Friday, October 24, 2008

As My Mind Turns


Only a month after complaining of not being in the Halloween spirit I find myself fully into the Halloween scene. I blame Stuart. And society. And pumpkins, (dammit I love pumpkins and their warm snuggly orangey color). But mostly I blame Stuart.
For most of Stuart's life he has dreamed of creating a Disney-esque place where children and adults can lose themselves from their everyday world and have some fun. The best time for this fantastical adventure is Halloween as it is already ripe with costumed possibilities and haunted shows. This year his show is aimed at the younger crowd and the town his crew created is perfect for the little ones, but in desperate need of actors. Hence his call to me to please play a witch. Combining my love for dressing up in costumes and my love for Stuart I could not help but heed his pleas with a resounding, "yes, I will help out in your show."
I'm in the 2nd week of the show and it is not always fun coming home from work and immediately going back out to stand in the cold and hand out candy. I am tired after work, but once I've had my nap I have nothing else to occupy my time and there is the rub. So when the question of "why am I doing this? I don't have to go, it is voluntary" comes creeping in on sticky little guilt feet my answer often is, "what else am I going to do?" Trying to explain to Stuart how I cannot possibly commit because my ass has made a permanent indentation on my couch and I would hate to destroy its meger attempt at impressionist art is just lame. I know once I arrive in costume the excitment in the air will energize me and being part of a small child's Halloween memories is very cool too. Plus I love seeing the joy on Stuart's face when the magic all comes together and let's face it no matter what I've said before: I love Halloween.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Keep Your Religion out of My Government!


I am just so angry and fearful proposition 8 will pass this November. It makes me sick and it doesn't even affect me directly. I have tried (really I have), to wrap my head around why anyone would deny people the civil right to marriage. Unfortunately what I've discovered is the reasons are nonsensical and come down to two things: it is against the bible, it is different from me and I fear it. The latter is not said out loud, but it is implied. The first one bothers me for its hypocrisy. The fervent religious believe this to be an abomination because a 2,000 year old book that was not even written by God or anyone who personally spoke to the deity told them so and they choose to ignore the other items also listed as abominations. Most of us have heard that also listed in Leviticus as abomonations are things such as eating shellfish, a man shaving off his beard, and of course the ever popular act of masturbation. So with all these chances to hate large groups of people why don't I see anyone protesting outside of Red Lobster or the local barber shop? However mention 2 people of the same-sex wanting to be happy and you get a whole mess of forked tongue protestors spewing their hate. It might be because clean faced men are familiar, people like the all you can eat shrimp and steak dinners or because the church no longer consider them valid. So it seems the bible can be updated, but apparently only when it pleases the masters who run these Kool-aid cults and as long as it doesn't involve 2 men wanting to marry (the bible does not mention 2 women marrying probably because the bible still considers women to be worthless).

As much as that ticks me off, the thing that angers me even more is the idea that some fucked up religious groups feel they can dictate how our civil laws are written. I thought religion is, by the Constitution, separate from Government. Marriage need not take place in a church or even performed by a priest/minister to be valid. It is a civil union endorsed and recognized by the state and not by God unless you invite him/her to the party. Allowing this proposition to pass means a religious moral code is the foundation of our state’s marriage law and that is only the beginning. People wake up! Let them have this one and what is to stop them from going on down the checklist and changing all of the other rights, privileges, and freedoms you currently enjoy that they don’t agree with? It is a slippery slope and you are on it unless you do something now.