Atlanta has a thriving BDSM community. I knew some of the key folks through friend-of-a-friend for years. It isn't much of a friendly gathering of like-minded individuals. It's about commerce and kink flair and being seen.

I'm sure when most of us think about the scene, we think about young attractive people in their twenties or thirties getting together and being open about alternative lifestyles and exploring and developing their pleasure and fullfilment.

But the truth is, it's the folks in their forties, fifties and sixties who have a fucking clue about what's going on, people who look a lot less like supermodels and are much less concerned by that. (Perhaps because they are people past the prime years of a normal sexual appetite?) They're the real community, while the popular image of the community is the younger crowd, who just want to to buy it, sell it, and look cool around it.

I don't know. I could talk, talk, talk, but what the hell do I know?

We're lucky to have this community here, such as it is. If an accurate history lesson isn't to be found, look to literature through the ages. Life imitates art; art imitates life.