Gotta Love Th Gah

My bank is like every other bank out there, and is a typical corporate workplace.   The decor is what you would expect:  cold, slick, efficient.   The people are what you would also expect:  Polite, groomed and very business-like.
Normally I make my deposits and withdrawls at the drive up window, but yesterday I decided to actually go inside.  My teller, a young twenty-something brunette with a pleasant smile was assisting me and I could hear music from the computer on her counter, just below the muzak blaring over the main speakers. 

It was different from the 'Kenny G Hits From the 80's'.  It was ......GAGA!   

Jennifer (my Teller) was obviously streaming youtube as she kept glancing at the screen watching 'Th Lady' do her stuff while she helped me.    I immediately liked her.    Not because we share a love for the 'Ga' but because this young girl in this corporate world, was asserting her individualism by bucking the trend and enjoying a little  me-time while she worked.    I loved it!

"Gotta love the Ga Ga, huh"  I said.

She was momentarily startled.   Perhaps at being caught doing something she shoudn't be doing, or perhaps because a man almost twice her age pegged the contraband music and was all 'hip with his use of  "The Ga Ga". (Deal with it, that's how I roll)

She smiled, "I LOVE Lady Ga Ga". 

"Yup" I said, "She's great".

Who would've thought a bank teller could make my cloudy afternoon so bright?   

Ya gotta love th' Gah.

Read more »

The Design

I read something really cool the other day about quilts.   Yes.....quilts.  

There is a long standing tradition to leave a mistake within the quilt because life isn't perfect.

I love that.   

My friend Mitzi used to quilt. I'm not sure how she caught the bug but as with anything she's done in her life, she tackled quilting in a big way.  I remember watching her work on a quilt stretched taut by a  frame her father had made, and being quietly impressed as she worked away.  

The whole process fascinated me. Simple yet complicated.  Easy at first glance, but wrought with precision.  The quilter, whether they do it by hand or by machine is a true artist, pouring scads of hours, thought, work, attention and love into something the thoughtless might regard as  mundane as a blanket.

Lives are like quilts.  

We pour almost innumerable hours, days and thoughts into what we wish our lives to be, and cocoon our souls in that hand crafted blanket.  That had to be one of the inspirations for the AIDS quilt, and now that I really think about it....what an incredibly beautiful concept. 

In the small picture, each minute is an intricate stitch on a canvas we won't fully see until it's finished.  And each quilt will have a mistake or two.....or 60 or 1000 or even more, but the quality is entirely up to us, as is the design.

Read more »

Hate Overload

I was just about finished with this post, and I accidentally clicked something and it disappeared.   I've never had that happen on blogger before and it's a pity, because I'm sure it was Pulitzer worthy lol.  


What I lost, and will attempt to recreate, was a post about 'hate overload'.  

I know it's often about perception, but there seems to be a ton of hate around lately when the subject turns to us.   Check the news media.   

The Ugandan Pastor Martin Ssempa is still on his publicity tour for the "Kill The Gays" bill.  He's making the rounds on different talkshows spouting his "-gays are deathly beasts" ignorance to anyone who will listen.  

The 'Church of the Inbreds' we all know and love (Fred Phelps Westboro Bpts) has been dipping their webbed toes into the pool of new media with their parody of Lady Gaga's Pokerface.

Prop 8 is (still) back in the news again as it's legality is debated in court.

And if that isn't enough negativity, just wait until President Obama tackles DADT as he's expected to do this week in his State of the Union Address.  The Republican christian right shit is gonna fly.

Of course there are many many more examples, from marriage discrimination, to gay bashing but how can you list every disgusting one of them?   It's not just 'the other guy' either.  On a personal front I'm dealing with that horrible emotion of hate, regarding a never ending family drama........ and it makes me worried.

What does hate do to us?  

When others hate us, and we respond in kind, it colors every aspect of our lives, affects all our relationships, and takes a devastating toll on us physically, emotionally and spiritually.  It's perhaps the most dangerous emotion there is for what it inspires, creates and exacts from us as individuals, a culture and as a nation.

Is it wrong to hate?   In some instances I'd have to say no.  But once you justify it....I think the lines become blurred and a terrible snowball ensues.

Right now, I'm on "Hate Overload".

Read more »

I Too, Have A Dream

My dream isn't that unlike Martin Luther King Jr's, and I would think it's a shared dream among every GLBT person in the U.S., and abroad.

In a word:  Equality.

I took some pictures in the fall of the Civil Right's Monument in Denver City Park with the exception of this first one that shows the memorial in it's full view. (click for larger view)

*There are standing tablets which are engraved timelines in civil rights history in America and quotes from King’s speeches surrounding the monument. Each tablet creates a small alcove for smaller statues representing phases in American black history. Benches are placed in front of the tablets. In the stone walkways, on the north is a bronze Liberty Bell; on the south is a bronze outline of a slave ship containing figures showing how the slaves where placed below deck.

The memorial costs exceeded 1 million dollars and fund raising took over 3 years.

The 28-foot tall Memorial was designed and sculpted by the Internationally renowned sculptor, and Denver resident, Mr. Ed Dwight. [*above excerpted from City of Denver Parks Department website]

Read more »

The Hidden Cost of Compassion

Who among us (besides Pat Robertson), isn't touched by the suffering going on in Haiti?   It's a horrible situation, and when ever there is a natural disaster, there is always a call to volunteer, to pray and to open up our wallets and give generously.

The United States is one of the most giving countries on earth, and I'm proud of that.

But...........

I opened up my wallet and gave after 9/11.   I also opened up my wallet and gave after Katrina.  I even made an online donation to the Red Cross after the Tsunami a few years back.   Each time I was left wondering, "Where did the money go?"  

In each case there was a horrible need, and I gave only to find out later the money was re-routed to something else, lined some despicable humans pockets, mismanaged by an idiotic government, or kept in a bank which never doled it out to the people it was meant for......and that left me with a sick pit in my stomach, and admittedly...a little jaded.

I'm not proud of feeling that way.   I wish I didn't.   But I do.

Times are different now and of course we have to help these people somehow.  But when I heard President Obama was pledging 100 million dollars....during a time when so many people (including yours truly) is out of a job, barely living hand to mouth....makes me upset.    I'm not saying we shouldn't help the Hatians, of course we have to....but with the hidden cost of compassion all to evident (in my eyes) we have to take care of ourselves first...and 100 million given our debt and current economic distress is more than a little wrong.

Read more »

Back Home!

Read more »