The HIV Road - a personal story
This morning I woke to find a fantastically moving blog post as an email link from Susan. I was impressed with Mark Olmsted's frank telling of his HIV story in The Spiritual Lessons of HIV on The Huffington Post blog.
Not only does Olmsted address the physical aspects of living with HIV: "... death, in and of itself, is not a terrible thing at all -- we just tend to confuse it with the suffering that usually precedes it ..." he also addresses the social and emotional aspects of living with HIV/AIDS: "I learned to remind myself, every time that I felt tempted to internalize the societal stigma around HIV, that I contracted this disease in the search for human intimacy. Whether the encounter was more lust-based or love-based doesn't matter, I wanted to be close to another consenting adult, and there is never any shame in that.
Without shame or embarrassment, Mark Olmsted writes a poignant and effective entry to share with those willing to share five minutes of their life with him.
Interested in more that Olmsted has to say? Keep an eye on The Huffington Post and his personal blog at The Trash Whisperer. I have enjoyed reading quite a few of his personal blog entries, especially the recent "Why Some Beautiful Men Kill Themselves".
What do you think? Is Mark as spot-on about the road to AIDS as his readers believe he is?
Are there parts of an HIV+ life that his essay misses out on? If so, what are they?
Where are your favorite HIV/AIDS Health Activists blogging?
Not only does Olmsted address the physical aspects of living with HIV: "... death, in and of itself, is not a terrible thing at all -- we just tend to confuse it with the suffering that usually precedes it ..." he also addresses the social and emotional aspects of living with HIV/AIDS: "I learned to remind myself, every time that I felt tempted to internalize the societal stigma around HIV, that I contracted this disease in the search for human intimacy. Whether the encounter was more lust-based or love-based doesn't matter, I wanted to be close to another consenting adult, and there is never any shame in that.
Without shame or embarrassment, Mark Olmsted writes a poignant and effective entry to share with those willing to share five minutes of their life with him.
Interested in more that Olmsted has to say? Keep an eye on The Huffington Post and his personal blog at The Trash Whisperer. I have enjoyed reading quite a few of his personal blog entries, especially the recent "Why Some Beautiful Men Kill Themselves".
What do you think? Is Mark as spot-on about the road to AIDS as his readers believe he is?
Are there parts of an HIV+ life that his essay misses out on? If so, what are they?
Where are your favorite HIV/AIDS Health Activists blogging?
Tags: hiv/aids, personal stories
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