Secret Invasion

If we lived in the Marvel universe on Eath-616, we would've been in trouble over the weekend. Why? Because Michael Jackson passed

We successfully diverted ourselves, we focused our attention on his death. He was an icon, 'The King of Pop', and that means a lot to Americans and the world. But, especially right now, we should be focused on the economy, on energy and health and the changing world. Still, we let an icon's death keep us from focusing on things that truly matter.

If we lived in the Marvel universe, the Skrulls, interstellar changelings, could have easily invaded without even trying. MJ's death should mean a lot to his family and friends. While he became a symbol of a lot of things, we still should not have let a celebrity's death keep us from focusing on important things. Somethig, anything could have happened while our guard was down. We beef up security, we change to oppressive foreign policies, yet we let the death of a famous musician distract us. I don't think people realize this, but we are in bad shape by more than the way of economics and health care. We focus so much on trivial things yet expect problems to be fixed.

Death, anyone's death, is tragic and I mourn the loss of any life, but by our mere existence we prove that life goes on, do we not? Then we should act like it. If John Mayer, my favorite artist, died tomorrow I would honestly grieve, but I would not let that distract me from what I should be doing.

Watch the skies.

Still Scared

There are many reasons we fear we may lose the love of those closest to us. Being gay does not help in quieting those concerns because we risk losing the love of those who birthed us, who physically created us.

Yesterday, I had a talk with my father about my being gay (via txt, which I find comical). We reached the same conclusion. I mentioned it was unfair to want me to change and he said it was unfair that his only son is gay. There are a lot of things that are unfair though. It is unfair for me to be forced to comply with certain standards, to have to male others happy by changing. It is unfair for my father's 'name' to not be truly passed on.

What I think a lot of parents may not understand is that we have a lot to lose too. We never forget that we may not have biological children or children at all. We know that being gay may disappoint your or hurt you. We also know you may turn us away.

But why ask us to change? Why try to make us make you happy knowing that we will be unhappy in the end?

Times are changing. One day, no one will have to have this discussion and it will be wonderful. My parents don't know my real beliefs, that I have doubts, that I think some parts of the bible are fundamentally wrong and we do ourselves a great disservice by seeing it as unerring. Maybe they should.