Don't Get Me Started with Linda Sharp

For Rudy, Happy Father's Day From Your Girls - A Look Back

 

To All Our DGMS Dads

I Believe (thanks for requesting it, Lori)

The soundtrack to The Book of Mormon is full of profanity, lewdness, crudeness, and hilarity - and is WONDERFUL because the men behind the songs and story wove everything together with heart.   Matt, Trey, Robert - BRAVO!

 

The Great White (and Purple and Green and Black and Pink and Red and Yellow and Blue and Chartreuse) Way

I'm a little late getting this up to share, but it's still worth the watch.

 

A Little Support, Please?

UPDATE:  Just spoke to my Mom.  Apparently, it is NOT a small aneurysm as we thought. According to her neurologist, small falls into a range of like 2.2 - 3ish.  Hers is 9+.

Yeah.

She is waiting for a call from a neurosurgeon right now.  This is something that needs dealt with as soon as possible.  Thank you all for your wonderful words of encouragement.  To steal from Oliver, "Please sir, may I have some more?"

My stomach hurts...

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kendall's graduation weekend was wonderful.  Grandparents, siblings, my sister and brother-in-law - laughs, pride, games.

There was one cloud, however.

My mother pulled my sister and I into the living room, away from everyone else.  

She then explained that she has an aneurysm.

As she and my sister started to tear up, and my own heart headed towards my feet, I took a breath, looked at my sister, then my mother, and said, "NO.  We are not going to cry, so you are not going to cry.  Just tell us the facts and we'll move forward from there."

An aneurysm.  Thankfully detected when she recently had an MRI for a wholly unrelated issue with her eye.

Today she heads to the neurologist to map out the plan of attack.  Obviously, with a bleed in her brain, this is not a wait-and-see issue.  This is a we-need-to-correct-it-NOW issue.

Please send your amazing love, light, prayers, and good thoughts towards my Mom today as she meets with her doctor.  And a little towards my feet if you can - my heart has been sitting on them for two weeks and they are starting to get numb.

When Opinions ARE Like A-holes

Everyone is entitled to an opinion.  On anything.

Part of a person's opinion is simply because we are all individuals and we all take in the world through the filter of our own life experiences, how we have been raised, what we have been taught.

That's one of my favorite speaking points when talking to young people about writing.

In a class of 25 kids, if I took them all to the beach, spent the day, came home - then told them to write about it - I would get 25 very different takes on the very same day.  Some would hone in on the beauty of the surroundings.  Some would write about a cute boy or girl, or the picnic lunch.  Someone may be moved to write about the irritating sand wedged into their nether regions after bodysurfing.  Some may have liked the day, some may have hated it.

Again, our filters are different, so what we take in may be the same, but what we put back out will always vary from one person to the next.

Most of the time, I think that's a great thing.  Our differences make us interesting.  Our differences help us broaden our horizons when we are willing to share and are open to dipping our toes into someone else's life.

But then there are those people who don't view their opinions as personal "takes" on something, but as mandates, emotional hammers with which to beat others into the submission of their worldviews.

Nowhere is this more apparent these days than in the issue of gay marriage.

GASP!  Lock up the livestock because once we open those gay floodgates, no farm creature is safe from wedded "bliss" with a human!

Give me a break.

Those who lamely attempt to link two same sex partners wanting to marry to someone then wanting to wed a goat are baaaaaaad people.

Worse, they are scared people.  Intent on scaring other easily led people.  Hyperbole is their sack of breadcrumbs, and the trail they leave leads all the other lemmings right off the cliff of common sense and decency, and into the pit of bigotry, stupidity, and hatred.

Today's candidate for lead lemming in the fearmonger parade is David Tyree, formerly of the NY Giants.

Raised on the Bible - and because of his football prowess, allowed access to a microphone and public's ear - he has come out swinging against same sex marriage in a new video for the National Organization for Marriage.  

You see the New York State Assembly has approved a bill that would allow same sex couples to wed.  This, according to this braintrust of a human being, will certainly "be the beginning of our country sliding toward ... anarchy."

Anarchy.

Really.

Let's just take the definitions from Webster's, shall we?

a : absence of government - I see, so if the government, aka the New York Assembly passes this bill, this is somehow the absence of government?  Sounds like a David Blaine magic trick ...

b : a state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of governmental authority - So gay marriage would be lawlessness based on a law and the passing of said law by governmental authority?  You're losing me again David.  How many times has that head of yours been hit in a game?  

c : a utopian society of individuals who enjoy complete freedom without government - OK, I'll admit I think a utopian society sounds good.  My definition being one in which we are ALL actually afforded the same rights, freedoms, and considerations regardless of sex, age, race, religion.  But again David, you lose me on the "without goverment" part.  The states which currently have same sex marriage have it because the govermental authorities of those states instituted it.

Anarchy.  Sorry, David, but you lose.

And quite frankly, I think every religious person who threatens the freedoms of another person based solely on what THEY choose to believe loses.  

David expounded, "Marriage is the only relationship that actually mirrors the relationship with God."

No, David, the relationship that mirrors the one with God is one in which we treat everyone decently, with compassion, fairly, openly, with love.  Not one in which we deign to make ourselves mini-Gods and pass judgment on our fellow human beings by daring to speak for Him.

He further bases his wisdom against same sex couples raising children on this nugget:  "You can't teach something that you don't have.  So two men will never be able to teach a woman how to be a woman."

I see.  On behalf of all those people in this country successfully raising both sons and daughters as single parents, I would like to tell you you're full of shit.

A woman is perfectly capable of raising a son.  You don't have to have a penis in order to raise someone with one.  And you don't  have to have a vagina to successfully raise a daughter.

And two men, or two women who desire to raise a family together have everything they need to raise children.  It takes unconditional love, self sacrifice, unwavering committment. 

Please explain to me how heteros have the market cornered on that trio and I'll cite you example after example of child abuse, neglect, divorce, deceit - and show you an army of children born out of unprotected sex, not love, not desire to parent.

Another droplet of his wisdom asserts that it is not right to extend marriage rights to same sex couples:  "because a minority -- an influential minority -- has ... an agenda."

An agenda?  You mean like the one you and your brethren have?  The agenda of denying this simple right to other people?

Spare me the whole protecting the sanctity of marriage crap.  Heteros have a pretty fast and loose policy with marriage.  Look around.  The sanctity of marriage needs protecting from heteros.

And finally, he brings it all back to the Big Guy:  "We're doing God an injustice by not making his heart known to our country."

Our country is made up of all kinds of people, David.  Not just YOUR kind.  (Incidentally, YOUR KIND suffered long and hard based on OTHER PEOPLE'S view of YOU not being equal or deserving of decency, much less freedoms - in fact, there are plenty of folks in OUR COUNTRY who still believe you are less, call you names, would deny you all rights.  Christian folks, David, like yourself, who still spat out the word "nigger" the way others spat out the word "fag".    That you can't see the similarities between the discrimination, marginalization, and outright abuses of black people and what you are attempting to do to homosexuals is pretty pathetic.)

There are roughly 6,000 religions in this world, Mr. Tyree.  Did you know that?  SIX THOUSAND.  And yours is only ONE.  

Now, if your religion is what you choose to follow, embrace, and live - by all means continue.  Within the boundaries of YOUR life.  You don't want same sex marriage?  Then don't marry a man, David.  You don't want abortions?  Don't have one.

But don't you dare sit on high and demand that everyone fall under the umbrella of what YOU choose to believe.

Religion truly is the most dangerous weapon in this world.  Not nukes, not AK47s in the hands of child, not drug lords on the border.  Religious terrorists, like David, are the danger.  Because they blindly follow something they cannot substantiate and use it to kill the freedoms of others.

I've been invited to a same sex wedding next month.  And I do despair over it taking place.  My heart is heavy that it will go on.  That two women will kiss in front of people and vow to love one another forever.

I am angry.

Because my schedule won't allow me to be there. 

Time To Celebrate Corri!

Sheer Brilliance

Oh, how many nights would I have loved to have this tome to read from when they were little...

NSFW as it contains just a skosh of profanity.

 

It's Dave's Day, Too!

It's Alexandra's Day!