Five Star Friday's 180th Edition Is Brought to You By bell hooks

This week's Five Star Friday is brought to you by acceptance and love, the hardness of January, a family's history with breast cancer, the sudden loss of a father, the reality of welfare, Planned Parenthood and Susan G Komen, sexual innuendo, and bell hooks:

For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed?

     — bell hooks

Enjoy the good reading. Happy Friday!

"Scenes From a Marriage: January Kill" from Flux Capacitor:

I trace my finger over our baby's face. It's been one month, I say in a whisper to myself. One month. I am confused. Why does one hard month feel completely unacceptable and undoable? Then I am ashamed. Why can't I wait just a fucking MINUTE? Why do I have to be so demanding, so greedy with happiness? But pain and struggle and distance makes me feel like a failure. Like our marriage is a failure. If this is all true, then what about the other 11 months, before this one? What were they? Just pretend, just play acting, just rehearsing before the big reveal, the truth?

"Thank You, Susan G Komen, For Showing Me That I Should Give My Money Straight to Planned Parenthood Instead" from Stirrup Queens

"Time" from The Little Baby Blog

"A Mountain I'm Willing to Die On" from Momastery:

Several years ago I was in a Bible study at church, and there was some talk about homosexuality being sinful, and I spoke up. I quoted Mother Teresa and said "When we judge people we have no time to love them." And I was immediately reprimanded for my blasphemy by a woman who reminded me of 1 Corinthians 6: 9-10. But I was very confused because this woman was speaking. In church. And she was also wearing a necklace. And I could see her hair, baby. She had no head covering. All of which are things that are sooooo totally against the Bible Rules. And so I just assumed that she had decided not to follow the parts of the Bible that limited her particular freedoms, but to hold fast to the parts that limited other people's freedoms. I didn't point this out at the time baby, because she wasn't a bad person. People are doing the best they can, mostly. It's best not to embarrass people.

"Welfare Queen" from Creating Motherhood

"Lost In Translation" from The Bloggess

"Elusive Cancer" from Freak Bacon:

I'm so proud to be a part of this lineage of women, even though this cancer lives inside so many of us. I think about the different sort of life that my sister's daughter's will have, growing up with a courageous mother taking the power of modern science and telling this cancer what's what. My sister's oldest daughter will be nine year this, the same age that my mother was when breast cancer first came into her life. Statistically, at least one of my sister's three children will have this gene as well, but the entire course of their lives will be different than my mother's life was. I'm not a religious person, but I can't help but thank God for this chance.

Please come back and share good writing with us over the coming week to be featured on the next Five Star Friday. If you have read a really good piece on someone else's weblog, submit it by Thursday at midnight CST to have it featured on Five Star Friday.

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Comments

[Jayme]

Wow. Thank you, so very much, for including this piece in Five Star Fridays. I'm so honored (and frankly, shocked as hell) to be on the same web page as these amazing, amazing women. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[Grace]

I've been following you all of a few days, because of the blog awards nomination (Congratulations, and I voted for you!), but I've spent several hours this morning on these 5 Star Friday links. Nice to meet you and thanks for the great reading!

[Jennifer]

Thank you for the amazing blog recommendations. I'm inspired by the talent of the writers. So glad to have the weekend to read it all!

[Jami Howard]

Thank you so much for including my piece, Elusive Cancer, here. You're so awesome!