Making Our Mark

Some have asked why this blog is called MARK

MARK because it's guy's name.

MARK because it's about the mark we make in the world.

Last night as I watched the documentary Paris Is Burning, the drag queen Dorian Corey summed up the meaning embedded in MARK perfectly. Here's what she says:

I always had hopes of being a star.

And then I, look... As you get older, you aim a little lower.

And I just say, "Well, yeah, you still might make an impression."

Everybody wants to leave something behind them, some impression, some mark upon the world.

Then you think, you've left a mark on the world... if you just get through it... and a few people remember your name, then you left a mark.

You don't have to bend the whole world.

I think it's better to just enjoy it.

Pay your dues...and enjoy it.

If you shoot an arrow and it goes real high... hooray for you."

Paris Is Burning is an extraordinary documentary on 'the ball' scene of New York City in the mid 80's. It is also an exploration of identity and what it means to be gay in a straight world. The search is for realness. To be real.

That is what made Word Is Out (yesterday's post) so moving - it documented the stories of 26 people as they dared to find and create their place in the world - the real world. It was a young man in a meadow that expressed it best. For the longest time he thought he was unable to feel emotion, until:

"And when I fell in love with this guy, it was just...It meant so much to me. It meant I was a real person." To watch and hear him say those words, literally broke my heart. It's all any of us want, right?

The good news is we've come a long way. We continue to make our mark, pave a way in the real world. Proof of that just opened on Broadway last night. Next Fall opened to great reviews, see Ben Brantley's review here, Next Fall.

Photo by Sarah Krulwich for The New York Times