To a consistent blogger.....it's cute

Monday, June 20, 2011 5:42 PM

 

A little boy goes to his father and asks 'Daddy, how was I born ?'  

The father answers, 'Well, son, I guess one day you will need to find out anyway!  Your Mom and I first got together in a chat room on Yahoo.  Then I set up a date via e-mail with your Mom and we met at a cyber-cafe.  We sneaked into a secluded room, and googled each other.  There your mother agreed to a download from my hard drive.  As soon as I was ready to upload, we discovered that neither one of us had used a firewall, and since it was too late to hit the delete button , nine months later a little Pop-Up appeared that said: 

“Artificial Intelligence is no match to Natural Stupidity.”

 

President Obama's Views on Gay Marriage 'Evolving' - NYTimes.com

Monday, June 20, 2011 4:16 PM

Message body

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/us/politics/19marriage.html?_r=1&hp

How I wish for principles over politics in the public discourse!  Pat

My Ex-Gay Friend - NYTimes

Perhaps events of this wondrous Fathers' Day weekend helped set me up for this. . . This?  The feelings I have this afternoon, and especially after reading this article in the NYTimes magazine  "My Ex-Gay Friend".  While I was reading it I couldn't help but identify the two guys in the story .. . as if they were Justin and Peter. . . and as if Peter had announced "I am not Gay anymore!"  The next part is quoted directly from the article, the poem the Ex-Gay had written.

<<  Before I left Halifax, Ben showed me one last poem, titled “The Boy Scout Pledge.” “The Michael who wrote this is the Michael I fell in love with,” he said.


I Solemnly Swear,/Never to tell the Scoutmaster./Never to tell the others. Never to let such/Knowledge leave this tent, Never to acknowledge you/Again, Never to tighten your handkerchief again, Never to/Look in your eyes again, Never to race soapbox derby in/The sand with you again, Never to read Whitman as you/Cuddle till you sleep, Never to creep, carefully to the lake/With you again, Never to take wildflowers/To your tent again, Never to cry for you again, Never to tie/Knots in each other’s hair,/Never to breathe your air,/Never to touch your inner thigh,/Never to catch your stare./Never to be two boys together, clinging./Never to dare.  >>

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/magazine/my-ex-gay-friend.html?src=me&ref=general 

It also reminded me of the friend I lost because I said "I am  Gay! "
Things were always just fine in our intimacy. . . as long as we didn't name it.  "IT " had started in high school  and we had had sexual intimacy.  That sort of     " drifted "" when we went to college, but when we'd meet on vacations, say in Barnes and Noble, there was no hesitancy: we always hugged, and he'd kiss me. . and go on talking with great enthusiasm.  Until. . . . yeah, until the day when I said outloud to him  "I am Gay! "  Then everything changed.  I had named  IT outloud.   I sort-of remember his remark. . "Why do you Gays always have to talk  about IT?!    "

I have never seen him since.  One of the casualties of truth.  

     Justin 

Gay Relationships: Living Your Life With Passion

Posted: 19 Jun 2011 02:27 PM PDT

Human beings crave experiences that take us beyond our everyday routines. If we want more out of life, we will want to look at patterns that are holding us back right now.  We need to go beyond the ordinary from time to time and get caught up in something that feels bigger than we are. Getting beyond our sense of individual isolation that feeds our souls.


Sex does it for a number of us, and that’s what most people associate with the word passion. Some of us find passion in work; some of us find it in involvement with something bigger than ourselves. Some of us get to a transcendent place when we are dancing the night away – connecting with the beat, with others, losing our sense of ourselves as separated from the environment around us. What are you passionate about?

My friend Jim says he never feels more alive than when he is out on the dance floor – shirt off, sweaty, glowing, his body feeling alive and juicy. Spiritual experiences are often felt in the body as a subtle connection between the physical self and the emotional self. It can feel hard to explain to others; we may even feel a little embarrassed trying to describe what we are feeling. Modern English doesn’t have good words to describe these experiences. Probably the best word is transcendence – a sense of moving beyond our isolated selves and into deeper connection with our entire self, other people or the world around us. We feel moved to a higher level. It’s hard to explain, but we know it when we get there.


So you’ve danced yourself stupid and you’re feeling blissed out. What happens when you leave the party?  If everyday life is just a spacer between times when you can hit the dance floor, take a look at your spiritual life. Jim learned that he couldn’t order up transcendent experiences like he would order up a pizza. He found himself feeling depressed on occasion. 

There are things we know about how to live passionately. Finding the right balance between living in a highly energetic state on the one hand and being well grounded on the other is important. If we live out of a place of being highly energetic but not too focused on reality, we will eventually crash and burn. On the other hand, living all wrapped up in reality but with little gusto is at least as bad; there may not be a dramatic flameout, but life itself has little exhilaration about it. That’s a problem for those of us who live too much in our heads. We rely on our intellect to help us earn a living; it feels like safe territory for us. But the intellect alone won’t take you where you want to ago.


Living passionately requires us to really be in our bodies. That’s why physical stuff like dancing, running and other aerobic activity creates that high sensation. We feel alive! Doing things that wake up our bodies can feel great and help us move past blocked places.
Creativity is another key to passionate living. Gay men are famous for creativity, of course, whether it’s cooking a fabulous meal or painting the Sistine Chapel. What do you do to let your creativity out?
 
Paying attention to the sensual world is another key to waking up our passionate selves. What fragrances do you notice as you read this? What do you see all around you? When we slow down and take time to experience what is going on in the world and in ourselves, we can find a universe of delight all around us. Slowing down isn’t always easy. That’s why things like massage or meditation help some men get in touch with their passionate selves.


Perhaps the final key to living passionately is to stop settling for less than we truly want in life. Understanding our desires isn’t always easy. Some desires change from moment to moment, some are hard to put into words, and some are, well, a bit embarrassing. That’s OK. Someone once told me, “The space for what you want in life is occupied by what you are settling for right now.” What are you settling for in work, intimate relationships, and the rest of your one juicy life?
Passionate living is much easier if we make a commitment to getting as much as possible out of life. It requires a bit of self-understanding and a bit of self-discipline if we are in it for the long haul.
 
It’s important to understand that while we may long for more aliveness, passion and ecstasy, there is another part of us that is scared of living life without holding back. That critical voice inside us says things like: Who the hell are you to think you could do that? You’ll probably die if you let go. Better to stay put and not think such extravagant thoughts. So that part of us tries to distract us. 

While there are many ways for us to distract ourselves from passionate living, one way is all too common in our community: addiction. It’s one of life’s ironies: people use chemicals trying to alter their states of consciousness, but too often end up with addiction problems that make them less conscious than before. 

"If we want more out of life, we will want to look at patterns that are holding us back right now."

John R. Ballew, M.S. an author and contributor to GAYTWOGETHER, is a licensed professional counselor in private practice in Atlanta. He specializes in issues related to coming out, sexuality, relationships and spirituality. If you have any questions or comments you can submit them directly to GAYTWOGETHER or John R. Ballew, M.S. - www.bodymindsoul.org.


-----thanks to Michael @ gaytwogether.com. . . .and to Brian

GAY BISHOPS

Gay Bishops

G'day JustinO,

 

The Church of England is expected to confirm that openly gay clergy can be made bishops, if they are celibate. Legal advice is due to be published as early as Monday saying homosexual clergy in civil partnerships can become bishops. The move is in response to the Equality Act, which protects from discrimination on the grounds of sexuality. But it risks deepening divisions over gay clergy, which threaten to split the Anglican Communion worldwide.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13831162

Gary

from the Jewish Film Festival. . . .

I hope this short film-study [hehe] re human interaction. . . ahem. . .

will bring you some laughs and chuckles. . . . ;-)

MARCUS PINCUS, the Tailor

-presented by the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

 

YouTube - The Tailor -presented by the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

 =

Understanding the Gay Marriage Debate

This is an  online book  which covers all angles, the ups and down,

of the Gay Marriage issue.  Click on the link below and then choose the chapters you'd like to read/browse.

http://arguingequality.org/