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Nice essay in the Times...

Started by Woolly Bugger, July 23, 2006, 10:42:46 AM

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Woolly Bugger

ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!

Bloy

Times fun when you're having flies.
...Kermit

9ft4wt2

Well written, a good read with a hook of a different sort.

I have moved on with same sex partners. I started out young and they were a curiiosity. They were different and therefore objects for scorn and hate and being outcasts. They were, after all,  queers and faggots and bound for hell.

The problem was I could not understand the atttaction of one male for another or one female for another. It seemed wrong and a waste. I knew a few in hgih school and college and they were friendly and real and they scared the hell out of me. What if they wanted me? What if I was really gay down deep cause I  thought so and so was fun to be around. What would my firinds think if I was seen hanging out with them? So, I made jokes about them, avoided them, ridiculed them.

Then as I grew older, I met several more gay people.   Some of them were blatant and in your face and pissed me off. But others were for all intents and purposes normal folk with a different bent. And it dawned on me. They were like the mass of humanity as a whole. There are some folks who are straight that I like and some I don't. And eventually, I came to realize it was the same with the gays.
Some of them were good folks, some of them were a little too far out there for me and some of them were just terds. Sort of like the general public. They had problems just like the rest of us: They hated their jobs, didn't get along with their boss, were on the fast track for success but were not sure it was what they wanted, were depressed because relationships were failing, were happy because a friend had done well, because someone had recognized their ability, because they had met somebody new, mouring because a parent had died.

And I began to realize they were not all that different from me about what was important for them. They wanted a home, love, security, success, to be accpeted, to be liked and to have friends.

Somwhere along the line, I became comfortable with my own sexuality. Sure of what I was, what I enjoyed and what I appreciated. I can accept my sexual preferences now and not feel like threatened when I am around those who do not see things the same way I do.

I am a heterosexual male who relishes in the beauty of the opposite sex. I have been known to slow down to view a pretty woman walking down the street. I am guilty of pushing my shopping cart up an aisle at the supermarket even though there was nothing I needed on that lane but because there was an attractive woman headed that way. I love there shapes and their hair and the smell of their perfume, the way they walk, the way they smile, the smell of their perfume  when they are on the same elevator. I love my wife and thank God for bringing us together.

I no longer feel threatened by gays. I still don't understand the attraction of one man for another or one woman for another. I suspect life is harder in genreral for them and I am sorry if I have contributed to that. I know several, we get along fine but are not close friends and I don't feel guilty about that either.

I don't know if they are going to heaven or hell. But I don't know if I am going to heaven or hell. That is not for me to decide and not for me to judge.... I got enough problems living, working, being a husband and a parent and pondering my own salvation to worry about whether a person is straight or gay.

If you are a good person -- kind to others, respectful of the law and society, proud to be an American even if you don't share my political views,  willing to give to help others, don't condemn those who are different just because they are a different, I would be proud to shake your hand and share a stream. We may never be best buds but then again ....a friend is a friend. .

9ft4wt




lepomis_mcro

thats really good stuff you wrote there 9ft4wt...if more people had the attitude you have now, it would be a lot more peaceful world out there
(mark 6:41)"Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then said to the crowd amassed before him. I have mine the hell with the rest of you."

taken from the christian conservative handbook.  how to deal with modern problems.

Russ

I can't access that article, but based upon the replys it must be pretty thought provoking.

Woolly Bugger

Quote from: Russ on July 25, 2006, 07:16:03 AM
I can't access that article, but based upon the replys it must be pretty thought provoking.

Russ, you have to "register" with the Times to read the article...
(the reason they have to have registered users is for web advertising $)
Lots of good free content on the NYT, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and SF Chronicle. Worth the time to register....
ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!

flyman

 The blinking semicolon article?
Yea, I'm redneck, so what!

Woolly Bugger

Quote from: flyman on July 25, 2006, 11:19:15 AM
The blinking semicolon article?

yes, it has a trout in it.... ;D that's the hook?
ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!