watch programs. While it would be wonderful to do so for every community, there just isn't enough money to go around, as has recently been pointed out regarding raises of City employees. I do support putting money into other areas of Asheville, such as much needed sidewalks and public transportation, but not into such community watch programs as is BID.

Best regards,
Tracy D. Hyorth

First contact: Solving my adoption puzzle

This is the very first article I ever had published. It is about my first conversation with my birth mother and a note to my adoptive parents. It took many hours of editing and re-writes to get it ready for print. I was, after all, a very inexperienced writer at the time. Twenty-nine years later, I realize the title should have been something like 'The beginning to solving my adoption puzzle,' because my story continues to unravel today. This was first published in the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate where I worked at a newsroom typist and aide and began my writing career in 1983.

 

We're not quite flying around in George Jetson type cars ... maybe soon

I am totally all over the place today. Metaphorically that is. About the only thing I'm doing around Asheville is having dropped Zach off at school and going to pick him up soon. Not sure I'll look much different from the hippie attire I was wearing this morning - me wrapped in a purple Indian blanket, wearing my 'life is good' warm jammie pants and a black & white toboggan hat to keep my ears warm and bed-head hidden. (Hey it's Asheville ... I looked not at all out of place for an early morning mom drop-off and besides, it's my day off.)

Nope. Where I've gone today is around the world on my laptop and tablet. Made new friends. Learned what's happening in issues important to me. Just doing some internet cruising. Amazing when you really think about it. Who'd a thunk it? And if you remember when calculators cost over a $100 bucks, then you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Alphie read me a tweet he'd gotten from someone, somewhere, this morning: "Fifty years from now, your kids are not going to want to listen to you talk about twitter."

Yep. That's for sure. Zach could care less now when we tell him we only grew up with maybe - maybe - four TV stations and that's only because we both lived in or near big cities. And he surely isn't interested in hearing about how hard it was to find a good radio station if you happened to be visiting somewhere out in the boondocks of Texas. He sits, nods and smiles. Surrounded by his smart phone, ipod touch, laptop, all while flipping through Pandora radio. He's saving up for some wireless headphones.

We're not quite flying around in George Jetson type cars as I'd hoped we'd be doing by now, but that time may happen in Zach's lifetime. Amazing. Just amazing.

P.S. And just in case you're wondering, I won't be wearing by favorite purple blanket when I go to pick Zach up, but I am going to have that 'boggan cap on. It's cold outside ... ;)

‘The Laramie Project’ could be Anywhere, USA, even Asheville, NC ... playing at BeBe Theatre

Heavy hitting. Timely. Controversial. Necessary. Real life. But certainly not depressing.

That’s the attitude of Different Strokes! Performing Arts Collective Managing Artistic Director Shephanie Hickling Beckman and the actors involved who are committed to staging plays with a message.

“Our mission (is) to present theatre that confronts issues of social diversity as reflected in the world around us: a world that isn’t always pretty or on its best behaviour. We do not choose our plays; the seemingly apparent needs of our community tend to choose the plays we produce,” Beckman points out one Saturday afternoon after rehearsal in the Grove Arcade basement.

Bullying in the schools, in Asheville, and around the country is what prompted Different Strokes! to take on their latest production, ‘The Laramie Project,’ based on a series of interviews with Laramie, Wyoming (population just over 26,000) residents just after the 1998 murder of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard who was gay, taken out in the country, beaten and tortured by two local young men and tied to a barbed wire fence. He spent 18 hours strapped to that fence until a local cyclist found Shepard unconscious, and at first thought him to be a scarecrow.

Part of the proceeds of this show will benefit Youth OUTright, a local group that supports and empowers gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth to be confident and vital members of the Western North Carolina community, according to Beckman.

“We as a group of artists and people who care about this community, have a responsibility to take on all taboo subjects - lay it all out there on the table, and see how many of the unspoken issues are affecting so many,” says Beckman. It could be Anywhere, USA or it could be Asheville.”

And though The Laramie Project’ has had thousands of performances around the world, Beckman says the show is as relevant today as it was when it premiered in 2000.

“For me this play is no longer about Laramie or a particular victim,” says Beckman “Hate crimes are committed everywhere in every minute of every day. Even here in Asheville, although many times the crimes are described simply as robberies and not told to be the hate crimes that they really are. Until federal hate crime legislation includes sexual orientation as a protected class, this story and those like it cannot be outdated, overstated or overdone.”

But Beckman is not just doing a repeat of what has already been shown. The original script called for 60 characters to be played by 8 actors and in Beckman’s mind seemed like a series of dialogues. Dialogues that didn’t really pull her into the story or make her care very much about the story of Matthew Shepard even though it was an important tale and one she was originally drawn to so she could learn more about Shepard’s plight.

Instead, she decided to turn those dialogues into more of a play, and not just a play about a man who was a victim of gay-bashing. It all turned into something much more passionate. More personal.

“Wake up ya’ll,” Beckman says. “Hate crimes exist not only against Gays, but against Jewish people, Muslims, Blacks, homeless people, women and so many more. It’s about what we as a society allow to happen to people every day. Whether it’s with our fists, or our mouths.”

Her actors too have learned so much more than they realized they would. In having to play different characters, some at odds with themselves and some the total opposite of another character they’re playing, each has had to take hard looks at their own feelings and perhaps judgements they did not realize they were making against other people. Straight men have had to reach down and understand gay men. White men have had to try and understand what it feels to be a Latino. A mother learned to look into the eyes of a “you’re going to hell because you’re gay” preacher and somehow realized she must try and reach that preacher.

In the end, we not only see the slice of the ugliness that happened in Laramie, Wyoming, but we also see the changes human beings goes through once they’ve been so close to the face of the horrific.

As Beckman puts it, “Some of the people in Laramie seem to remain untouched, but others, their lives and attitudes are changed forever. And ultimately, the recognition of all of those attitudes is what we want the audience to see, feel and leave thinking about and perhaps even start their own conversations.”

***

The cast features Mandy Bean, Scott Bean, Jeremy Carter, Kirstin Daniel, Patrick Hackney, Roberto Hess, Rod Leigh, Peter Millis, Jonathan Milner, Carla Pridgen, Hope Spragg and Jim Slautich. Stephanie Hickling Beckman directs and Catilin Lane serves as stage manager.

The show runs two weekends only: December 1-10, Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm at the BeBe Theatre in downtown Asheville. Tickets for $15 at the door and $12 in advance. Reservations strongly recommended and may be made online at differentstrokesavl.com or by calling (828) 275-2093.