For nearly two decades I’ve listened to taunting, to threats, to those insulting my bodily form and my thought processes.

I’ve been degraded and verbally abused by some of the most ridiculous manipulative groups I’ve ever encountered.

They are doing it to many people these days.

Then a woman said, “I’m going to help her.”

She sounded like a goddess, a power house of a woman.

Gratefully, I began to listen.

A man came on board. Amazingly, he knew just how to speak to me to get my attention and cooperation.

I’ve had a male friend for 30 years. We spoke this afternoon and he said, “You were one of the very first people to make masks, and you don’t like to wear them.” I said, “Afer all these years, you still don’t know me. I made them, because other people needed them.”

Many men just don’t get it. They want to insist, or demand an action, way of being, or response to whatever …

When all they need do … is need us …

Without manipulation or coercion.

And yet sometimes, the need must go unanswered.