hatorade

This past weekend a friend was attacked in a gay-bashing. Two men harassed him on the street late at night and when words were exchanged, these men attacked and beat my friend. He suffered some ugly injuries but walked away without having to visit the hospital. I don't know if the police think they can catch the men or not. My friend is an amazing man. He recently returned from a two year stint with a non-governmental organization working with people with HIV and AIDS in Africa. He's the kind of person you like almost immediately. He emanates positivity and love and compassion. So why him? Why would two men arbitrarily attack my friend? Why would they arbitrarily attack anybody for any reason? Because somehow think they've been given the right to judge people for living lives they don't accept? Because somehow they have some right to violence as a means of expressing that judgement? It was hard for me to have faith in humanity on the day I heard about the attack. It was hard for me to believe in love and hope knowing that these men and many like them are out there just waiting for the opportunity to be hatemongers. But seeing my friend later, I knew that letting those feelings overtake me wasn't the answer. There he stood with cuts and scratches and a swollen face and he smiled and was brave and still emanated love and compassion and positivity...after what he had been through. He reasserted my belief for faith in humanity and hope for love and a better world. Because these two men couldn't take that away from him with their hate so I won't either.

giggle fest

The best line of the day:

"I just keep thinking, if that's what it's really like, then I want herpes too."

unicorns santa claus and fairy dust

As we shuffle through this exercise known as life, we take on beliefs and values. We edit and remix them so that our lives make sense and have some meaning. But unless we are avid journalers or have an unflappable memory, we probably forget what we thought at any point in our evolution. So today, on this day, I am documenting some of these things that I believe.

• I believe in both destiny and choice. I don't believe these are conflicting ideas. I do believe that we have an ultimate destiny but that we are given choices during the course our lives to get us there. Sometimes this means we take the harder road, but eventually we will all get there.
• I believe that love is always the answer, we just have to find better questions.
• I believe that our humanity lies in the ability to love and sacrifice for that love. I believe that people often forget about the sacrifice part.
• I believe that people do not take the time to understand the subtle differences between self-aware and self-involved.
• I believe that you can have the best of intentions and the noblest of hearts but things will still not always work out the way you want. I believe that this is one of the hardest pills to swallow.
• I believe that we should believe in something bigger than ourselves, something bigger than our place in the world.
• I believe that we will experience the same joys and the same pains innumerable times over the course our lives and each time it feels different though it's really just the circumstances that change.
• I believe that we should strive to have the hearts and minds we had when we were five years old...when no question was too silly to ask and nothing seemed impossible because we were totally present in our lives.
• I believe that people often choose people to love who they either want to be like or think will make them into the person they are meant to be. I also believe that this is the wrong approach and that people should choose those who they like...just the way they are.
• I believe that people want to forget that we are perfectly imperfect. We want to ignore the parts of us that are not ideal but we'll never be whole if we do. And besides...who got to decide what was ideal in the first place?
• I believe in honor and integrity. I'm starting to realize that this means very different things to different people and that is okay.
• I believe you should never give up. I am however learning the great value in letting go.
• I believe that the choices we make to better ourselves are hard to implement and take a lot of patience to see that it is working.
• I believe that timing is EVERYTHING.
• I believe that you should decide upon and set the rules and boundaries for your life but there should probably be an exception for them.