Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Swedenborg / creation

I'm reading a few pamphlets put out by the Swedenborgian church, and I have to say I'm charmed. There's something that feels unwholesome about the revere they have for this guy Emmanuel Swedenborg, but I'm probably just being cynical. He certainly did a lot of amazing things. He also seems to have some amazing spiritual insights. It's got me thinking about God and creation this time. My supervisor last week was asking about how I saw homosexuality fitting into "God's plan." I had a lot of roundabout ways of talking about it, because I had to resolve the question of "Does God have a plan?" (No....er, not exactly a plan, but an impulse, a desire toward love, authenticity, and relationships) and "Did God create Creation?" (No...er, not exactly, but the physical world is a part of God, so that God and the material world coexist and pre-exist....). Because if God had a plan and created Creation, then it runs into the problem of God causing suffering and evil. Which I don't buy. So do I believe that my gayness is a "gift from God"? No...er, not exactly....not in a special way. But being gay is a gift in its own way, just as all parts of myself are a gift. Just like sexuality itself is a gift. Just like anything powerful enough to be harmful and helpful. And part of our jobs as humans is to figure out how to be drawn toward love, relationships, joy, authenticity, and justice--using the powerful gifts we have. It's a little torturous, and I'm wondering if there's an easier way to go about it. Maybe I'm splitting hairs over words like "plan" and "creation."

Monday, April 14, 2008

Stop Loss

We (and another friend, Ken (see his flickr account under khugokim)) went to see Stop Loss on Saturday. It was a hard movie to watch. It was a well-done movie, but deeper than that, I connected the very real stories and emotions to what I've seen at the VA. The director quoted scenes from The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, and Born on the Fourth of July, reminding us that we are are another generation who must care for our returning veterans, and warning us not to make the same mistakes of our parents' generation. And you know, I thought In the Valley of Elah was a damn good movie. I didn't see any of the other ones. Elah captured something horrific (and frankly, the best stories I saw in it were the harassment faced by the female detective, and the side story about the wife who complained about her dog being abused. What I took from this movie was that young men and women are deeply injured by what happens in war. But Stop Loss, I think, captures an everyday truth that Elah did not.
Yes, I cried.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

100%


This weekend, we went on a trip to Mt. Tam, north of San Francisco. We stayed at the West Point Inn, which required backpacking in, and got a cabin with crazy views. During an afternoon hike to the peak of Mt. Tam, I proposed to him (completing the remaining 25% of our engagement). This is a photo that another hiker took of us. Notice that to our left is the Pacific Ocean, and to our right is the San Francisco Bay. Behind us is the peninsula of San Francisco.