The Mermaid Parade

The Coney Island Mermaid Parade began in 1983, viewed by (according to one slightly inebriated Coney Island native, standing behind Life in the Boomer Lane) four people. Today, 40 years later, it is the largest art parade in the country, attended each year by countless thousands of people. LBL, Only Daughter, and six-year-old grandson were in attendance on June 17, this year.

Were there mermaids? You bet. Of every shape and size and color and age and and gender and genetic representation. There were Classic Mermaids, Goth Mermaids, Trans Mermaids, Transvestite Mermaids, Muslim Mermaids, Baby Mermaids, Geriatric Mermaids, Mermaids in wheelchairs and on walkers and on unicycles, Nearly-Nude Mermaids, Fairy Mermaids, Mermaids on Floats and a lot of Butt-Exposed Mermaids. There was Human Sea Life of all kinds. There were Sailors and Pirates and Assorted Non-Defined Beings. There were many costumes that looked as though they had been worked on all year and some costumes that looked as though they were created on the subway, on the way to the parade. One Mermaid, in celebration of the end of the school term, fashioned a costume out of all of her term papers and notes. She looked like an intellectual reef.

The only characteristic that everyone shared was joy. Rampant, unapologetic, in-your-face joy. It’s the natural outcome of people being supported in expressing themselves without boundaries. It goes way beyond being tolerated or allowed by law or simply ignored. It goes to the heart of people being surrounded by others who take joy in the sight of them declaring to the world that this is who they are, who they aspire to be or who they are only brave enough to be when in the company of others doing the same thing.

There was no excess use of alcohol of which LBL was aware. There was no anger. there was no anti-social behavior. There were no inappropriate comments from viewers. There was no impatience or jostling from the crowds who stood for hours in the heat of a glorious New York summer day. Again, there was only joy. And there was gratitude that we were able to be a part of this, when so much of what is happening today is seated in fear and marginalzation, rather than unity and progress.

Those who promote fear, those who draw lines, those who deny others the beauty and complexity of who they are and the the gifts they have to bring to the table, have no idea what is lost. To say they deny or lose the truth isn’t quite the case. Truth, aside from the laws of the physical universe and the laws of mathematics, are open to the interpretation of flawed humans. Instead, they march toward a world that looks exactly like themselves, a world of rigid, unending, uniform grey. It’s a safe and predictable world, one that doesn’t recognize that the unlimited variations of color of people, of ideas, and the physical manifestation of those ideas, are what entices us and nurtures us and allows us to move forward.

LBL will always carry a bit of the Mermaid Parade with her now. The vision will remind her that there is an alternative, when she is forced to hear the words of the Grey.