So I'm not planning to get married any time soon. I mean first I would have to find someone to date and I'm no where close to that. However, I would one day like to. And in California we are currently in a battle to protect my right to do just that. People of faith are pouring millions of dollars into the campaign in support of Proposition 8. Millions of dollars!!!! Dollars that could be used to fight hunger, poverty, cancer--you name it and it could be helped with the money that is being donated to Yes on 8,a proposition that I believe couldn't be farther from what God desires for the world. Not only do I believe that the proposition is far from what God desires, I believe the tactics that are being used are far from what God desires, tactics that include lies, exploitation, and fear. For us Christians wasn't it the angel of God that said "fear not?" Fear not!
I'm guessing that this will only be read by people who support this cause. And even if it was read by someone who supported Proposition 8 it would just be ignored or scorned as another liberal, gay agenda. So I don't even know really why I'm writing it. Except that today is Write to Marry Day and perhaps if enough people put this message out into the universe and the blogosphere that it will combat all the hate that is being tossed about. Hate that would prevent me from the same rights that heterosexuals all across the country are granted every day.
And also those against Proposition 8 need to know that the people traveling around on buses claiming to be God's sole voice on this planet are not. I'm often reluctant to say what God does or doesn't want, because much of the atrocities of the world have been perpetrated with a claim of God's blessing or authority; however, I want to say that God is always on the side of love and always on the side of justice. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said "The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice." May it be so next Tuesday.
If you live outside the state of California. Send this post or posts like it to everyone you know who might live in California or who knows someone who lives in California. Or you might like to donate to the No on Proposition 8 campaign at www.noonprop8.com. If you don't know anyone else that would be affected by this then just do this for me. Do it because it is right. And then for goodness sake find me someone to marry already.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Tomorrow's Sermon Draft: Hunger FINAL
My brother died on a Friday and the people started pouring in almost immediately. And I don't mean the people that I am closest to. My mother has three sisters and them, and their kids and my brother and sister and I are all very close. I am as close to my cousins almost as I much as I am to my brother and sister. We have taken family vacations and celebrated all our holidays together. And you've all heard about the weddings. I don't mean them. I mean the other ones. Now my mother or my grandmother might disagree with this, but I mean all the extra relatives. The funeral was going to be on Tuesday. My grandmother's sister Sarah and their niece Julia showed up I think on Friday. (And now let me say I'm sure they were a great comfort to my grandmother.) Julia is almost as old as my grandmother and her sister because Julia is the oldest daughter of their oldest sister. Anyway Aunt Sarah and Julia were staying with us. Then there were the ones who weren't staying with us. The nieces and nephews of my grandmother--the cousins of my mother. And there are a lot of them. On Saturday some cousins came and sat for a good 4 hours--four hours! Made me nuts! I did not want them around I just wanted to be alone. So I found myself escaping a lot. If I could I would lock myself in the backroom, but sometimes that wasn't even enough. One night I had to take my Aunt Janey back to my cousin Janelle's house. So we left and even though there was a house full of food we went to Chili's. We had margaritas and some food that I don't even really remember that we didn’t really even eat. We did drink the margaritas though--you know we didn't want to be wasteful. But we did this because we had to get away. Then on Sunday night, I had been at my parents house and as I was pulling up to my grandmother's house I could see that the driveway was full, so I called my mother and had her call my grandmother to find out who was there and then to call me back. So she did. And I didn’t even go up to the driveway, I did a u-turn and left. I didn’t know where I was going, I just knew I had to get away. So I thought I would go to Macy's and buy a new tie for the funeral, but it was Easter so on account of the resurrection Macy's was closed. So I ended up at a Sonic Drive-In eating a chili dog and drinking a lemonade. It was kind of gross and king of fantastic, because it wasn't funeral food and I was alone.
So I get what Jesus was doing. Jesus was going out on his own. He wanted to be alone with the people he knew and loved the most. He had just found out that his cousin, John the Baptist, was dead. He was grieving and he just couldn't be with anyone right then. But eventually he had to go back and when he got back to shore they were still there. And they still needed his help. They were still hurting too. And so he healed the ones of them who were sick. And then after a long day everyone started to get hungry. And so the disciples came up to Jesus and told him this and said for him to send them away. All the people needed to go down the hill, maybe to the local bakery and get themselves a sandwich, something to eat. But Jesus said no we have plenty here. Now the disciples knew what they had. They knew they had five measly loves of bread and two little ol' fish. There was no way that was going to feed five thousand men, plus all the women and children. But Jesus knew they had enough. Despite the pain he was in over the loss of his cousin he knew he still had to feed all these folks too. When people would come over to our house, my mother would still shoot into the caregiver role that she plays so well and immediately start asking them if she could get them something to eat. She knew we had plenty and she wanted to take care of the other folks.
But again we had a refrigerator full of chicken--we really did have enough--the disciples only had that bread and those fish. That was not enough, or was it?
This is one of the many miracles that Jesus performed. And it is possible that when Jesus blessed the bread and the fish that something extraordinary happened and that bread and those fish just continued to multiply and multiply until there was enough, more than enough. So much more that there was left over. But what if it was a miracle of a different sort. Remember I said that it was 5000 men, plus women and children. Well think about the women and children. How many mothers do you know that leave the house without something to eat for their children? When I was with my friends Tracy and Dave last week it took an additional 15 minutes for Tracy to make up snack bags before we could leave the house. Those of you who were at Dave and Jeff's wedding a few weeks ago remember how precious Taylor was eating his cheerios during the wedding. After the wedding before the food was brought out I went scavengering through Jacob's bag looking for something to put in my stomach. It is quite possible that something magical happened with the fish and bread but the greater miracle to me seems to be that those women noticed that people around them needed to eat. And so they opened up their bags and they started looking at what they had. If we were to do this today we most likely wouldn't find bread and fish, but we would find goldfish crackers and cheerios, fruit roll ups, puffed wheat and we'd probably find enough sippy cups full of water and milk that we wouldn't be thirsty either.
When Jesus looked to heaven and blessed that bread and those fish. He was inviting the people around him to look up to heaven as well. And when they had looked to heaven, suddenly they were looking at things differently, they were looking with the eyes of God. And their eyes saw only a few fish and some loaves of bread but God's eyes saw more. Their eyes only saw their immediately family, but God's eyes saw more. Their eyes only saw their needs, but God's eyes saw the needs of the many. And when they were looking through God's eyes they couldn't ignore the many any longer.
Most of us are like the disciples, we want to send people away. Our society tends to send hungry people away to someone else or some other agency. We're hurting too, let someone else tend to the hungry. Let Glide feed people, let the soup kitchens feed people, let the food pantry feed people. Let the politicians decide how we can eliminate hunger and poverty and homelessness. We don't have enough ourselves. We only have a few fish and a few loaves of bread. We see our needs. We see a crashing stock market. We see our 401ks and pensions dropping. But God sees something else.
God sees the 862 million people across the world who are considered hungry, up 10 million from last year.
God sees the 1.4 billion people living below the poverty level of $1.26 per day.
God sees the 820 million people in the developing world who are undernourished.
God sees the children who are not growing and developing because of malnutrition.
God sees the 9.7 million children who died in 2006 in places that also have the highest rates of hunger and malnutrition.
God sees the 20 million low-birth rate babies born every year.
God sees all of this and much more.
I said this a few weeks ago, we cannot wait for our government to start talking about the poor and the hungry, because they are not. I wish there was a candidate talking about the poor and the hungry. But they aren't. We cannot send away these people to fend for themselves. We have to do it. We are hurting too, but we have to feed the hungry as well. We have to stand up for the children and the poor. We have to open our bags and see what we have laying around. We have to share our cheerios and our juice boxes. Our grief and our pain is not diminished. But as I mentioned yesterday at Cecil and Rubens wedding we must choose life. We must get out of the boat and have compassion on the ones on the shore. Vote with a heart for the poor. But more than that let us act for the poor and the hungry. Let us look not through the eyes of Barack Obama or John McCain or Joe the Plumber or even our eyes, but instead through the eyes of the one who sees differently. Let us look through the eyes of the ones who were still wet with his own tears at the loss of his cousin and still saw people in need. Let us look through God's eyes. Amen.
So I get what Jesus was doing. Jesus was going out on his own. He wanted to be alone with the people he knew and loved the most. He had just found out that his cousin, John the Baptist, was dead. He was grieving and he just couldn't be with anyone right then. But eventually he had to go back and when he got back to shore they were still there. And they still needed his help. They were still hurting too. And so he healed the ones of them who were sick. And then after a long day everyone started to get hungry. And so the disciples came up to Jesus and told him this and said for him to send them away. All the people needed to go down the hill, maybe to the local bakery and get themselves a sandwich, something to eat. But Jesus said no we have plenty here. Now the disciples knew what they had. They knew they had five measly loves of bread and two little ol' fish. There was no way that was going to feed five thousand men, plus all the women and children. But Jesus knew they had enough. Despite the pain he was in over the loss of his cousin he knew he still had to feed all these folks too. When people would come over to our house, my mother would still shoot into the caregiver role that she plays so well and immediately start asking them if she could get them something to eat. She knew we had plenty and she wanted to take care of the other folks.
But again we had a refrigerator full of chicken--we really did have enough--the disciples only had that bread and those fish. That was not enough, or was it?
This is one of the many miracles that Jesus performed. And it is possible that when Jesus blessed the bread and the fish that something extraordinary happened and that bread and those fish just continued to multiply and multiply until there was enough, more than enough. So much more that there was left over. But what if it was a miracle of a different sort. Remember I said that it was 5000 men, plus women and children. Well think about the women and children. How many mothers do you know that leave the house without something to eat for their children? When I was with my friends Tracy and Dave last week it took an additional 15 minutes for Tracy to make up snack bags before we could leave the house. Those of you who were at Dave and Jeff's wedding a few weeks ago remember how precious Taylor was eating his cheerios during the wedding. After the wedding before the food was brought out I went scavengering through Jacob's bag looking for something to put in my stomach. It is quite possible that something magical happened with the fish and bread but the greater miracle to me seems to be that those women noticed that people around them needed to eat. And so they opened up their bags and they started looking at what they had. If we were to do this today we most likely wouldn't find bread and fish, but we would find goldfish crackers and cheerios, fruit roll ups, puffed wheat and we'd probably find enough sippy cups full of water and milk that we wouldn't be thirsty either.
When Jesus looked to heaven and blessed that bread and those fish. He was inviting the people around him to look up to heaven as well. And when they had looked to heaven, suddenly they were looking at things differently, they were looking with the eyes of God. And their eyes saw only a few fish and some loaves of bread but God's eyes saw more. Their eyes only saw their immediately family, but God's eyes saw more. Their eyes only saw their needs, but God's eyes saw the needs of the many. And when they were looking through God's eyes they couldn't ignore the many any longer.
Most of us are like the disciples, we want to send people away. Our society tends to send hungry people away to someone else or some other agency. We're hurting too, let someone else tend to the hungry. Let Glide feed people, let the soup kitchens feed people, let the food pantry feed people. Let the politicians decide how we can eliminate hunger and poverty and homelessness. We don't have enough ourselves. We only have a few fish and a few loaves of bread. We see our needs. We see a crashing stock market. We see our 401ks and pensions dropping. But God sees something else.
God sees the 862 million people across the world who are considered hungry, up 10 million from last year.
God sees the 1.4 billion people living below the poverty level of $1.26 per day.
God sees the 820 million people in the developing world who are undernourished.
God sees the children who are not growing and developing because of malnutrition.
God sees the 9.7 million children who died in 2006 in places that also have the highest rates of hunger and malnutrition.
God sees the 20 million low-birth rate babies born every year.
God sees all of this and much more.
I said this a few weeks ago, we cannot wait for our government to start talking about the poor and the hungry, because they are not. I wish there was a candidate talking about the poor and the hungry. But they aren't. We cannot send away these people to fend for themselves. We have to do it. We are hurting too, but we have to feed the hungry as well. We have to stand up for the children and the poor. We have to open our bags and see what we have laying around. We have to share our cheerios and our juice boxes. Our grief and our pain is not diminished. But as I mentioned yesterday at Cecil and Rubens wedding we must choose life. We must get out of the boat and have compassion on the ones on the shore. Vote with a heart for the poor. But more than that let us act for the poor and the hungry. Let us look not through the eyes of Barack Obama or John McCain or Joe the Plumber or even our eyes, but instead through the eyes of the one who sees differently. Let us look through the eyes of the ones who were still wet with his own tears at the loss of his cousin and still saw people in need. Let us look through God's eyes. Amen.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
The Beach and I don't mean the Leonardo DiCaprio movie
Today was a beautiful sunny day in San Francisco. Our warm weather tends to come in the fall--just another reason we aren't the "real America." So I went to the beach and I saw two things I wanted to share:
(1) Tons of dolphins, or two really active playful dolphins. Although, I think I may have said this before but why do we always think dolphins are playing? Maybe they are just swimming from one low paying dolphin job to another. We don't really know.
(2) I saw a naked man looking for metal. How do I know he was looking for metal? That is a very good question I asked for you. Well i know he was looking for metal because he was walking around with a metal detector. But he was also wearing a nail apron--I guess in which to put the metal he may find. And he was carrying a large aluminum can. I don't know what the can was for. So picture it, a naked man wearing a nail apron carrying a large can looking for metal. Now if that isn't the real America then I don't know what is.
Peace out!
(1) Tons of dolphins, or two really active playful dolphins. Although, I think I may have said this before but why do we always think dolphins are playing? Maybe they are just swimming from one low paying dolphin job to another. We don't really know.
(2) I saw a naked man looking for metal. How do I know he was looking for metal? That is a very good question I asked for you. Well i know he was looking for metal because he was walking around with a metal detector. But he was also wearing a nail apron--I guess in which to put the metal he may find. And he was carrying a large aluminum can. I don't know what the can was for. So picture it, a naked man wearing a nail apron carrying a large can looking for metal. Now if that isn't the real America then I don't know what is.
Peace out!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Her identity went up in smoke.
So I just got back from a big ol' family wedding in Lanett, Alabama. I want to share just a few things about the event.
(1) Another woman gave away her identity. What do I mean? Well both the bride and the groom, my cousin, have ranks in the Air Force. They are both pilots. The bride's dad is a general in the Air National Guard. When the invitation was sent out my cousin's rank was listed, the Generals' rank was listed, but the brides was not. Then during the wedding they lit a unity candle, a ritual that I really hate, but can deal with except when the couple blow out their individual candles which in this case they did. So apparently now they are just one being. And that one being is my cousin Jonathan. Because when they were introduced at the end of the service they were introduced as Capt. & Mrs. Jonathan Ballard. And in the program their future address was listed as Capt. & Mrs. Jonathan Ballard. I wanted to scream out her name is Emily. But apparently she doesn't care.
(2) The toilets in the women's bathroom at the country club where the reception held stopped working. And the light bulb blew. Apparently the water pressure of washing dishes was too much for the system. So what did they do? They brought in a bucket of water to pour into the tanks. And my aunt took in some candles. So in a dimly lit room, in semi-formal attire women had to pour a bucket of water into the toilets. How awesome is that?
(3) Finally, on the flight back. I get on the airplane and there is a woman in my seat. And I say to her you are in my seat. She says no. Now I know what seat I am supposed to be in. I select my seats in advance. I always select an aisle seat. So I say to her yes I am on the aisle. (It is a two seat row, window and aisle.) I show her my ticket. And it eventually becomes evident to me that she doesn't speak much English if any. She is dressed in what I think is probably African dress--don't know what country. Anyway she pulls out her ticket and sure enough she is supposed to be in the window seat. So I point to the window seat and she moves over. And then I get settled and sit down in my seat. That is when it happened. She hit my knee. Not with her knee or her purse, she reached over and slapped my knee. Now it could have been considered an I-don't-speak-English-nice-little-apology pat, but I think she was actually hitting me. (My friend Blythe might suggest that I'm living in judgement instead of grace, but I think she was hitting me.) Then the whole flight she was a complete armrest hog.
Those are not necessarily the highlights of the trip. But they are definitely some of the most memorable.
(1) Another woman gave away her identity. What do I mean? Well both the bride and the groom, my cousin, have ranks in the Air Force. They are both pilots. The bride's dad is a general in the Air National Guard. When the invitation was sent out my cousin's rank was listed, the Generals' rank was listed, but the brides was not. Then during the wedding they lit a unity candle, a ritual that I really hate, but can deal with except when the couple blow out their individual candles which in this case they did. So apparently now they are just one being. And that one being is my cousin Jonathan. Because when they were introduced at the end of the service they were introduced as Capt. & Mrs. Jonathan Ballard. And in the program their future address was listed as Capt. & Mrs. Jonathan Ballard. I wanted to scream out her name is Emily. But apparently she doesn't care.
(2) The toilets in the women's bathroom at the country club where the reception held stopped working. And the light bulb blew. Apparently the water pressure of washing dishes was too much for the system. So what did they do? They brought in a bucket of water to pour into the tanks. And my aunt took in some candles. So in a dimly lit room, in semi-formal attire women had to pour a bucket of water into the toilets. How awesome is that?
(3) Finally, on the flight back. I get on the airplane and there is a woman in my seat. And I say to her you are in my seat. She says no. Now I know what seat I am supposed to be in. I select my seats in advance. I always select an aisle seat. So I say to her yes I am on the aisle. (It is a two seat row, window and aisle.) I show her my ticket. And it eventually becomes evident to me that she doesn't speak much English if any. She is dressed in what I think is probably African dress--don't know what country. Anyway she pulls out her ticket and sure enough she is supposed to be in the window seat. So I point to the window seat and she moves over. And then I get settled and sit down in my seat. That is when it happened. She hit my knee. Not with her knee or her purse, she reached over and slapped my knee. Now it could have been considered an I-don't-speak-English-nice-little-apology pat, but I think she was actually hitting me. (My friend Blythe might suggest that I'm living in judgement instead of grace, but I think she was hitting me.) Then the whole flight she was a complete armrest hog.
Those are not necessarily the highlights of the trip. But they are definitely some of the most memorable.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
A few things
First I won on Sarah Palin Bingo tonight, don't know what I'm talking about? Go to this link http://www.palinbingo.com/. (I hope it is still up when you get there.) I won with Alaska/Special Needs/Air Space/Hockey Mom and Terrorists. I thought the debate was fine. i was hoping that she would completely implode like she did in the Katie Couric interview. i actually found myself liking her somewhat. I just don't think she is qualified to be Vice President, or possibly any elected office. Maybe PTA president. She should try that at the school where her brother teaches.
I also have some pictures from the opera. I'm just going to post one of them tonight and I'll post some others later when i write more about the opera. But right now it is time to watch Ugly Betty and try and wipe the stump answers to original questions from my mind.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Completely lax in my posting
I really don't know what is going on with my blogging. I've been kind of busy, but that really is no excuse. I want to write about the opera, but I want to write about it when I attach a picture. Alan O took pictures on our last night, so I'll post them soon with a recap of the whole event.
Last night I went to see The Bonesetter's Daughter, an opera based on the Amy Tan book by the same name. She wrote the libretto. I only stayed through the first half because I was kind of bored to be honest. Two things (1) I don't really think I like opera all that much. I enjoyed singing in an opera but as far as holding my interest not so much. and (2) there was a character with the most annoying high pitched voice ever. Now probably it was a fairly accurate Chinese singing voice and technique that if I were more culturally sensitive I might have been able to appreciate. But all I could do was wish she would just shut up. So the friend i was with wanted to go and I was more than happy to go too.
Spent some time today at Farley's, my favorite coffee shop, where the music today was awesome. They played Say a Little Prayer. You know the Dionne Warwick song that was also used in one of my favorite movies, My Best Friend's Wedding. But while I was there I overheard two women talking, on and on about there various troubles which for one of them sounded like a lot. But the other one was was very positive. The one sad woman was talking about how she feels like she has too much to do. And the other woman was all about check marks. Check marks you may say? Yes apparently she makes a list of all the things she has to do and then check off the things as she does them. And then when she looks back at all she has done that week she feels so good about herself. First of all I don't think that would help someone who things they are already doing too much. And Second, I just don't want to get my sense of worth from how much I accomplish in a week. But maybe that is just me.
Its late. i just finished watching Project Runway. I can't believe Kenley is still around.
Alright, until next time. Peace out!
Last night I went to see The Bonesetter's Daughter, an opera based on the Amy Tan book by the same name. She wrote the libretto. I only stayed through the first half because I was kind of bored to be honest. Two things (1) I don't really think I like opera all that much. I enjoyed singing in an opera but as far as holding my interest not so much. and (2) there was a character with the most annoying high pitched voice ever. Now probably it was a fairly accurate Chinese singing voice and technique that if I were more culturally sensitive I might have been able to appreciate. But all I could do was wish she would just shut up. So the friend i was with wanted to go and I was more than happy to go too.
Spent some time today at Farley's, my favorite coffee shop, where the music today was awesome. They played Say a Little Prayer. You know the Dionne Warwick song that was also used in one of my favorite movies, My Best Friend's Wedding. But while I was there I overheard two women talking, on and on about there various troubles which for one of them sounded like a lot. But the other one was was very positive. The one sad woman was talking about how she feels like she has too much to do. And the other woman was all about check marks. Check marks you may say? Yes apparently she makes a list of all the things she has to do and then check off the things as she does them. And then when she looks back at all she has done that week she feels so good about herself. First of all I don't think that would help someone who things they are already doing too much. And Second, I just don't want to get my sense of worth from how much I accomplish in a week. But maybe that is just me.
Its late. i just finished watching Project Runway. I can't believe Kenley is still around.
Alright, until next time. Peace out!
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