Sans the 8 of course, lets leave them out of this.
I’ve been watching this silly parade unfold for months now. John is screwing the babysitter. Kate is a maniac. John is a bad dad. Kate’s hair looks funny. John is getting fat. Kate’s hair still looks funny. John doesn’t get to see his kids. Kate’s bipolar. John stole all the money. Kate has really bad hair, still. OMG.
When is this going to end? Kate is now upset because the kids are acting out. NO FUCKING SHIT! Your husband is on television trashing you while you’re doing the same. Are we surprised the kids might not be adjusting well. Not to mention children shouldn’t have their lives taped for television. Which brings me to my point.
Can we stop watching this crap now? I’m not completely opposed to all reality television but there is definitely a line and we have crossed it. So to John and Kate, get over it and raise your kids. To America, pay attention to something that matters. To the media, go back to covering news.
Today I officially joined a church. This is the first time in my adult life that I’ve actually called a specific place of worship “my church.” More significantly, I officially joined the United Methodist Church, thus formally breaking ties with the Roman Catholic Church. Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t considered myself a practicing Catholic in about 8 years. However, I felt it was time that I actually become a part of something again, which meant I had to “leave” my roots behind. Well sort of.
Nine years ago this past August, I began coming out to my friends and family. It wasn’t until I this point that I was even comfortable beginning to question whether my faith and sexuality could coexist. Actually, I wasn’t even sure that I wanted them to for a very long time. Growing up in the Catholic Church is something that was very normal for my family; something that always seemed unchangeable or at very least something I’d always have to tolerate. But as I began to gain confidence in my life, I realized that a relationship with God (though still present) was something that needed to be central to my life again. After I moved to Chicago, I started experimenting with different churches. All of these churches were, of course, open and affirming of LGBT individuals. This was crucial to my search as you might understand. For years, I was left discouraged at the possibility of finding a church to call my own. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to stop going to Catholic mass, so I sought out a few Catholic churches that were in diverse and liberal areas of Chicago. My opinion changed dramatically last summer.
The Catholic Church, as well as the Mormon Church, funded the fight against marriage equality in California. The Knights of Columbus donated millions to write discrimination into the California Constitution. When Proposition 8 passed, I knew that it meant the end of my Catholicism (though already tattered and broken). Religious institutions funding politically divisive campaigns instead of feeding the hungry, to this day, makes absolutely no sense to me. I knew at this point what I was looking for.
In February of this year, I stumbled on a small little church in West Lincoln Park, Chicago called Holy Covenant United Methodist Church. I remember being terrified the day I went but also feeling extremely safe as the subject of the sermon that day was homosexuality. I stood outside waiting for my friend Jason and when it became apparent he was running late, I sacrificed my nerves for the heat. I was immediately welcomed by a nice couple who overwhelmed me with their questions and told me everything they could in two minutes about this church. I was frightened and terrified and awkwardly watching the door for Jason. He finally arrived and we were able to sit down near the back of the sanctuary. I can’t tell you a ton about the sermon but I can tell you this: in the first few minutes I knew I was home.
Over the next few months I continued to go to Holy Covenant and grew more confident in my choice to be a part of this community. I researched what it meant to be Methodist and realized that this denomination was more inline with how I saw the world. The call for social justice, network of reconciling ministries that reached out to the LGBT community and the expectation for using reasoning and experience when approaching the scripture were exactly what I was looking for. This was it. Today I took the final step and did something that I’ve never done as an adult. I joined a church.
The process also gave me peace with regards to my Catholic upbringing. While the Catholic church is no longer for me, I understand my families need to preserve those traditions. If they have reconciled their beliefs with the greater church, than more power to them. In the end, where you worship and how you worship don’t really matter. If organized religion or congregational worship isn’t your thing, that doesn’t mean faith and love are absent in your life. I know many people with a strong relationship with God who rarely go to church. In the end, I need to go. It makes me feel better, inspires me and helps me clear the fog from my head. It helps me become close to God and focus on the ways I can better walk with Christ while alive on this planet. I need it, plain and simple…and I found it.
It took years to get to this point, but it is well.
This is an odd choice for this week’s ditty, but I can’t stop listening to this song. My friend Beth is personal friends of two aspiring country singers who recently won a contest on CMT called Can You Duet. One of their performances is a video I can’t stop watching. During one week the couple, named Steel Magnolia, covered Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s I Need You. I’m actually not a huge fan of the original, but this cover is completely amazing. Look out for these two!
Lou Dobbs, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Kristol and a ton of other conservatives out there are tools. In fact, put them all together and you’ll get the biggest toolbox I’ve ever seen. The partisan reaction to Chicago not getting the Olympics last week was repugnant and grotesque. Don’t get me wrong, I had issues with Chicago hosting the Olympics for many reasons and was evenly split down the middle on this. But the reaction by most conservatives said more about the state of the GOP than anything else in recent years.
Many of the jumped on Obama for going to Coopenhagen to show his support and address the IOC. He was gone for a day and also met with Gen. McChrystal on the plane (it’s called multi-tasking). Obama joined the other heads of state in lobbying for their countries, yet somehow his was all about “ego.” It’s ridiculous. President Bush was on vacation for 1/3 of his presidency and we’re screaming about Obama taking a trip to lobby for something that might be beneficial to the country?
If it might be bad for the President, they’re against it…even if it’s good for America. This goes for a ton of other things as well (healthcare). I’m so sick of these hacks.
I waited patiently for the Lord;
he turned to me and heard my cry
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
Psalm 40: 1-2
This morning I attended the U2 Eucharist at Holy Covenant United Methodist Church in Chicago, IL. A U2 Eucharist (a little history here) is a church service in which the music of U2 replaces hymns. Holy Covenant choose quite a few of my favorites to incorporate today, but “40″ really touched me this morning. It’s a song that I haven’t listened to in a while, but being a pretty big U2 fan was very familiar with. When thinking about a journey of faith, this song makes a lot of sense. Inspired by Psalm 40, the first passages (listed above) truly do speak to my most recent journey. A journey of faith, or a resurrection of a sleeping faith, and a journey back to church.
The U2 Eucharist was extremely inspiring today. Not only did I remember how much I love the music of U2, but I felt called to contribute more of my time toward causes that are dear and important to me. Bono seems to have become the face of philanthropy. Criticism has been plentifully directed at Bono over the years. Many see his endless face in the news as a sign of narcissim. Many feel he could be giving more money to his charities (Oprah has experienced the same criticisms). But you can not deny that Bono is attempting to bring justice to this world. Say what you want about his music or aspects of his character, but denying his contributions is silly. He inspires me to take part in global fights and to contribute in whatever ways I can in my home town. I have done, and intend to continue to do, those very things.
Many of you in my life have known that I’ve been going regularly to Holy Covenant, after years of not participating actively in a church of any kind. Holy Covenant is a place and a church that I now call home. I’ll be officially joining October 18th. It’s the first church I have joined as an adult and the first I’ve been actively involved in since the Catholic Church I was raised in. Having a community to call my own is something I didn’t realize I missed until it was felt again. I’m hoping that whatever your belief system, political views, gender, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, socio-economic background or location, you find a firm place to stand on.
PS: This post was a bit disjointed but i was anxious to get back in the game. Sorry for the hiatus…I hope to be better.
I recently saw Jason Mraz live in concert (review to follow) and was thoroughly entertained. It was nice to hear most of his new album live and gave me a new appreciation for a few songs that I didn’t originally get into. One of them is, A Beautiful Mess, which he sings live in the video above. I really can’t stop listening to this one.
Last month one of my favorites, Chris Garneau, released a new album entitled El Radio. Having fell in love with his first album, Music For Tourists, I was cautiously optimistic with this release. If you’re a Garneau fan, you’ll love this album. He returns with the same delicate and whispery vocals combined with simple piano melodies that made his first album so great. He experiments with a few different instruments on this album and also includes a few tracks with some pep. I think he’s completely brilliant and also incredibly adorable. If you like his other stuff than definitely pick up El Radio. The above video is Hands on the Radio shot live in Austria.
1. I’ve been drunk
2. I’ve been too busy riding my bike and working on my rocking ass
3. Perfecting the art of bangin hair
4. I’ve been watching seasons 1 and 2 of Dexter
5. My membership to MLB TV gives me the ability to watch every Tigers game.
6. Danishes
7. I’m still hungover from my birthday
8. Sandwiches
9. Spending time with my CPAP machine, “big pappy”
10. I’m still trying to change my answers to the Facebook quiz “Which Harry Potter guy would you end up with?” so that the result is Seamus Finnigan and not Cedric Diggory.
11. Chris Garneau’s new album
12. I’ve been too busy negotiating Paula Abdul’s now-failed Idol contract.
13. Reading the slow gin fizz.
14. Researching hair products to further myself in the bangin hair campaign.
15. Eating Cherries.
If you’re like me, you’ve been waiting for Maxwell to come out with some new music for years. It’s been 8 years since he released Now, but Maxwell is back! Yesterday he released BLACKsummers’night, part one of a trilogy of albums set to be released over the next few years. I grabbed it right away and am definitely back in love with his smooth hotness. He’s lost a lot of hair, much to my dismay, but he’s still got it. Here’s a performance of his debut single, Pretty Wings, from the BET Awards. Check out the entire album, it’s fantastic!
Sigh. Apparently Governors aren’t supposed to have thick skin. Governor Palin could have walked away from the campaign and continued to govern her state instead of quitting. I understand the stress that last fall has caused, but this is politics and a leader needs to be tough. She isn’t a fighter, she’s a hypocritical coward. Hopefully she stops milking the media now…you know, the media that she hates so much.
Take off the fishing gear in an interview you tool.
