Saturday, May 30, 2009

I <3 <3 Gay Marriage

So with the hoopla of Prop 8 withstanding but still letting those 18,000 people that married keep their license, there have been a ton of "experts" and people on CNN stating their side. One of those such instances was:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR1_dwKkMhc
(esp. notice around 11:00 mark)

Bible says: marriage is one man, one woman
Bible also condemns eating shrimp and lobster together and wearing material woven of two kinds of material.

Dr. Jim Garlow in the interview says that the above are only in particular occasions and are not consistent throughout the Bible EXCEPT that marriage and procreation are only between men and women.

And then it dawned on me: I understand!!

The minister in the clip talks about that those particular things, shrimp & lobster, cloths of dissimilar materials and homosexual relationships, in relation to when the bible was written. When the was written or transcribed or what have you, the purpose of marriage was to procreate. It is obvious that gay relationships will not naturally be able to procreate therefore, they were condemned. Now however, we are in a time of great surpluses of children that are abandoned and left in foster homes until their 18th birthdays. The purpose of the bible was to establish laws and ways of life that were in keeping with God's wishes at that time. Some things clearly are meant to be life long codes of conduct but perhaps we need to understand that the bible, taken word for word, will not always fit into the lives of the 21st century. If read exactly for word, we would all be sinners.

"There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers."
-Proverbs 6:16-19

"There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins."
-Ecclesiastes 7:20

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Hebrews 13:4

The main argument after that of the Bible is that gay marriage will ruin the sanctity of marriage. I have to laugh at that because a majority of the gay relationships that are wanting marriage have been together for years and want exactly what marriage entails: living together, being recognized by the law, starting a family and rights that are entitled to those who are heterosexually married. One of the people on the clip above talk about how families have to have a father and a mother, a husband and wife. I immediately think about the millions of children that are striving within a gay household and all of the single mothers out there. From all of my friends, I would say about 85% of them grew up in a single parent home, particularly a single mother home. We all seem to have grown up just fine and yet the people that are pushing so hard for the sanctity of marriage never notice that we have over a 50% divorce rate and that the majority of children grow up without both parents in the household. When can we look at ourselves and see that we are all alike? We are only striving for making the world a better place for the children, not just ourselves.

It sounds bumbled and mixed up but I can understand why people supporting the Bible as reasons against homosexuality do so but then they do not take into considerations the current age in which we live. We are a society that is ever changing and just like civil rights and ending slavery, we will eventually accept gay marriage as another aspect of American society.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Jon & Kate Plus Eight

Yesterday was the season premiere of the new season of "Jon and Kate Plus Eight." It was HIGHLY promoted and pulled in almost 10 million viewers. I guess it shows that we want to see the truth behind the tabloid magazines and this is one of those rare occasions were we get to see it. We can't see the truth behind Michael Jackson's nose or Lindsay Lohan's alcoholism but here, we can see exactly what the truth is from the people themselves.
On one hand: I feel bad for the entire family. Yes, they wanted a reality show to document their lives and in that have created a media extravaganza around them. I think it is sad that everyone is picking on Kate and calling her things like "bitch" and "monster" because I think she is only that way in order to make sure her family is taken care of. She is OCD, controlling and a perfectionist even though she says she is not perfect, no one is. She has become a control-hungry person who has created a career off her children and family lives. If that is a good decision, I am still undecided. The family is able to afford everything they need, experience anything they would ever want to and the parents are able to have more flexibility with work. The downside is that Jon wants to work.
On the other hand: These people are in the most stressful situations possible. They are criticized by the mass majority while still trying to provide a normal life for their children and hold up their end of the show contract. They have to keep it interesting and keep up the grins. The episode last night showed that Jon was so constricted by the life that he has that he is worn out and completely shut down. He was talkative yet somber on his own but when he and Kate were on the couch together, he mumbled and kept his eyes low. It was sad to see how beaten down he had become. I have watched tons of episodes and it seems as though Kate affects his self-esteem in every way possible while he is there only for support and to have fun with his kids. I think that part of us all want to rescue Jon.

Anyways, that is my little opinion on the enormity that is this show. I watch it because I love the dynamics of the children between each other and how the parents handle having so many children. I feel bad watching now with all that is going on and I may just have to replace it with Tori & Dean on the Oxygen network.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Waitress

Jenna: Cal, are you happy? I mean, when you call yourself a happy man, do you really mean it?
Cal: You ask a serious question, I'll give you a serious answer: Happy enough. I don't expect much. I don't get much, I don't give much. I generally enjoy whatever comes along. That's my answer for you, summed up for your feminine consideration. I'm happy enough.
---http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473308/quotes

The part in bold is the thing that seems to not only stick out to me but also frightens me. That is me in my current position in life. I don't expect a whole lot from people any more, I don't have many people around me any more and I also know that I am not putting much out there in the universe. I am doing the minimum to get by, I feel that people are far, far away and then again, I know I should and can be giving so much more.

My view is that I am on the downhill slide of my Corvallis life. This life that I knew would end so I could always look forward to it. I didn't care about making friends here because I was only here to finish school, which I still feel okay about. Now I have to return to my former life of Portland and see if there is A) Anything even left to come back to B) What I can make of myself. I could be thinking about all of these changes in the wrong context but then again, Portland is becoming my light at the end of the tunnel.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

In the beginning....

There was time, space and the everlasting need to find happiness. In the end, we find happiness, sadness, truth, lies and everything in between. Perhaps the true happiness is the journey, not where we are at the end.