Skip to main content

Dan Savage's "It gets Better"

I've been particularly disturbed by the conversation on gay teen suicide. And upset by the gay bashing at the Stonewall Inn. And while I have no clear details about these events, it has me reflecting on the hurt around sexuality during my own shaping years: both what I experienced and how I participated in hurting myself, which formed me, and shapes how I show up at work today.

How I express myself as a gay adult. I've made mistakes myself.

I rarely re-post, however, it first strikes me that Dan Savage is doing some good in reaching out to teens to let them know, "it gets better." Because it inspires, I think, all of us to salve the wounding that happens to us as we grow up. It inspires us to stop bullying each other, and to be more loving and kind as we try to make it: to create the abundance through our work to live rich lives.

And what made me cry was a straight father's comments through a story and a vision that came to him in walking his son:

Jack Baker says,

Some twenty-years ago I was out for a walk with my son, then four years old. We were strolling past the home of an openly gay couple who had just moved in some weeks before. Now my son, being the astute observer of all things in the universe, noticed the two women sitting on the porch were holding hands. “Daddy, why are those ladies holding hands?” My immediate response was “Because they are gay.” I then braced myself for what I expected was going to be a flurry of questions that I really wasn’t prepared for, or for that matter capable of answering to the satisfaction or comprehension of his four-year old mind when he asked me, “Do they love each other?” “Why yes. I’m sure they do” I replied. He looked up at me with a big smile and said, “Then that’s good.” We walked on.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could look at the issue of gay marriage with the simplistic beauty of that four-year old mind? A couple shows up at the Clerk’s office for a Marriage License. They hand over all of the proper forms and fees to the clerk. Like your typical State or County employee, the task at hand isn’t even worthy of his looking up from the racing form he is so diligently studying and he says, “Do you love each other?” The couple replies “Why yes.”


“THEN THAT’S GOOD”

Live well with each other, for good's sake.

Read more on this quote at: http://www3.timeoutny.com/chicago/blog/out-and-about/2010/09/dan-savage-tells-teenagers-that-it-gets-better/#ixzz11XS4eYwS

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I make mistakes (and I bounce back)

I hate making mistakes.  I love my luxurious fantasy of perfection.  And today my humanity, my imperfection shone through fiery.  I hung in there and cleaned it up. I've learned, you just tell people you screwed up.  Say how you're going to fix it immediately, and how you're protecting it from happening going forward.  It matters little whether anybody else had anything to do with it.  Throw no one under the bus, however, you may want to bring them in on the effect the error had and get their buy in for the proactive solution for future transactions. Truth is, things move so fast that especially with transactional work, there are bound to be errors now and then.  The time it takes to be perfect would result in paralysis.  It's that magical balance between getting it done (and maybe having to beg forgiveness) and taking so long to deliver that by the time you do deliver, it's too late to be of any use (especially since you've now teed off your colleague by be
3 comments
Read more

It Gets Better

I spent some time watching the It Gets Better videos last night. Moving stuff. My favorite is the singing from the Chicago Gay Men's Chorus. It's wild how song works. The world needs all our talents. I'm good at storytelling. I'm good at helping humans align their being with their doing. To get really good at what I do, I constantly have to get better at aligning my own being with my doing. It's hard work. I think our careers help us focus on our deepest wounding as human beings, and as we get better, we develop power in that very area where we're broken. We get stronger than most other humans around that and we can GIVE that strength to others to help them along on the human journey. And that's our career. I think firemen saw some hopeless stuff growing up and are COMPELLED to run into burning buildings to do the impossible task of saving someone from fire. Nurses run TO broken bones and tend to them. I run to broken souls: I see someone struggling wi
Post a Comment
Read more

I'm Happy

I'm so happy that I can't stop crying--Sting. These are beautiful days.  It's amazing how absolutely gorgeous Spring is in New York City.  The light alone streaming through the delicious apple green trees makes everyone sparkly. I called my Mom today, on a pause riding my bicycle down the West Side Highway bike path.  I looked at the Hudson, choppy with the wind bursting with joy.  I say joy, though I have no idea if rivers experience joy as they approach salty water.  I was joyful and projected it on the cresting water, white with air. My mother is happy.  She has a deep faith which she passed on to me.  It's sustained me and kept me strong in the face of the impossible.  We said prayers for each other on the phone.  She's got a new adventure coming up and I have one too: so we held faith for each other that something bigger than both of us would guide us.  We reflected on the fact that we as a family have been through many challenges and somehow we've be
Post a Comment
Read more