Semper Fi Fags

     In 2006, members of Westboro church picketed in an anti-gay protest at the funeral of fallen marine Matthew Snyder in Westminster, Maryland. The protesters claimed that God was punishing the United States for "the sin of homosexuality" by killing the soldiers. They shouted at the grieving family, and carried signs saying "Thank God for dead soldiers," "God blew up the troops," "AIDS cures fags," and "Semper Fi Fags." The Snyder family decided to sue the church for invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and civil conspiracy. In the link above, the spokesperson for the church, Shirley Phelps-Roper and a reporter for Fox News, Julie Banderas, get into an argument about the church's actions.

     They quote different parts of the bible, including, "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart; thou shalt surely rebuke thy neighbour, and not bear sin because of him." and "Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Yes, we're supposed to argue for what's right, and yes, the bible does tell us what is morally considered a sin, however you chose to interpret that. But I think that ultimately, we must let everyone choose for themselves what is right and what is wrong, and we must love them for that. I believe that Christianity is distinguished from other religions by the belief that someone died for our sins, so that we could be forgiven. I think the message of Christianity is forgiveness, to forgive and accept each other. Tolerance is the greatest thing one can do. 

     What bothers me in this clip is that neither of them listen to each other. They're both so convinced that they're right that they don't pause for the other, they simply repeat their beliefs and call names. Before I make the wrong point, know that I side completely with the reporter's point of view, but you cannot expect to change someone's point of view just by yelling at them. 

     In the fall of 2007, the Snyders were awarded  $2.9 million in compensatory damages plus $8 million in punitive damages, which were later reduced to $5 million. However, the church appealed in 2008 to a federal appeals court, which reversed the previous decision and argued that the church's free speech rights had been violated.  After more appeals, the case was brought to the Supreme Court this year, in Snyder v. Phelps.

     In March, the court ruled in an 8-1 vote that members of Westboro Baptist Church had a right to promote "a broad-based message on public matters such as wars." CNN anti-gay church right to protest

     We live in a country where stranger can tell a grieving father at his son's funeral that God hates his family and killed his son for defending a country that tolerates gays. Ironically, the country they hate so much has protected their right to do this. We live in a country with free speech. Whatever that means.

Sensible

"The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision." -Randall Munroe

     You'll never walk on the moon. I suppose it's a sensible decision that has been made to end NASA's moon program, and instead, pour money into projects of bigger engines and machines to churn up the moon and Mars into useable rocket fuel. Obama called for a complete stop, not a delay, but a cancellation for NASA’s Constellation program, all the work of rockets and spacecraft of the past four years. His "bold new initiative” has no destination, or time frame, or human exploration. NASA will no longer create spacecraft, but will act more as an advisory committee. 

    The Space Race was expensive, competitive, and yet, inspiring. It was America. It was bold exploration, radical new ideas. It was beautiful, magical, and held all of the nation breathless. Brilliant new technologies. Today, we are dead, today, technology isn't new, it's just mashed together. We know how to take pictures, we know how to use cellular technology, and putting them together isn't new. Tearing up soil for fuel isn't visionary. It's Mars, the red planet, childhood dreams of aliens and spaceships of cardboard boxes and pots and pans. Not fuel to be ripped out at our disposal.

     

History

It's strange to see the world grow up around us, to notice small differences and realize, this is it, this is life. Happening, around us, now. This is what we'll remember, this is what we'll retell and what will be studied. Pluto's no longer a planet, yet I have its plastic scale model in the box with the others, and remember how proudly it used to  hang in my bedroom. I remember the recession, the stock market crash. I remember 9/11, being scared and not understanding why people were crying, and the death of bin Laden. This is the present. This will be the past. This is history.

Catharsis

The newspaper sits across the table from me, and I drink lazily as I watch it be read. I tune out the words being read out loud, lost under my feverish mind. Why should I care? What's the point? Does it affect me at all? Local news, human interest stories. A dog that got eaten by a bear. A baby panda. A man that died at a baseball game.

Mid sip, I realize it's not so much informative as it is a means of sharing stories. Creating sympathy or sadness in readers, tugging at the heart. The Greeks called it catharsis, the purging of emotion. And I suppose, it's the elusive reason as to why I act. To share stories. For sadness, for sympathy, for anger, happiness and relief. It's a tradition hundreds of years old, a basic human need to create and release emotion.

11:11

We sit far back in the theater, the darkness interrupted only by the glow of his watch.

"Wait for it..." he says, "There. Make a wish."

He lifts his wrist, showing off the string of ones. I laugh and shut my eyes, wishing. There is silence, as he does the same. 

"What'd you wish for?" I ask.

"I can't tell you, you can't tell wishes."

"That only applies to birthday wishes. 11:11 wishes are fair game."

"Well, what'd you wish for?"

I always wish for the same thing. It's become almost like a prayer. I wish for happiness.  I can't wish for one detail over another, I wish to be happy enough not to want to change any details. 

Doodles

The blank page and my boredom both demand doodles, a distraction of some kind. These words are my doodles. Mindless, pointless, and yet, pretty, in their crystal, simple, shallowness.

I draw the city skyline outside, angular buildings ripping into the sky, scarred by peeling and discolorations. I draw the broken window in the top floor, skeletal and haunting. I draw the people below, quick scribbles, without substance or detail.

Don't Laugh

I wanted to write a story, when I was in 5th or 6th grade. I even carried a little notebook around with me and scribbled down ideas for it (which, admittedly, I still do for this blog). It was going to be about a girl, named Ashley, who was very misunderstood. I'd like to think it was ambitious of my 11 year old self.

I made the mistake of sharing it before I was ready. Late at night, with older cousins I had wanted to pretend were closer to me and paid more attention to me than I knew they really were or did. I told them everything I had thought of, down to the details of how my Ashley would sneak out of her bedroom window late at night. It wasn't deep, it wasn't promising, it wasn't good. And they smiled, a forced, polite smile, that said all that, a smile that I can remember clearly, even now. "That's nice," they said. And it shattered.

I never wrote it. I never looked in my little notebooks again. And I regret it. Yes, it was stupid, but I still wish I'd done it instead of feeling silly and letting it go. Stand by your ideas. They're precious, fragile, infinitely priceless, and dangerous to lose.

Walking to The Manhattan Theater Club

"There's an old story," she starts, "that teaches that humanity is just one person."
"Oh, yeah?" I swing my backpack over to my left shoulder.
"Mhm. There's only one God, and one man, and God created this entire world," she pauses to wave her hand at the buildings towering over us, "just to teach, and the man has to live every life on Earth, through all history. Time is nothing, so he, well, we, are all the same soul. So every bad thing that's happened, he did to himself. He's Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth at the same time."
We wait briefly for the light to let us cross the street, and then continue.
"Does he know he's everybody?"
"Nope. Each time he dies, he comes back to the same misty abyss with God, and he can remember everything if he stays there long enough, but he forgets it each time he's reborn.
"So what happens once he's lived every life?"
"Then he's learned every lesson and is ready to move on. He becomes a God, and creates a new world with new lessons, and the whole thing repeats itself."
I chew on this as we walk. It strikes me as strangely plausible. We shuffle through dozens of people, lost in thought, lost in our own worlds, learning our own lessons as we go.

We are all the same person.

Dyadic Encounter

The prefix "dy-" means two, and encounter means a meeting. Two meeting.

"Let's bond," they told us. We were assigned partners, handed out lists of "conversation starters" and sent out into the field. My partner was sweet, slightly younger than I, and we sat across from each other bordering a patch of clovers. Absentmindedly and awkwardly, we both began plucking them from the ground, putting together sad little bouquets and avoiding eye contact.
Number 1: I am scared of... She chewed on her lip in a brief pause, and suddenly looked up at me. Her eyes locked on mine, caught in a sudden moment of clarity."Not being liked." I felt scared, shocked, suddenly uncomfortable and exposed, like this was too deep, too personal, too honest. What I'm scared of.

Afterwards, everyone gushed about their new best friends, having shared everything from birthdays to deep secrets. They talked about the meaning of life and everything in it. We scattered back into the dorms to change quickly. There, I paused, sitting on the edge of my bed, waiting behind as my roommate opened the door to leave.

"Did you talk about life?" My voice cut out through the thick silence. She paused.
"Yes. Did you?"
"No." I stumbled in uncertainty and took a deep breath. "I'm really bad at talking."
She turned, and put her bag down on a chair. She sat on the bed across from me. I don't know how, or why, but we talked, openly and honestly until time demanded that we leave, and even then, we shared stories, life, fears, beliefs, down the moonlit path.

At the social, there was Beatles music playing, milk, cookies, and board games. I was suddenly awash in homesickness, and comforted in a feeling of being at home in the same moment. I played Uno for the rest of the night, joking with the people that had finally started to feel like friends. That night belongs to us.

Premature

I don't know why this memory stuck with me.
When I was younger, much younger, I found a cicada, stuck to a tree, hatching out of its skin. It was caught in a dance of age and life. The shell it was leaving had been split down the middle, a break where soft new parts pushed through. I watched transfixed for a few moments, barely daring to breathe and disturb it. The new skin was shiny and promising, glittering in deep emeralds and browns, bursting from the cloudy, yellowing molting.
I remember lifting a stubby small hand, rising up on my tiptoes to come closer, and poking it. I withdrew quickly, briefly marveling at the steadfastness with which it stuck to the weathered bark. It felt stiff, so dead and so alive at the same time, and I was scared of it. It didn't move and neither did I, just the breeze rustled the uppermost branches of the tree, sending shadows and light scattering across me and my bug.
I breathed open mouthed, and I touched it again, longer this time. I pressed it between my childish fingers. Slowly, and painfully, I pulled it out, cracking off bits of shell,  ripping it in slow motion. Some of its legs tore, still caught in the half-shed skin.
I dropped it then, moderately disgusted, horrified, with a bit of childish satisfaction. Look at what I've done. I dropped it, and it fell to the ground, and lay as motionless as it had been.