I want to express thanks and call out a few people for special praise for their contribution and creativity. First of all, behind every good man is a woman. In this case, two women: Kym Pappas and Carla Nell, who are also the directors and producers of V-Day in San Diego. They have done a tremendous job, in adding The MENding to V-Day and advertising the two shows together, positioning it as the ying and yang of solving the problem of violence. Thank you, you two strong, beautiful and wonderful women for giving men a voice in this very important work.

Next, I need to thank Brendan Cavalier and Christopher Burger. Christopher stepped forward to direct this project last year (thank you, Chris, it’s hard to be the first lemming off the cliff, I know) and Brendan took it on this year. Both of them are amazing men with big hearts and lots of creative juice.

I want to call out special thanks to Rod Rodriguez, who is a gifted writer. He has written a ton of pieces for this show, many of which I’m hoping, with his permission, to add to our general MENding script to make it available for other groups of men to do this work in college and communities around the country. Moreover, I plan to feature his work on this blog in the weeks to come.

But of all that he has written, by far my favorite is: “To Whom It May Concern:” is about an attempted rape and abduction of his sister 15 years ago that was thwarted by her and a sticky door handle on the rapist’s van. This piece wraps up the show and is one of my favorite for its depth and vulnerability. Rod is also the writer of “Breast”, “I am a man.”, “I am not a hero.” , “Curly” and co-author of several other work in the show. My other favorite piece (of many favorites!) is “Forgive Yourself” by Christopher Burger, which is expertly and movingly delivered by the talented Patrick Mayuyu. “Forgive Yourself” deserves a whole blog later, but it recounts how a 14-year old boy is sexually harassed and nearly molested by a priest. It is a subtle, first person account that shows that sexual misconduct doesn’t have to result in gentile touching or penetration for someone to be damaged.

I also want to honor David Wittenburg for his stunning delivery of Dr. Vaginski (see blog). Even though I wrote this piece and thought that I couldn’t laugh at my own jokes any longer, David delivered such a devastatingly funny performance that he had me rolling with gut laughs—and I’ve only heard this piece about 500 times.

I also want to thank Scott Amiotte for his performance of “Tantra” (see this blog), and for writing the piece “Babe”, which is another work I plan to feature here with his permission.

I also want to thank Paul Savage, Steven Schmitz, George Soete, Reed Willard, Marc Amial Caro, Josh Hyatt, Ryan Martinez, Tony Bejarno, Tony Hamm, Gilbert Quintana, Patrick Kelly, and Zach Goode for their hard work and participation in writing and performing in this show. You guys ARE heros.

Finally, one of the most rewarding moment for me happened after the show. I was approached by Brendan Cavalier’s mother, the director of this year’s show, who said the following to me: “Thank you so much for doing this work. Because of Brendan’s involvement with this show, I have seen a side of my son that I have never seen before, and I have to tell you, I like this side of him very much.”

So do I.

In fact, you could say I like this side of all these men—very, very much.

I love you guys and really look forward to working with, performing with, and collaborating with you on your special San Diego-flavored version of the MENding Monologues in the months and years to come.

Bath Love

Written by Derek Dujardin

Intro: “This is a true story. In 1986, I was nineteen years old, and working as a Lifeguard at the YMCA in Everett, WA. One of my regular lap swimmers was a 93-year-old man named Jerry. Every morning, he would drive his electric golf cart down from the retirement home. After he swam, he would sit and talk to me. About his sex life. Which was over like 40 years ago. But that didn’t stop him from talking…Oh there’s Jerry now. I’ll let him tell it.”

(Derek exits / Tyris enters as an Jerry the old man)

I was married to the same women for 73 years. Seventy-three years—that’s like ten marriages to most of you. (pause) It was to me, too.

At the retirement home, the young kids always ask me how I made it last so long with Maria, and I tell them: “You fall in love many times. But always with the same person.”

I’m the resident marriage counselor there. All the kids all come to me with their problems. This one fellow was having trouble because his wife wanted a new wedding band for their tenth anniversary. The first one was cheap. They didn’t have any money when their first got married, but now he has a good job. But he didn’t want to spend a couple thousands bucks on something that he said was “lavish, extravagant and frivolous.” And I said, that’s the point, dummy. It’s supposed to lavish, extravagant and frivolous. Love is not supposed to be practical.    He put up a fuss and finally I said: “Never mind, kid, her next husband will buy it for her.” He bought her the ring.

You know, I dole out advice about marriages the way they dole out medication, but I really don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. The reality is, I was happily married 73 years because we took baths together. It was as simple as that.

The baths started after my son Daniel was born. My wife was petite. Just a little thing, maybe 100 pounds. She nearly died giving birth to Daniel. The doctor said she wasn’t built to have more babies and would likely die the next time.

He told us we needed to start using birth control. So we went and talked to our priest, he wouldn’t let us use birth control, even if Maria’s life was in danger.

So, I went back and talked to the doctor by myself he told me what to do. He told me to use the Swirl-and-Swish method. I know you’ve never heard of this. When I tell people we did this for 25 years, they tell me it would never work. Well, it worked for us. Or maybe God saw fit not to give us another baby. Either way, whether you believe me or not, this is what we did.

The doctor gave me these directions: He said “Right after coitus, you get your butt out of bed, and run your wife a hot bath—as hot as she can stand it. And then you tell her to squat down and put her fingers inside and Swirl-and-Swish out the semen. Do that every time, no exceptions.”

Yeah, we didn’t think it was going to work either. But what choice did we have? We did that every time we had sex. And she never got pregnant.

Every time she was done Swirling and Swishing, I would crawl into the tub, wrap my arms around her and we would doze off together.

Even after the doctor told us that she was too old to have children, I would still run her a hot bath after sex. It was a ritual. For us, it became as indispensable as kissing. I think she looked forward to my baths more than the sex.

Over the years, I got really good at running baths. Adding bubbles, and salts and oils. We did that until she got sick. Maria passed three years ago. I’m not scared of dying. To me, death is just another chance to be with Maria.

You know, I look back on my life and I can’t remember entire years. Sometimes, it hard to remember in which decade a memory lives.    They flitter about like butterflies. But I do remember those baths.

(Tyris, fading back, slowly exiting)

Those baths.

Those baths.

Those baths.”

(Derek re-enters)

About six weeks later, Jerry stopped coming to the pool. I asked around and found out he had died from a stroke—and get this—he died of all places—in a bathtub.

My thoughts went back to the story that he told me. I liked to imagine that as the water turned cold, he felt Maria wrap her warm body around him one last time. Or maybe for forever.”

The End—————-

A lot of people want to know if this story is true. Jerry did exist. He did have a wife and he did use the swirl and swish method because the Catholic church wouldn’t let them use birth control. (By the way, I don’t recommend that as a reliable source of birth control.) He did run her baths after sex. However, that’s about it. All the jokes are mine. The real Jerry wasn’t that funny or insightful. I added that to make it more entertaining. He was a little senile. He told me the EXACT same story over and over again. I must of hear it at least 20 times. Which is probably why God had him tell me it so many times so 20 years later I could make a monologue out of it.

Anyway, the real Jerry was a little bit of a pervert. My first draft had in some of his real comments and we had to them out. He was a little too interested in my sex life, would ask me some uncomfortable questions and gave me advance that I’d rather not repeat. So, there you have it. I don’t know if Jerry died in a bath tub or not. If he didn’t, he probably should have. I added bit for poetic license. Hope this doesn’t ruin the magic for you. Much love,

Derek