Thanks, ladies. You're all lovely.
And this cussin, this cussin, I know...I'd be a liar if I said I didn't have the mouth of a sailor some days, but given my intended audience, I played around with the profane and moved forward with it for comic effect and to find level ground among all the wisdom and mysticism that I've been so blessed to come across in my travels and studies. It's very, very Bakhtinian (think "Rabelais and His World").
Because, as you said, Mandy, the juggalos are very much akin to the Grateful Dead's Deadheads. Looking at the two in the same context, we see that generation gap isn't so vast--the youth counterculture is reinvented and begins anew; only this time around, it's grittier, edgier, just as off-the-wall and more so in-your-face with a fake, painted smile that's dark and sinister yet light, bright, and colorful...These are survivors. The children. They are anything but pretentious: completely down to earth and maybe not the most educated, maybe the proverbial "ugly girl at the prom," insulted and gawked at in more recent years by internet and media jeers but...there is an amazing light and love here. And a home and a place and an acceptance. And this is the energy that inspired these cards, which I not only drew but LIVED...like they came through me, not of me. I cannot even begin to describe what it has been like spending my formative years among the subculture, but now that I am "grown" in my 20s, it's time to show what I know and help them like they've helped me. Especially the teens. It's really about them. Some (most) come to the carnival grounds for the party scene and then leave with something else...self-awareness and humor and mysticism. As long as one of them feel this, then that's what's UP.
And now just about 200 copies of the DC Tarot are out there in the world. And these kids--the letters I get--they are reconnecting with their souls here. You must understand that most of them have no prior connection to tarot and generally not even "conventional" spiritual paths, but they are praying and meditating and looking within. Just today, I received word from a girl who has been journaling, praying, and lighting incense everyday with the cards. And that IS priceless. And beautiful.
And I'm humbled. And I know to remain an empty vessel. I know that I can't hold on to or accurately describe any of it. It melts like snowflakes. It makes me cry with joy.
And yup you can call it "gushing"...I know there's cynicism...but this is from the heart. And like I said, as long as somebody feels this, then that's what's up. Real as it gets. True+real=Treal