Winter Wonderland

Usually I am a rather conservative person when it comes to weather. Though I think that snow is pretty awesome, I don't remember being fearless driving in it since I was in graduate school and living in Boston. I had Ravishing Ruby The Truckstop Child at the time, a beautiful red Subaru, who could traverse nasty Boston Slush, Blizzards on Interstates or in town, and take crazy night trips with friends when you literally couldn't see anything in front of you. Ruby was a good girl, and I miss her. When our first Christmas at our cabin in Boone in 1998 was marked with a wild snow/ice/snow/ice storm and we spun around backwards with the Suburban filled with dad, Katrina, Allison, Julia, two golden retrievers and a cat, I knew that I didn't want to drive in this weather again if possible.

So here I am, nearly 61, and my youthful husband greets me this morning with a hearty, "Well, last night's storm was crappy, let's see if we can get to Boone." I was not enthusiastic for an hour or so, but then joined in the delight. Sadly, we don't have a Suburban anymore, nor do I think I can ride in the Subaru for 4 hours, but, we hopped in the Toyota (without kitty) and made the trek. All was well until we hit Wilkesboro where plowing seemed to have bogged down. Still, the roads were pretty clear until we started up the road that leads to our house. And when we came through Mr. Brooks house, I was definitely worried. This was a good worry as we only drove past the first side road and were stuck. Fortunately for us, Brooks' son was plowing, and after he drove past us, we were able to manage to slide our way up as far as the switchback.


So here we are with a beautiful afternoon, evening, and walk around the neighborhood. WNCW is playing beautiful bluegrass Christmas music, and there is the possibility of 4 more inches of snow tonight. If we get snowed in???? Oh well as far as I am concerned. Kitty has plenty of food, water, and warm blankets all around her, so we will be just fine in the "hills of Caroline".

Uganda's Proposed New Laws

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/nation_world/story/231756.html

I promise that Purina Chow was not recruiting my children. They did want him to come to their birthday party, but mostly they just love him. They think about how he shaped their growing up lives by being fun, honest, and helpful and loving them back. What a wonderful experience for them. They won't forget it.

Brutal anti-gay laws proposed in Uganda

I really don’t want to write more horrified sad blogs, but it seems that the world just won’t cooperate. This morning, in the middle of a terrific thunderstorm (snow in 10 days?) I read that Uganda is proposing passing laws that could actually impose the death penalty for persons who were homosexual, and that the backing for these laws is coming from Christian Conservatives. Families who support their children can be beaten, evicted, and fired from their jobs. (Of course the gays and lesbians who are “out” automatically are evicted and fired presumably before being put to death.

As it turns out, this isn’t the only country where automatically gays and lesbians are presumed to be “recruiting children”, as if that would actually happen. Africa might seem to be a leader in this propaganda against gays and lesbians, but when you look deeper, you see colonialism alive and well and “Christianity” seems to be at the root. This type of Christianity which justifies murder just seems like a foreign concept. Would Jesus justify murder under any circumstances? I cannot imagine it. And I feel like years and years of working with gay men and lesbians, and trying to help them “come out of the closet” so that they can FEEL normal and not ashamed is swirling ever more quickly down the drain.

As for AIDS prevention and treatment, this attitude towards homosexuality simply squashes prevention efforts as they speak only towards one population. Just trying to include prevention work for men who have sex with men in an environment where this act could confer death, is impossible.

Our world is a scary place, and the agenda of the conservative Christian leaders only makes it scarier.

What would Jesus do?