Night Show

Last night a powerful and dramatic lightning storm passed through our area. I call it a lightning storm because the lightning was the most dominant feature of this storm. There was some thunder, wind, and rain as well, but nothing like the lightning. The master bedroom of our house is on the third floor in the back facing some trees and a field, providing an excellent view of the sky. We went to bed a little before 11pm and were kept awake by the flash, flash, flashing of the lightning. Finally, we got up and opened the curtains and just watched. The whole sky would turn a mauve color as the lightning brightened the sky. It was the kind that you couldn't see the individual bolts of lightning, but would make the whole sky flicker. Then the bolts started. Flicker, flicker, flicker--then FLASH! a bolt or two would slice down all the way to the ground. We watched for about an hour--it must have been a slow moving storm. There was still some bright flashing going on when we finally went to bed after the exciting show.

four sweet years today

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

~e.e. cummings

What is it really about?

This week the Senate is debating the Marriage Protection Amendment--one of the more controversial and anger inciting resolutions that has come before the Senate in recent memory. There are so many different things to say about the issue, so what I say here is by no means exhaustive.

What bothers me more than the angry opponents of this bill call it the "anti-gay amendment" and the supporters of this bill "homophobes" and "gay-bashers" is that often the supporters of the bill don't really know exactly what they are supporting or how to defend it. The opponents of the bill make it about sex. They don't want the government in their bedrooms--telling them who they can and cannot "love." They are calling Capitol Hill offices of conservative members harassing the receptionists with explicit questions about the member's sexual activities. The goal of this is to get the person on the phone to say, "That is none of your business" to which they will respond, "it isn't yours either."

But they miss the point. This bill isn't about sex. It isn't about what goes on in their bedrooms. Marriage is a fundamental social institution that creates the best family structure. The Marriage Amendment is not based on taking away a certain group of people's rights, but is about protecting what is the foundational building block of society. The government has the right to take action to protect the country's future citizens.

Redefining marriage changes the institution to the point of making it irrelevant.

Dr. Matthew Spalding said that: " Changing the definition of marriage--or even remaining neutral as to that definition--breaks down the very argument that gives marriage its unique and preferable status in society. If marriage becomes just one form of commitment in a spectrum of sexual relationships rather than a preferred monogamous relationship for the sake of children, the line separating sexual relations within and outside of marriage becomes blurred, and so does the public policy argument against out-of-wedlock births or in favor of abstinence."

Once the foundation is altered the whole society starts to crumble.