A Profound Thought from Memoirs of a Geisha

[Lisbeth]

I wasn't expecting to find anything quite this profound when I started reading Memoirs of a Geisha, but here it is:

Now I understood the thing that I had overlooked; the point wasn't to become a geisha, but to be one.  To become a geisha... well, that was hardly a purpose in life.  But to be a geisha... I could see it now as a stepping-stone to something else.

I see this as directly applicable to gender transition, in my case male-to-female.  If my sole purpose is to become a woman, and I achieve that, what then?  My purpose is achieved, and I have nothing else to live for.  If on the other hand, my purpose is to be a woman, then once I have gotten there, I continue achieving my purpose every day of my life.

I found something else relevant for all those who feel they are putting to death their old self:

I thought Sayuri was a lovely name, but it felt strange not to be known as Chiyo any longer.  After the ceremony we went into another room for a lunch of "red rice," made of rice mixed with red beans.  I picked at it, feeling strangely unsettled and not at all like celebrating.  The mistress of the teahouse asked me a question, and when I heard her call me "Sayuri," I realized what was bothering me.  It was as if the little girl named Chiyo, running barefoot from the pond to her tipsy house, no longer existed.  I felt that this new girl, Sayuri, with her gleaming white face and her red lips, had destroyed her.

[lisagurl]

Transition had nothing to do with becoming or being, I was already a women. I did not need to change who I was, just improve some dissatisfying physical tidbits.

[gothique11]

Thnx Lisbeth for that quote.