Congratulations! You can marry your toaster...

At least according to folks in Cali.

I'm no expert on this stuff. There are social psychologists and religious folks who are all "experts" on this subject. They're busy yelling at each other that they're right and the opposition is wrong. I don't have tables and graphs and studies to illustrate my point. I certainly don't have the threats of eternal hell. It's just that I'm thinking that calling someone an abomination might be above most all of our paygrades.

But what do I know.

I was cleaning out a box of letters and photos when I came across a package of letters that were at least 17 years old. They were written by a friend who was living in New York. We'd been roommates before that. He'd shown me that a creative life wasn't just a hobby. You could actually do it for a living. A smart man, he saw the world as an interrelated dance.

Re-reading his letters gave my heart a tug. They were full of his anticipation and worry about someone he'd met. Someone who he said might be a person to live with. To love. There in his letters I watched as the relationship progressed from strangers who were curious into lovers. He was so happy. As long as I'd known him, he'd been looking for a committed relationship. He'd had flings but now he wanted a person to come home too. This person wasn't easy for him to find because of his life choices. He was dancing. When he wasn't dancing, he was working. He didn't earn much and most of it went for a roof over his head. Then he met this person and - well - he was happy. Here was a person he felt comfortable with. A hopeful match.

It made me smile to read the words again. He was happy.

And then he wasn't.

Apparently his friend's family didn't approve. The were very conservative and my friend wasn't worthy of their offspring. The next letters were sad. They talked about the unfair nature of what was happening. No matter how kind or how smart or how funny he was? It would never be good enough. The person who he loved just wasn't strong enough for the fight.

And he wasn't strong enough to come "out".

I was asked by a woman who was a lesbian, why (if I was a Christian) I didn't call her an abomination. Why did I call her friend instead. I told her it was simple. I didn't decide if she was going to Heaven or to Hell. That was, I believed, God's call not mine. But she was perhaps one of the best writer's I'd ever met. She liked what I wrote and I like what she wrote. Like my relationship with my New York friend, I became a better person and a better writer from having known her.

Listening to all the fuss about homosexuals marrying their toaster seems kind of strange and unrelated to my experience. I never, ever, met any of my friend's friends who were interested in marrying their kitchen appliances nor their dog. They were trying to find something real in this world.

Love.

Home.

Family.

Household appliances had nothing to do with it. To say anything different wouldn't be telling the truth.






They're voting (if they haven't already) on Kagan's nomination to the US Supreme Court. There's always alot of talk about judicial temperment. It makes sense to ask about her knowledge of Constitutional Law and her past rulings. This isn't just the job of a llifetime. Oh no, this is a life time job and she's young. If confirmed her words and judgement could resonate for decades. I'm glad that folks want to know what she knows about the law but me?

I want to know if she's a person.

I want to know how she will walk the line between the law and my friend's broken heart?

I'm thinking about all this because of tonight. LOL and because of an interview on "that little show in the middle of the night".. Don't know why but that man does get me to think- and to laugh.

Back later. Yard is looking better and better. Worth the effort.



Hugs,

AuthorAnn