In bed at night at 12, I still prayed as I had as a child, but instead of my lists of blessings and natural disasters, I began asking for the strength to control myself, and, when that failed, I would bargain for forgiveness. I offered up whatever I could think of in order to relieve my sense of guilt. People were sure to tell me masturbation was wrong, but no one ever told me you weren’t suppose to bargain with the Lord. My version of him was more like the witches of fairy tales, or the dealer of a high-stakes poker game. I reasoned that misbehaving would weaken my hand, making God less likely to protect me against death.
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Deborah Tuberville
The Relationship Issue: Attachments, Obsessions & Desires
BY LISA MARIE BASILE
On any given day, a women’s publication will publish myriad ‘relationships’ pieces – and in most cases, it’s all centered on a sexual or romantic hetero dynamic. But what of our other attachments, connections, relationships and obsessions? When do we talk of those dreamy in-betweens? That very real cord between us & the vicious world? What of the things that we are constantly either drawn toward or running from – death, art, the friend we secretly desire, our hair, our body, our culture, our community, our children, our god?
Luna Luna wants to talk about those things. We’ve always been obsessed with the grey area, the quiet conversations and the real, necessary, nuanced dialogue we have with ourselves and one another. There’s so much more to being a woman than dating a man, we’ve always thought (though, sure, we adore them). Let’s leave that at home, though, today. Let’s talk about the other things we attach ourselves to. Let’s admit that we’re preoccupied. Let’s admit that there’s more going on. We’re more than the surface.
Today, I compiled a few brand-new pieces, along with a few older ones, that I think are necessary to the larger conversation around relationships. We'll be publishing on this theme all week. Here, you’ll find a diary of the pieces we included. You can start anywhere.
THE RELATIONSHIP ISSUE