Good, bad, or indifferent, I’m the common denominator in every event and circumstance in my life. If I get to take credit for the celebration and praise-worthy instances, I must also take responsibility and credit for the lackluster and substandard occasions as well.
The way in was me, and so it is for the way out. If I want more, then I stay the course. If I want change, like everything else, that movement begins with me as well.
Simply because I’m human and share the planet, life sends me surprises. I may not be responsible for that, but I am still at the center of the space created from my own response.
I’m celebrating double 5’s this year! Spiritually speaking, this is quite an opportunity! Number 5 symbolizes God’s goodness, grace, and kindness, and I’ve got double, so I’m anticipating great things! I’m fortunate to not be in need for much these days, especially tangibles, but I remember well what it’s like to be in need and the constant worry. And as the saying goes, “There but for the grace of God go I.” So in gratitude and from my heart, I try to give to our underserved and homeless communities when I can, and however I am moved to. This year I am moved to increase Unity of Sacramento’s ability to provide through their Winter Sanctuary. I hope you will help me give them a little bump ahead of the doors opening. Believe me when I tell you that every little bit counts. Thank you in advance for anything that you can donate, and I would love it if you would also share this. 🥳 🙌🏻 ✌🏻 ❤
For my birthday this year, I’m asking for donations to Unity of Sacramento’s Winter Sanctuary. If you’ve known me for a while, you know that each year I do some sort of charitable drive for our homeless population. I’ve chosen this nonprofit because their mission means a lot to me, they do a FABULOUS job and huge effort, and I hope you’ll consider contributing as a way to celebrate with me. Every little bit will help me reach my goal.
Each winter, Unity of Sacramento opens its doors for our homeless outreach campaign. We provide a hot meal, a safe place to sleep, and a breakfast-to-go in the morning. Prayer support is always available. Our congregation has been so generous in helping with donations of not only money, but necessities such as toiletries, socks, mittens, clothing, and many other gifts of love. And just like anything else, the more donations we receive, the more assistance we are able to pour out and into our homeless brothers and sisters.
Please help me reach my goal or even surpass it this year! Not only is it tax deductible, but it is a bonus for your spirit! PLUS… it makes me SUPER happy! 🙂
Centrist ideals and actions, passivism, and just plain refusing to see (cognitive dissonance) are killing this planet. Essentially, it is killing us. You may have the urge to blame it on those that are obviously being destructive, or obviously protesting that climate change is even real. But every time you make up an excuse for our government officials and political groups ignoring the issue of climate change, you are aiding and abetting those that intentionally have ill will for this planet as evidenced by their desires for personal gain over a survivable planet. And when you think about it, you have personal gain issues, too. Yes. “We have more important issues at hand,” has been said to me. I wonder what that could be? I’ll tell you what it is, and it’s not what you think. It’s your fear – your irrational fear that Trump is the biggest thing we have to defeat – over anything and everything else. F.E.A.R. I don’t know about you, but most people don’t operate in their best thinking when they are coming from fear. We’re all afraid, but we shouldn’t let our fear have us operate from the inability to move out from in front of our noses, unable to see the bigger picture.
Right now the Amazon Rain Forest is burning at phenomenally faster rates than have EVER been known! Some of this is on purpose – for monetary gain. How disgusting! Climate change is killing it as well. We laugh, scoff and wag our fingers at climate change deniers… but how is waiting around for a better time to do something about it any better? In my opinion, that’s even WORSE, because we know better.
I am in an ongoing fight and struggle for equality for all persons on this planet, as many of you may be. If you know me, or have read many of the things I write, this is likely not news to you. Off the top of my head right now, I can’t think of anything more important to me than seeing a world that works for all. Full disclosure is, I selfishly do this because ultimately that’s the world I want for my grandchildren. I’m probably not going to see it. Maybe, but probably not. That’s OK. That’s the bigger picture. It doesn’t mean I’m ignoring the louder, more current concerns or that I’m not afraid. But the bigger picture speaks louder to me than the current, temporary ones. Does that mean that I/we ignore the current madhouse? No, not at all. What it means is that we should not put all our eggs in the basket of fearing the current madhouse. There has to be a balance. But if we’re reacting now without any regard for later, that is a God-awful strategy for our future. If your child is crying because he has a wet and soiled diaper and he’s hungry, but you just realized you’re out of diapersandformula, are you going to run out and get diapers to avoid the current mess, but wait on the formula because it’s less pressing at this moment? Or do they both require your full attention?
This is where we are. Mother Earth is SCREAMING for help, but many of us can’t seem to focus our energy on anything other than the mess in front of us. It’s urgent, yes, but there’s something bigger and also urgent that is starving for our attention as well. And if we don’t take care of it, there won’t be one single reason for any of the rest of it. The thing about starvation is, once it’s noticeable, there’s very little time to correct it, if at all. And even once it’s corrected, there may be lasting, irreversible damage to the point that saving it is in reality only slowing down the inevitable.
This is not about how much or little you might be doing for a better world. This is not about making the important work any of us are doing now suddenly worthless. IT’S ALL IMPORTANT. IT’S ALL NEEDED, ALL NECESSARY. But operating out of fear to the degree that we let ourselves be led by the nose, to ignore the underhandedness of those that we allow to represent us is going to be our end. And we do this for the short-term goal out of fear. Fear has us blind. Fear has us deaf. Fear has us cutting ourselves short. It’s sad. It’s maddening watching some of those that I love, appreciate, and think so highly of, and know without a doubt to be otherwise intelligent folks give it all up for the moment.
If you think we have bigger fish to fry than climate change, or that it can wait until after the next election, you clearly need the oxygen that we are currently running out of. This is dire. If you actually think the DNC or GOP has your best interests at heart, you MUST be suffering from hypoxia and can’t think straight. Wake up… while you still can. How is it that you can look the other way while they make up their own rules and decisions, mostly ignoring what the voters want, bowing to them out of fear instead of standing up to them and being fearless. Last election, and it looks like the upcoming one as well, so many people wanted to blame people like me for a sub-par candidate losing the election. You should be blaming yourselves and the DNC who led you by the nose KNOWING BETTER. Many of us tried to tell you, and you ridiculed and laughed at us. We’re telling you again, and you’re still laughing.
I wish I could say that “I told you so” tasted sweet, but I have to wade in the bitter poison right along with you.
Your social justice and equality issues also do not take a bigger stage than climate change. Again, these issues are not less important, but to be perfectly clear, they won’t be an issue at all if we keep ignoring climate change or putting it off until ____________. If you care so much about social dynamics and the struggles that are going on right now in our communities of color and our underserved communities, then you absolutely SHOULD be thinking about climate change. Why? If you have your community activism hat already in any arena involving those communities, then I already know you are aware of how they get hit the hardest, the fastest, and the longest when anything bad comes down the pipeline. They also take the longest to recover – if ever. Sometimes it’s actually by design, sadly, and sometimes it’s because of positioning. Here are just a few examples: housing crisis, redlining, gerrymandering, poverty, bank bailouts, war on drugs, high cost of pharmaceuticals, disparities in healthcare, inflation, etc. DO YOU THINK FOR ONE SECOND THAT AS OUR CLIMATE AND EARTH DETERIORATE THAT THESE COMMUNITIES WON’T SUFFER HARDER, FASTER, AND LONGER THAN OTHERS – THAT SOMEHOW THEY’LL ESCAPE THE USUAL ROLL CALL FOR THIS? Like I said, if you already have your community activism hat on, it shouldn’t be hard for you to see how this will go. All our work will be for not if we refuse to address our climate issues NOW – not after the election; not after… anything else. NOW.
Look, I am also guilty of waiting to fully address climate change, and not being willing to realize that if our world deteriorates, there is no point at all to anything else that I work for, strive for, pour my heart and soul out into. My selfish reasons for the other activism work that I do has to be, and is, the same for climate change. I want my grandchildren to grow up in a world that their Gram helped make better and survives for them. I don’t want them to suffer from the effects of racism, classism, bigotry, hunger, violence, xenophobia… and I most certainly don’t want them to suffer because they can’t breathe or the little food that’s left or the water is poisoning them. As a bonus, I would also like to live out the rest of my life on a planet that is being loved and nurtured, knowing it’s going to be a safe place for my Milani Jhené and Joshua Rey, and whichever beautiful grandbabies that might come next.
We need to stop wishing for a better tomorrow before all we can wish for is any tomorrow.
Today, we had our third mass shooting in the USA in one week. We lost over 30 brothers and sisters; many were children, and over 40 were injured and/or hospitalized. Some are in critical condition.
You’re a good, law-abiding citizen. You play by all the rules. Perhaps you regularly attend worship. You don’t cuss. You care about others, and you pray for them — even for your enemies like you are told. You don’t allow wrong-doers time. You donate and tithe to good causes. You avoid gossip. You prepare meals for the ill and elderly.
You are the model of do-right.
Your only sin (error)? You did nothing in the face of the adversity and oppression of others. But wait… you sent out your thoughts and prayers — and you really did! You didn’t just say that you did! But then you sat silent. You did not move. You did not lift a finger. You did not make one attempt to change a thing, not even with yourself, not even inside your own mind.
What will you do one day if the _______________ comes for you or one of yours? Will you remember that you sat down while others were being harmed — that you watched in silence, or turned your back to it completely? Will you remember that you looked away when they showed the bodies because it was too awful to think about, to talk about? Will you remember that after you prayed for them you went back in your home, away from the hard things, and carried on like usual? Will you remember that you thought it didn’t affect you, so there was nothing for you to do? Will you remember that you thought you were only one person?
Proverbs 24 11 Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to die; save them as they stagger to their death. 12 Don’t excuse yourself by saying, “Look, we didn’t know.” For God understands all hearts, and he sees you. He who guards your soul knows you knew. He will repay all people as their actions deserve.
I spent too much time on some nonsense today. I’m aware that some of my posts rub some of you wrong. This is not an apology, just an acknowledgment, and I’m okay with that. I’m here for you ALL DAY if you want to learn something from me, or if you have something to teach me that is of value and makes this world a better place for EVERYONE. What I am NOT here for is your willful ignorance, and that goes double for when you are being obtuse in the face of an opportunity for you to hear something that you have the chance to learn. I am NOT here for you if you learn, know, find out better, but refuse to do better.
I know I’m idealistic, and I’m okay with that, too. I have ALWAYS been this way, ALWAYS. Although, admittedly, it is the catalyst for a lot of my frustration with stupid shit that people do and say. Sometimes I really do not get what some of you do not get. Some of you, I chalk it up to lack of exposure and refusal to learn. I say “refusal” because really there are NO reasons why anyone should pass up an opportunity to learn something new, and there is NO shortage of ways to learn about people that you may not have a good understanding of. Personally, before I condemn someone for the way they act, I check in with myself to see if I FIRST understand why someone does what they do. That doesn’t mean that I am going to condone their actions (or I might), it just means that I seek to understand first.
I don’t know it all. I don’t have all the answers. Neither do any of you. And sometimes even when I think I understand, I get set straight one way or another. But here’s the catch: I’m also okay with that! To me, it’s a RELIEF. Now, don’t confuse that with it feeling good. It rarely does, but it IS a relief. Knowledge is power and freedom. There are things I know. There are things I know that I don’t know or understand. And there are things, I’m sure, that I don’t even know that I don’t know yet. Those will come, and I’m always working on the things that I know I need to understand better. I am comfortable with finding those things out. I get along best with people that get this.
If you come on my page and respond to a post that you don’t agree with, be prepared to be set straight. I’m willing to listen to a point to see if there is something new for me, something I didn’t know, etc. The end of that point, however, is when I am aware that you aren’t here to listen or learn anything new.
Further, learn what white privilege is. It has nothing to do with your economic status. Really, I think we should ALL know this by now, but some of you are not paying ANY attention or trying AT ALL to learn what it means. Same with Black Lives Matter. Learn what it means and stop that stupidity about Blue Lives and All Lives, etc. Just STOP. It’s not like the REAL information and answers aren’t abundantly out there to find. But at this point, if you’re still confused, I already know you’re just too afraid to find out. That helps NO ONE, not even you.
Finally, black people or any person of color, for that matter, aren’t here to teach you about the real history of the U.S. (not the watered-down version of stuff our history books in school wanted us to know that made us feel good about ourselves) or the foundation of policing. Besides, when they do try to tell you, many of you won’t listen anyway. Stop telling people of color how they should act according to how it is standing in YOUR shoes until (which will be never) you stand in theirs and gain an understanding of what life has HISTORICALLY been like for them in this country. Stop quoting that one black person in a 6,000 square mile radius who almost agrees with you or agrees with you on one line-item as evidence that you are right about your racist views or ignorance.
If you just rolled your eyes during any of that (if you made it this far), please feel free to remove me from your friend list or whatever else makes you feel better. I’m okay with that, too. And don’t send me your private messages of hate like I get EVERY time I get on my soapbox. Some of you all go through an awful lot of trouble to just show me in the end that I got under YOUR skin. My favorites are when I get called an ethnic slur that is relative to my last name. I publish those for everyone to see, just so you know.
Lastly, I AM here for you if you would like to live in a world that works for EVERYONE with NO ONE left out, and you’re willing to take a look at yourself like I do myself ALL the time. Someone told me once that I hate white people and therefore hate myself. Not true. I love ALL people. (And don’t think that I’m not aware that that is just some second class manipulation to make me feel bad and try to put me down.) I may not like you personally, but I love ALL people. I’ve always felt that way. I just simply have no tolerance for intolerance. I don’t have room for it, and I won’t even make room for it in my life, and I will never apologize for that. If you’re racist, we got a problem. If you’re homophobic, we got a problem. If you want to demonize someone for their religion that you don’t understand, we got a problem. If you think you’re going to talk down to me because I have a vagina and you have a penis, we got a problem. If you have any kind of “ism” or phobia about someone who is different than you, we are probably going to lock horns at some point and have a problem.
If you just so happen to want to open yourself up to some knowledge and you are white like me, here are a few links below. Well, anyone can read them, but they’re about white privilege. Or you can simply look this stuff up on your own. It’s our job to teach each other and ourselves to do better. Stop waiting on people of color to give you the answers that you ultimately don’t listen to anyway.
There’s so much more I can say, but I know I’ve probably worn out my welcome at this point. If you made it this far, thank you. Your time is appreciated. If you’d like to discuss any of this in a respectful, willing-to-learn manner, feel free to comment below.
Some days I feel more than others. Some days I feel more than I wish I did. Some days I don’t wear my feelings, they wear me out. Today. Saw a post earlier that stated how ridiculous we are at our outrage at the senseless stalking and killing of Cecil the Lion when there are so many “more important” things going on to be outraged about, i.e., cops killing black people, Bill Cosby’s nefarious behavior, mass shootings/citizen terrorists, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton. The other day some TWITS on Twitter had the nerve to remark about the latest theater shooting that “only 3 people died” in this one, and that it wasn’t “as bad as the one in Charleston.” “ONLY!” Personally, I think it’s ridiculous that someone thinks we have to choose ONE to be concerned with and outraged over! This is the problem. Some people just don’t get that LIFE matters, and like it or not we ARE connected – whatever your ethnicity, gender, animals, plants. We (humans, of course, not plants and animals – because I know someone is going to say it) are killing each other off with guns and other violence, pesticides, depleting our precious wildlife… ALL of this is laying waste to humankind. Yes, each issue has its own set of problems, but it all ends the same… an irreplaceable life or lives lost and GONE FOREVER. So pick one or pick several to be outraged over. They are all important, and to refuse to hear someone else’s experience with it is a fault on you, not them. It is the proof that screams that one life is actually more important than another; that one life is less important than another. They’re the same, just sliced differently from where one stands. We’re killing each other, directly and indirectly. It’s shameful that life, in all its shapes, forms, colors, and sizes is not honored. It’s shameful that we even put ANY value on a life that is actually PRICELESS. We put value on a life form, and then we make one life more or less valuable than that one. It really all just makes me heart-sick. But no one is listening; everyone is too busy defending who they think they are when they should be listening. All of this is important, yet: You aren’t your badge. You aren’t your gun.You aren’t your color.You aren’t your size.You aren’t your sport. You aren’t your trophy. You aren’t your penis. You aren’t your breasts. You aren’t your political party. You aren’t your job. You aren’t your degree, or lack of one either. You aren’t your sexual orientation. You aren’t your hair. (Just ask India Arie 🙂 )
IS THIS REALLY ALL YOU ARE?
One of my favorite quotes by Zig Ziglar sums this up nicely:You may not be what you say you are, but what you say, you are. I would hope we strive bigger than any of those things on the list. The list does not complete a person, but we defend those things with our very lives, and sometimes with someone else’s. You see, if you only have a problem with certain lives being mistreated and/or killed, but don’t have the very same regard for others, then there is an issue with your humanity, i.e., when you’re outraged over a black man being killed without cause by a police officer but you have no regard or even celebrate when a police officer is ambushed, when you are vehemently against abortion, yet you think we shouldn’t help feed our homeless or think they should be jailed; when you’re in an uproar over the terrorist slaughter in Charleston recently, but you think that “only three people were killed” in that Lafayette theater; when you are up in arms over police officers being ambushed and killed, but you turn the other cheek to the obvious problem of black people being murdered by authority figures; when you protest how oil and big industry is ruining our health and climate, but you fail to see the importance of trophy hunting and poaching on the very same environment, etc. I could go on, but I’m sure you see the point. If you still don’t, well…. Any time we make a particular life/lives more important than another, we by default make the other less than. On the flip side of that, any time we make something less than, we by default give the other more or make it more than. I think we would have to search long and hard to find a person who can overcome this on all levels, but my hope is that we all do our best to overcome it anyway. All this is not to say that there isn’t a real problem in this country with guns and violence, with police brutality against people of color, with mistreatment of animals and our environment, violence against children, etc. But it does show that there is a very fine line between rallying for a cause and becoming like the opposing side in our thinking. We all have biases. It’s vitally important to know that, and to know what our individual biases are. Even more important, we should be willing to look for and see them, then act responsibly about them. If we are so busy defending our cause that we fail to see the effect on the other side, or we fail to even acknowledge that there is a problem we have truly failed, and in a bigger sense than our cause. Every time I see a piece on some type of gun violence, I then see a piece on gun control, and then I see people who I once thought were fairly reasonable lose their minds over defending their guns. FAIL. When I see a piece on police brutality against a black person, I then see a piece on how police are in a dangerous job. FAIL. I have read many pieces on trophy hunting lately, and then I see pieces and posts about how hunting is a right, and then other pieces on how silly it is that we worry about the animals when #blacklivesmatter, or how Iran is going to blow us up. FAIL. This is similar to having a conversation or argument with your spouse about how dangerous it is that he doesn’t use his turn signal when he/she drives, and then having them bounce back at you that you always forget to lock the house up at night. Both issues are important, and one is important to you and the other to your spouse. The issue may be related to a degree, yet they are completely separate issues. And here you are, each trying to make your issue more important than the other, when each has its risks and possible poor outcomes. Each of you, by making your issue the more important one, are letting your spouse know that their issue is less important or even not important at all. How would that leave you feeling? Are you caring at this point about the other issue as much as you should? Probably not! We’re so busy defending our stance, that we fail to see the broader picture, and we fail to assign any value to the other side. I wonder, because apparently I can only wonder at this point, what it might be like if we all just put down our swords and listened to each other? What if we placed importance and priority on the needs of the other? Would we lose something? Would things actually get worse? I don’t believe so. This is a super simple concept, yet we FAIL. We make efforts to get our views heard, we get shut down, and then we get louder and/or possibly violent. What would happen if we lend importance to someone else’s issue? What would happen if we dared to stop standing in defense of our beliefs and just listened without feeling threatened that we were going to lose something?
When we indicate that we think one person’s cause is not as important as our own, we are doing the very same damage we say others are doing to us. In other words, comments about #bluelivesmatter are made to counteract, yes counteract, #blacklivesmatter. And it does just that. Because you have a cause that is (literally) vitally important to you, you may think that it is more important than others, i.e., Cecil the Lion and other hunting/poaching interests, #AllLivesMatter, terrorism in other countries. This thinking, however, contributes to the problem, and in the end will assist in eradicating mankind. Yes, it’s that heavy! Any time we make our cause more important than another, we are in competition, and we are saying essentially that the other is not as important as our cause or existence. When we defend our badges as law enforcement, we just made someone else’s life less important. When we belittle another’s essence, we may as well scream out, “I am more important than you!” “You are less important than I!” We are destroying each other. We are killing off our eco-system. So when you make ridiculing and/or discounting comments and posts about those that are concerned about trophy hunting, pesticides, blue lives, black lives, etc…. whatever is different from your concern that is largest for you now, you are assisting in the eventual demise of us all. Here is an example. If your spouse or significant other says there is a problem in the relationship, whether you agree or not, whether or not you even noticed, then you have a problem present. Why must we choose one over another? This is not a mental health issue; it is an issue of MENTALITY. This is not just a human issue; it is an issue of HUMANITY.
How quick we are to judge someone else’s idea of a hero. How quickly are we to make comparisons of their hero to another hero we approve of. Unfortunately, this is comparing apples to oranges, and only proves that we have no room to grow in our personal ideology. It only shows our unwillingness to stand in another’s shoes and have the possibility of some enlightenment and understanding.
I am weary of everyone comparing Caitlyn Jenner to war heroes (apples and oranges), quoting Bible scriptures about her, and poking fun at her journey. Just because you cannot imagine it, does not make it untrue. Just because it is not true for you, does not mean that it is false. Who are you that you think it is okay to dictate who someone else’s hero should be? Who are you to ridicule someone else’s idea of who their hero is or should be? In my opinion, this is a form of bullying. Yes I said it, bullying!
In case you are still confused or simply unwilling to figure this out on your own:
a: a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability
b: an illustrious warrior
c: a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities
d: one who shows great courage
2
a: the principal male character in a literary or dramatic work
b: the central figure in an event, period, or movement
3
plural usuallyhe·ros:submarine 2
4
: an object of extreme admiration and devotion
For those of you who just cannot get past your scriptures and feel the need to laud them over others, here are a few (NIV) to consider before you say another word about Ms. Jenner’s journey. Consider if you rise above any of this criteria:
Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. John 8:7 NIV
Raise your hand if this is you.
But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. Matthew 5:39
Have you ever lashed out at anyone you were angry with – ‘ever done a vengeful deed?
For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. James 2:11
Have you ever cheated on someone? Have you ever killed someone? (No? Did you go to war?)
When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. Proverbs 23:1, 2
Do you overeat or drink too much?
Hosea Chapter 4 (You must look this one up on your own and read the whole chapter. You will get an interesting view of yourself.)
This will surely give you an idea of just how much with or without sin you actually are.
Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. Romans 13:7
How often have you been 100% honest on your taxes?
Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 1John 3:4
Wow. It says “everyone,” not some of you.
He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. Matthew 25:45
How do you treat animals, people with different beliefs, children, people with disabilities, people you are not fond of, people who live a lifestyle you can’t/won’t understand? Have you ridiculed anyone lately?
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
This is easy. If what you are saying or doing does not resemble love, then you are simply doing it wrong.
As defined above, there are different kinds of heroes. Men who fought in wars do not hold the definition of hero alone. Caitlyn is a hero to some, and it is not any higher science that she is not seen in the same way some see a war hero. I highly doubt that anyone is suggesting that. You cannot compare Caitlyn to a war hero, just as you cannot compare a war hero to a brave woman who has fought her hardest to overcome a deadly illness. Moreover, because she is not a hero to you, does not mean she is not a hero to someone else. Likewise, one who is a hero to you may not be to someone else. (Mind blown?) Just because you cannot understand something (or refuse to), does not mean it is not real or true for someone else. Perhaps it is a signal that it is time to stretch your brain, your mind, and more importantly, your heart!
On a side but similar note, how many of you that are screaming foul about Caitlyn, are yet standing firm with the Duggar family? Here is your serving of hypocrisy and pretense for the day.
Here is what being willing to learn something new and admitting it looks like:
The man in this article shared a post, his thoughts, and comparisons, about Jenner being considered a hero. He just picked a fairly random photo he pulled from the web and posted it. However, he then took it upon himself to be responsible for the picture he chose to share to illustrate his point. He read a shocking story behind the photo and (Here is the part to pay attention to.) instead of ignoring it, he took full personal responsibility and posted an update with the story about the picture. Notice how many shared this man’s post initially, then pay attention to how many shared his update. I call the latter shameful. It took courage on his part to change his tune once he learned something new. How many of us are willing to do this even in the face of showing we were wrong? How many of us would ignore it be able to hang onto an ideal? That is called a lie, and you can refer to the scriptures above if you would like.
I get that Caitlyn Jenner is up front right now because of whom she is, her celebrity status. To that I say simply, “So what!” This is not my plea for her to be your newest hero, or to even agree that she is one. What is true is that Bruce Jenner was my hero and idol in junior high school. I was even quoted in our school newspaper about that when I was interviewed for “Athlete of the Month,” or something like that. I still think what he accomplished was amazing. As an adult I see it a little differently and would see him as someone I admire for his past athletic talents and hard work.
Do I personally think Caitlyn is a hero? I honestly cannot relate, and that is part of my point today. The closest I can come to relating is memories of a version of me long ago that was uncomfortable in her own skin until I became more authentic in my life. I am now more comfortable and a much happier person. I can see clearly why she is a hero to many, regardless of what my personal beliefs or feelings are on the subject. I am not in their shoes, so I will not endeavor to attempt at proving them wrong or ridiculing anyone for it. If she makes someone in a similar life-situation feel better about themselves, gives them courage and hope, helps someone feel empowered, then who am I to throw stones? My own beliefs are not threatened because someone else has different ones, and I do not make it mean that my beliefs are suddenly null and void or unimportant because of it.
So… about those stones you were throwing? Instead, how about you kick rocks on your judgements and stop bullying. Besides, realize that stone might be returned one day!
Debora Lynn: 