His first car. Our son bought his first car on Saturday morning. It's a 2000 Mercury Cougar, bright yellow, all leather interior with a 6-CD changer and he got an amazing deal on it. This was the car I took a picture of last week and brought to him. That day, he took it to the BMV and got a registration and plates, got a new battery and two new tires, and we haven't seen him since. Okay, that's not precisely true, but it certainly feels like it. He's been shopping, picked up a 'friend who is a girl' and went to a movie, took his brother to work, visited his grandparents, went to church and youth group, and who knows where else. I'm happy to report that I will not have to wake up early this week to take him to work. Nor ever again, now that it occurs to me...
I'm not sure whether to celebrate or sob. I'll get back to you on that one.
In other events, we rented a couple of movies this weekend. "Inception" with Leonardo DiCaprio was pretty good, albeit a little longer than it needed to be. "The Kids Are All Right" was much, much better in my estimation. Julianne Moore and Annette Bening made a perfect couple, and the story was very believable. It led me to articulate a little better something that's been bothering me.
Though I consider myself a Christian, I rarely listen to Christian radio and I despise Christian news in particular. More often than not, it is judgmental in nature and attacks people who are pro-choice and people who are homosexual. I'm especially avoiding these stations this week because I have no desire to hear what they have to say about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" being repealed. One of the major things that bothers me is that they have some sort of fear that, if gays are allowed to marry, they take this as some kind of a threat to the definition of family. How can this be true, in any way, shape or form? The divorce rate overall hovers around 50% and the divorce rate among couples who consider themselves Christian also hovers around 50%. How can it enhance family values to prohibit these men and women from sharing in the benefits that other married couples have available to them? How can it detract from family values to allow them to adopt children, to provide a loving and caring home for a child who would otherwise be left without parents? How often do straight couples become foster families for children only to abuse and harm them further? And perhaps what upsets me the most is, even if these people consider homosexuality a sin, how can they in good conscience judge or condemn others when they themselves are sinners as well? The bible clearly states that all have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), so what gives them the right to attempt to legislate against what they consider the sins of others when they are themselves free to sin in their own way? How is their sin all right and the sins of others damnable? (Take this all with a grain of salt, please, because not all Christians feel that homosexuality is a sin, or that homosexuals are going to Hell. I certainly don't feel that way.)
The whole "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy angered me from the moment I first heard the expression. We're saying, "it's totally fine for you to fight for your country, to defend our freedom, to put yourself in danger, to risk your life for all of us - but it's not okay for you to be completely honest with us about your sexuality because that makes us uncomfortable"? Really? And what honor those must have to serve under those circumstances! They are so dedicated that even though their country is telling them they're basically second-class citizens for being homosexual, they simply hide it and fight for the rest of us anyhow!
The entire premise of Christianity is to emulate Christ. To be servants. To love others. To give and forgive. How is this message being passed along if the first thing people think of when they think of Christians is that superior, holier-than-thou attitude? It angers me that I feel like I have to apologize for other Christians. I do plenty of apologizing for my own mistakes, but it upsets me that these people are giving the rest of us a bad name. It upsets me so much that I wrote an entire book about it. Hopefully I'll get it online at the beginning of the new year.
I'm still reading "From Dead to Worse", the next Sookie book. It's all right. The maddening pattern of Sookie being in a relationship with someone and that person randomly disappearing for an entire book is sort of becoming redundant. I kind of hope Quinn doesn't come back, though. I don't dislike him, I just don't care about him. If I don't care about a character, they need to die. In books, you know. Not real life.
Time to listen to football while I read. Back to work tomorrow... couple more small things to buy for Christmas for the kids, and then I'll be ready for the holiday!
SJS
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