England was a little ahead of the States in terms of emancipation. There’s a lovely little pergoda in London commemorating the not-soon-enough date.

I’d been sent to an all-girls, mostly white, religious boarding school in England, after we moved to Belgium. So I couldn’t have been more than twelve when I asked my mother what she would think if I married a black man.

Decades later, I have had lovers from many different backgrounds. Maybe because I’m a visual artist, I see beauty in places that some may not. I love contrasts of skin, different bone structures and features, as well as character lines.

But what I love the most, is the different cultural experiences and histories that these men have brought into my life. From a Vietnam Vet to a skateboard punk to a semi-pro cyclist to………oh, I’ll not bore you further.

To meet people different from ourselves is a learning experience. We lose our fear, by realizing that we have so much in common. We gain knowledge, by understanding that our world view is not universal. We grow, because we are part of a richer tapestry of the human experience.

To do less, is to sell ourselves and our fellow human beings short.