Everyone, this is a brilliant performer in Houston named Tye Blue and he’s amazingly talented and funny. He posted this picture today and I just loved him more for it. Happy Chicken Pride Day! Thanks Tye for making everyone smile during this. I especially love you for making me smile and for being such a great human being. You’re inspiring. Thanks!
Immediately after Chic-fil-A decided to remove the Jim Henson Muppet promotion, the moved up The Berenstain Bears promotion of giving out free books with purchase. The Berenstain family has posted on their website a distancing of the promotion and saying they have no say in this promotion. It was decided to move forward with it well before this whole anti-gay thing started.
The book being distributed is heavy on the Golden Rule…which seems a little ironic given the situation. I’ve always loved bears…now I love them even more!
Brother Bear says…Bullies can point out what about you is wrong, but a good friend can show you what about you is strong.
While I’m not really surprised by this, I have to say this is pretty strange. It’ll be interesting to see 10 years from now when we look back on all this and see who participated in this and chose to give money to a company that has publicly said they are against equality for all people (in their own special way). I know I’m paraphrasing…but no matter what you think…it’s segregation now…segregation forever. And now politicians who are in bed with these extremest religious groups are making their alliances public. So go ahead…donate to hate. But one day we’ll look back and remember who choose to do the right thing.
I love this picture…it’s very brave and I appreciate the couple who took it. Thank you for sharing yourselves this way! I love you guys!
The definition of marriage has changed two times in American history to accommodate changing views and culture. It can…and will…change again.
It’s only a matter of time…
I think I’m beginning to get a little better understanding of what is happening on the planet at this time. All of this talk of gay rights, Christianity and chicken got me so upset over the last week that I seriously began to doubt that we, as a species, would ever really find a way out of this. It felt hopeless. I have never felt the level of despair and hopelessness I’ve felt recently. As bad as it has ever gotten for me and my life, and believe me I’ve had some rotten times mixed into the great stuff, I’ve never ever lost hope that it could get better. Until I saw how people treated each other this past week. The things that were said were hurtful on both sides. All of a sudden you either believed in Jesus Christ and his selected bible passages…or you were a total heathen and deserved death, hatred, or at the very least, to be vilified.
I’ve lived a pretty sheltered life for the most part. I didn’t have the same experience of coming out as a lot of teenagers and others have had. My parents accepted me the minute I told them I was gay. That was at 11 years old. At 9 years old I remember telling my dad that I was different than the other boys. I didn’t know why I was different…I just remember liking my boy friends and loved being with them. My dad and I sat on the floor in my parent’s bedroom and talked about it. He assured me that there was not a thing wrong with my feelings nor about my feeling different. He told me it was normal and that it may change, but not to worry about it…just be myself. Then we listened to music together…Roger Whittaker to be exact. The song I remember from that time is New World in The Morning. The lyrics went like this:
Everybody talks about a new world in the morning.
A new world in the morning so they say.
I, myself don’t talk about a new world in the morning.
A new world in the morning, that’s today.
And I can feel a new tomorrow comin’ on.
And I don’t know why I have to make a song.
Everybody talks a bout a new world in the morning.
New world in the morning takes so long.
I’m very appreciative of my parent’s love and acceptance of me. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t experience that kind of love like I did. Whenever I did experience being called a fag or other hateful words intended to hurt me, I paid no attention. I embraced it for the most part. If you were going to call me fag or gay, then I’d be the best fag or gay you’d ever met. It was the ultimate in revenge really. In Junior High and High School I went so far as to wear makeup to school and dress in crazy clothes. Luckily it was the 80’s so you could pretty much get away with crazy stuff like that and everybody thought it was cool….mostly.
So here we are in 2012 and arguments are being started, wires are being crossed and a few people are stirring the pot for whatever reason. It reminded me when I read Plato’s Republic. The metaphor of the cave in particular, I believe, applies to this situation. There are a group of people in a cave. (cave could be interpreted to be life here). The people inside the cave can only look upon the shadows cast upon the wall of the cave before them. Light comes to them from a great fire burning behind them, higher up, and at a distance. Located between this fire and the people of the cave is a road at a higher level along this road a low wall has been built. Here other people have puppets, which they use to cast the shadows upon the cave wall.
These shadows are given names by the people in the cave, and they consider them to be real things. However anyone outside of the cave in the bright sunlight would no longer see the shadows (or be under the illusion manifested by the puppet show). The people inside the cave cannot stand the bright light of the sun outside, and so always avert their eyes back to the shadow wall.
These are the people who seem to be asleep to the spiritual world, dreaming a dream of worldly consciousness, and afraid of waking up. The process of ‘waking up’ or turning away from the obsession with ego, and the mundane awareness, away from the shadows and back toward the light, is Metanoia – the transformation of the mind from that which is worldly to that which is the light of true consciousness.
People, at any time, can choose to not be enamored by the shadows in the cave. The shadows have names…freedom of religion, the right of a business to operate however they want, the right to be married, the fear of God’s wrath when we say we know better than Him. All of this is just a temporary distraction from what is really going on here…there is a brighter place that we have feared to go to together. There are puppets used as distractions so we stay in the cave. There is fear that you will wake up and stop believing all this. But it’s really hard to save face and change your mind. There is an art to changing your mind. Christian’s can change their mind and stand on higher principals of love and acceptance. But if they did they would have to accept love in all it’s forms. My gay brothers and sisters would have to have a lot of compassion and understanding while we all grew together and come out of this cave. And we’d have to remember that there are going to be those who are SO committed that we stay where we are that they will use any means necessary to keep us there…including dividing us, killing us and separating us inside our communities. If there is a devil…surely this is it.
So what now? We are on the cusp of something big…I can feel it. All the distractions and smokescreens that will be thrown our way cannot take us off course from our journey together. But they will try. Chic Fil A is a distraction/shadow. Sarah Palin eating at their place and flaunting it is a distraction/shadow. Hate groups aren’t anything new…but they are also a distraction. The KKK was a distraction. It’s ALL a distraction. It’s nothing but shadows. So let’s get our head back in the game here and look for a way to bring this together. There is a new world coming…and a new world in the morning, that’s today.
Be kind to each other. For everyone (all of us) is fighting a hard battle.
Thank you dad (and mom) for the inspiration for this. You did a great job with me and I love you for it.
Harold
Look back, to slavery, to suffrage, to integration and one thing is clear. Fashions in bigotry come and go. The right thing lasts.
ANNA QUINDLEN, New York Times, Jan. 31, 1993
Oh how I love Alanis. Her lyrics are so amazing. Here she sings of moving into being a guardian not only for her new child…but for herself. So amazingly put in her song that I wanted to share it. She’s taking care of her child…but she’s taking care of herself so she can do that. I love that! Her new disc is coming out soon…
Whatever happened to class? There used to be a time when whether you were Republican or Democrat, you maintained a sense of decorum. Some sense of respect for the humanity of the other. I saw this picture of Sarah Palin and her husband going to Chic Fil A while here in Houston this past week. They NEVER would have eaten at that dump if she was just here visiting someone on her own. They never would have gone to a fast food restaurant. And they never would have gone to one that would cause so many people to be repulsed and reactivated as this particular visit. This completely demonstrates why she never went any further in politics and why others that operate this way don’t really make the difference they say they are out to make. Sarah Palin had such an opportunity to gracefully and graciously point out the freedom of business to operate as it wishes under whatever principles it chooses. But going there and not being sensitive that it would cause so much hatred and pain is what separates her from the real leaders of this world. I don’t care about her. I’d never vote for her in anything she would ever run in. But I did have respect for her being willing to stand up for what she believed was right. But…and this is a big but…going to such a divisive and potentially further hurtful place in such a personal way is her right. But why would you?
The long and short of it– on 8/1 (the day Mike Huckabee wants Chick-Fil-A supporters to patronize the restaurant) go to Chick-Fil-A. Ask for a large water and nothing else. See if they adhere to Proverbs 25:21 and give it to you. If they do, yay! You took a few cents from their hate fund! If they don’t, well…I guess they’re proving their principals aren’t so “biblical.”
Watch the video and if you’re in, pass the word on, please and share this post! #Proverbs2521
I learned a couple of things about myself and my body this week. First off, I quit the fitness challenge that I had started a couple of weeks ago. I felt like such a failure. There were a lot of things that weren’t working about it. I was frustrated at my lack of results, annoyed that I was confused about what the problem was, and suffering a loss of confidence in what I wanted to accomplish. Before this challenge and before I started the training at the gym, I didn’t really care about my weight. I liked the way I looked and I was comfortable in my own skin. I had JUST gotten comfortable declaring I was a Bear. (For those not in the know…a Bear is a gay man who is larger than the average bear, moderately to severely hairy, and overall a man’s man.) I was a Bear and I was proud to be one…grrr.
But then I started losing weight. All of a sudden I was looking better and feeling better about myself. It’s not that I wasn’t already feeling that way, it’s just it was a new feeling…something I hadn’t felt in a long time…attractive. I know it’s silly to say this because I do know I’m not an ugly man, but feeling attractive was a whole other experience. And, in the past, feeling attractive was dangerous. It meant I would be tempted by other attractive men, or men who were attracted to me. It meant having feelings. I hate that. Feelings really mess me up because often I don’t know WHAT the feeling is I’m feeling…it’s like I’m so dumb in that area of life!
So here I am at 240lbs for the second week in a row. I’ve quit the fitness challenge and, thought I’m upset about that, I feel somewhat confident that this lifestyle change would stick…finally! I discovered that the recipes on the challenge were a little more complicated than what I was expecting. So I stuck with the couple that I, or my partner, could prepare. I was drinking a peach smoothie in the morning (chock full of flax), Chicken Salad with 4 cups of mixed greens, Wasa crackers for snacks and Sloppy Joes made with turkey and non-salt tomato sauce. No problems…I love all of these things. But I was totally STUFFED AND STOPPED UP. I’d sit on the toilet for 20 minutes at a time and nothing! Occasionally I’d have a bowel movement, but for the most part I was carrying it all around with me all week. (I know this is gross…but I need to share so that everyone who’s ever had to deal with this or is dealing with it understands all of this!)
After I quit, I ate some stuff off the plan and my stomach got a little upset. In no time at all, I was already feeling lighter…if you get my drift. I had already been drinking a lot of water, so drinking an espresso was a shock to my body. It turned out to be a good shock. Just for shits and giggles (kidding) I thought I’d weigh myself. 237 pounds. What the hell? All this time I had unknowingly been constipated. My body was trying to tell me something…but I wasn’t listening. Not listening to my body isn’t a new development. I’ve been ‘not listening’ for a long time and I have mucho experience with it! But this time felt different…I actually wanted to hear what it was trying to tell me. That was a major development!
While talking to my trainer, he was asking me about my heart rate while exercising. Surely my heart rate was high enough…I was walking 14-15 minute miles around Memorial Park nearly every day. I must be doing something right! I was out there exercising! Surely that must count for SOMETHING!! So I went and bought a heart rate monitor that straps across the chest with a watch. After 30 minutes of walking briskly, I looked at my heart rate and it wasn’t going over 107-109. I didn’t understand it. I was soaking wet when coming home after these walks…I was exhausted. But, I wasn’t near the heart rate I needed to be at to lose anymore weight. The only way I’m going to get there is to jog/run. I’m seriously scared to run again. In the past I was actually really good at it. I had fantastic results when I was running many years ago and I felt great. I don’t know why I’m afraid. I just feel it. It may not be fear…maybe it’s something else?
So now I’m here on Sunday and I’m at 240 still. I now know that I’m going to have to ramp up my cardio if I’m going to move past this plateau. I’ve got the nutrition in place. I’ve got the working out in place. I’ve got support from awesome friends and family. I think I can do this. I’ll keep you posted this week on FaceBook as I take on this new level of my development. I may need some help in getting started so if you have any recommendations and/or encouragement. Mostly I need those two things and at different times. Sometimes the recommendations work. Sometimes the encouragement does the trick. Sometimes just telling me I look hot will work! Thank you for everything and for your support and love! Here’s to another week!
Downtown Harold's Place 