another eye opens

I've participated in the gay pride march for many years but not recently -- it had started to feel very been-there-done-that. But after Friday's gay marriage triumph, I knew the energy would be high, so I marched with Andy and Team New York Aquatics, the swim team.

There are many good reasons to march with the swim team. They get a lot of attention (and it's all about attention, right?), partly because most of them parade down Fifth Avenue in Speedos (see Andy and his bff Randall modelling the team suit)...

...and partly because they come armed with gigantic water guns and create pandemonium by squirting the crowds all along the route.

The turnout was indeed spectacular, the mood was ebullient. I realized that something I love about the march is that it's one of the few places where I get to see huge contingents of gay girls manifesting in public.

You see everyone in the parade, even three-month-old babies.

And of course fabulous creatures out of your dreams.

this pride of lions suddenly showed up somewhere along the way and positioned themselves between the swimmers and the truck from the sports bar Boxers.

a lovely day of community

I spent a delicious eleven days back in the woods of northeast Germany recently co-facilitating a workshop for an organization called Gay Love Spirit.

My co-facilitators -- Kai, Volker, and Andy -- had spent the last two years working with a group of men in seven sessions on different themes, and they invited me to join them for the eighth and final module on Sacred Intimacy.

The four of us slept in the Bootshause (Boathouse) overlooking a beautiful lake.

We did most of our work in the Seepavilion...

...which we converted into a temple for meditation, bodywork, teaching, rituals, and recreation.

The lake was home to many ducks, geese, and swans.

The Bootshaus was home to many spiders.

The temple was home to numerous impromptu ceremonies of celebration, worship, and heart-connection.

During breaks, it was easy to hop in the lake for a quick, refreshing swim.

It was a peaceful and nurturing break from life in the big city.

we walked through the Tiergarten, past the talismanic Siegessäule

admiring the Reichstag and other bits of monumental architecture

along with a fair amount of new construction

we walked along the Spree

to Museum Island, specifically the Pergamon Museum, which Sebastian had never visited (to my surprise) and which was a highlight of my first trip to Berlin in 1987

especially the recreation of an entire street from ancient Babylon

the walls and murals populated by mythological figures

and fierce animals of every description

many ancient pieces survive amazingly intact

but I also enjoyed seeing how fragments were displayed

many of them strikingly homoerotic

from the Pergamon we wandered over to Alexanderplatz, past the Dom and the Altes Museum, and spent some time in the ruined splendor of Oranienstrasse, the main drag of Kreutzberg

which reminded me of Soho in the '80s, or Williamsburg in recent years, or the Mission District in San Francisco

Kai joined us for lunch at Max und Moritz, and LeRouge came by with his handsome ex-boyfriend Misha

in the early evening, Sebastian headed back to Hamburg

and I wandered back to Kai's house through the multiculti splendor of Kreutzberg

LeRouge and Kai

Horst Kindler

Ben Haggard

Andy Saich

Sebastian Schwerdtfeger

Mr. David Zinn