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My journal is called _____ because _____.
My subtitle is _____ because _____.
My friends page is called _____ because _____.
My username is ____ because _____.
My default userpic is _____ because_____.

My journal name is becoming real. It is a reference to the Velveteen Rabbit. I can thank gearjock for returning the story to my life. It is brilliant. For me, the book’s concept of toys becoming real – and the steps involved – are the perfect parallel to my life in leather, including the health problems of the last few years.

The most poignant excerpt: “What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

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My journal’s subtitle: stories of an old skin horse. Going along with the first answer. I certainly relate to the Skin Horse. I have become rather shabby, have gotten loose in the joints and at least have had all my hair loved off… (Well, not exactly loved off…)

This is an excellent avatar for me.

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My friends page: more becoming. Further thoughts on a theme. It seems to me that the brilliance of LJ is the ability to find folks much like myself, in this sense, so frickin’ beautiful for the wear their live has had on their seams…

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My username: gryphons_hole. It has yet to change since joining LJ. I don’t expect it to do so. It works on multiple levels: my own little corner of the world; the dark, almost forgotten edges of my mind, where the deep stuff lives; and yes, the obvious, naughty hole… and pie-hole for that matter.

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My default icon: curious. It is my fourth default since I joined LJ in October of 2005. If you click through to view my icons, the others are marked in the order they were used. Lately, I try to stick with defaults that clearly show my face. The photo was taken as part of my 30×30 of self-portraits last July.