Thursday, January 21, 2010

The Weather and My Mood

It is mid-morning and yet it is so dark outside right now that you'd think this was almost 10pm vs. almost 10am.
There is rain pounding on the rooftop and windows, and a lightening bolt flashed in the backyard with a crack so loud that it shook the house.
This weather matches my mood.
I woke up this morning and did my daily routine of preparing fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice and coffee and making myself some toast. I checked a few things online and then went into doing the Daily Office. The psalm assigned for this morning is Ps. 37 1-18, which begins:

Do not fret because of the wicked;
do not be envious of wrongdoers,
for they will soon fade like the grass,
and wither like the green herb.--Ps. 37:1-2

It seems that when there is a psalm assigned that starts this way, and the words catch my attention, it's because these are going to be the words I will need. And indeed I do. Because upon finishing the Daily Office, and remembering that the love of God, the grace of Jesus and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is with us for evermore, I perused Facebook... and encountered 'the world'. In this case, the article announcing that in my home state of New Hampshire, the fight has begun to repeal the gay marriage law recently put in place.

Three weeks after the state legalized gay marriage, opponents on Wednesday asked a House committee to repeal the law.

“I’m here today about Adam and Eve,” state Rep. Alfred Baldasaro testified at a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

Baldasaro, a Londonderry Republican and prime sponsor of legislation to repeal the law, and other gay marriage opponents argued the unions defy nature.

“A man and a woman together create a family where individuals of the same gender cannot create a family,” said state Rep. Jordan Ulery, a Republican from Hudson. (Washington Post via gayagenda.com)
Naturally, gay members of the legislature, and other LGBT people, countered these arguments. But the opponents not only want to repeal the marriage law. Emboldened (I suppose) by the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts, they want to repeal the civil union law as well. People watching this process in New Hampshire say these proposals are going nowhere. But the "nay-gay-sayers" are hoping to set the stage for a Republican take over of the state legislature, and get the laws repealed next year.

And so, I look out my window as the sky grows darker...

Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him;
do not fret over those who prosper in their way,
over those who carry out evil devices.
Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath.
Do not fret—it leads only to evil.
For the wicked shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.--Ps. 37: 7-9

I know these verses are being read by the Baldasaro's and the Ulery's of the world as well as by the me's. But I have to wonder how what the me's do, and who we marry, has any bearing on the Baldasaro's and Ulery's of the world? Why the anger? Why the wrath?

Another lightening flash. We are now under a severe thunderstorm and tornado warning.

The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows
to bring down the poor and needy,
to kill those who walk uprightly;
their sword shall enter their own heart,
and their bows shall be broken.
Better is a little that the righteous person has
than the abundance of many wicked.--Ps. 37:14-16


The LGBT community is a minority, and we will not be able to defeat an attempt to repeal these laws in my native home without the help of people who are in the majority. And yet, it seems that folks who are our supporters in the 'mainstream' don't see the pressing need to get out in the streets and fight with us. This is how we have lost the fight in Maine, in California, in New York and in New Jersey. It is not a given, in my mind, that voters in New Hampshire will "do the right thing" if this is put on the ballot.

The Lord knows the days of the blameless,
and their heritage will abide for ever;--Ps. 37:18

I have to seek shelter from the storm... figuratively, and literally.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I don't want you to go completely down over this. The annual meeting of PFLAG is at the end of the month and I am sure we are all going to be told to contact our Reps and our State Senator is not going to let this happen. I read the Psalm too and thought of all the crap that is going around including the loss of Ted Kennedy's seat, but that's another story.

Be brave, honey.

Peggins