Haiti

To better understand what happened in Haiti, watch the film Ghosts of Cite Soleil. Just a word of warning this might be rated R in theatres due to the graphic language and troubling situations.

Emo, Vanity and Vexation of Spirit

The silly thought that now that the whole Proposition 8 debacle is in the federal court system, the issue of gay marriage might get resolved nationwide one way or another, soon, passed through my mind yesterday. It was quickly banished, one way or another the issue and or its offspring will linger. So much for desperately seeking closure.

I've been reading Ecclesiastes. He might seem like a downer but he's actually about more than Vanity and Vexation, although you'd never know it at first glance. And, vanity and vexation have different meanings than what we think of today. It would be easy to think of some old guy with a stone tablet in front of mirror arranging each beard hair, but that's not his point. He's talking about our inner perspective of joy as we go through life, only in the strangest, bleakest, and moodiest way possible.

Truly interesting and fascinating opportunities pass through my fingers, as well as lots of difficult things I'd rather not deal with in my life or see happen around me, but I simply have to experience my life with peace, calmness, and take time for a little joy in both the good and the travails that I face. It would be as Ecclesiastes, the preacher said, a "vexation of spirit" to try avoid the realities of life, uncomfortable as they may be. The first footnote in Ecclesiastes regarding vexation of spirit says it translates from the Hebrew as "chasing after the wind."

Son of David and Preacher Man, you are a pretty Emo yet wise man.

To My Husband

All you have to know while reading my blog is that I love you.

Forwarding Order Expired

Apparently, there is a special hell reserved for those who move only from one unit to another at the same address-the United States Postal Service National Forwarding Order Database. And the glitch only happens between months 12 and 18 after the first Forwarding order. If I recall correctly, you can only have mail forwarded for 12 months. So anyway, some of my mail is now being returned to sender even though it is correctly addressed. Are we clear on that?

Harvey Milk Day?

Warning: To any of you inclined to inform me that I know not of what I speak, please be advised that the shooting of Mr. Milk occurred on my turf and in my time.

When I saw it, I said surely it could not be so, and checked Snopes.com. True.

Hmmmmm, Harvey Milk Day? Harvey Milk Day? Yes the landmark civil rights ordinance in San Francisco was landmark. Did Harvey singlehandedly bring the civil rights ordinance into law? No. Would anyone even remember Harvey but for Dan White's victimization of him with a twinkie crumb coated handgun? Probably not.

For an interesting post on Dan White and his gay campaign manager's (Ray Sloan) attempts to set the record straight on what really happened with the Milk and Moscone assasinations please read this article. Note the men, depression, homicide, suicide and handgun connection/correlation.

In Quiet Desperation

I read it for the first time today and thought it was rather amazing.

I Left my Flaming Pantyhose at the Summer Cottage in Babylon

So, as a brief and incongruous interlude to my ongoing dissection of domestic violence issues in the LDS and LGBT communities and how those concerns may intersect, I now take you to my very own Summer Cottage in Babylon which I gave up a couple of years ago-Roller Derby. I loved Derby. Due to my age, I rode the second wave ashore and was a dedicated, though mostly closeted fan.

I say mostly closeted, because the fam and I did go together to watch one incredibly satisfying, slutty, violent, catty clash of femmes and butches working together to kick "trash." They all loved it and as I mentioned to DH, "Chicks with big thighs-could it get any better?" He did not object. Certainly one could speculate that my obsession with derby and sizable female thighs is ample evidence of my "sexual fluidity."

I followed a particular team, had a favorite skater and followed her on MySpace and Facebook, and almost broke my pledge regarding never wearing pantyhose again. For you see, derby girls are unrepentant connoisseurs of fish net, tights with flames, and all manner of extreme hosiery. However, I did decide that the incessant innuendo, crude humor and language, and, yes, the violence of it all, probably wasn't appropriate for the part of me that wanted to be a "holy woman." So I left derby behind.

Which leaves the pantyhose issue doesn't it? That's another incongruity and according to some measures of "tru-blu mormonism" a matter of obvious hypocrisy on my part as I refuse to wear pantyhose (well at least the demure sheer or semi sheer that are part of the Sunday Mormon Woman Uniform). The one exception was last year's civil wedding of the "kids." Let it be known that I also wore a girdle for that event as well. Never again.

I digress.

The point being that were I to actually take up wearing pantyhose or tights to church again, they would be of the highly patterned kind or nearly opaque ornate knitted "fishnet." Even if I wanted to go sheer or semi-sheer, there is still the matter of the network varicose veins and spider on my left shin that somewhat resembles a tattoo of the highway network on the Eastern Seaboard. Given the possibility that conspiring minds could mistakenly conclude Quiet Song had a leg tattoo, demure Mormon lady pantyhose is out. Which leaves my Islamic style long skirts which allow me great flexibility in both footwear and hosiery, or lack thereof.