Email  Print

On love and acceptance

 

As the LGBT community continues to struggle for equality recently I experienced a beautiful evening with some locals from our community who invited a group of friends (mostly gay) over to meet their granddaughter. Granddaughter you say, what is this all about? 

Well to make a long story short and without mentioning any names, I do have friends, as many of us do in the gay community, who at one time led a straight existence, got married and had children. Then at some point the feelings that were deeply hidden came to the surface and they finally came out, realizing that they were gay.

When this happens many lives are affected and there is much hurt and blame that goes on. But this is a different story. In this case my friend’s families actually remained friends and in each other’s lives, raising their children and now bringing a beautiful grandchild into the mix. Not to say there weren’t challenging times, but above all there was love and respect.

Watching this family interact with each other was inspirational. Three generations celebrating there lives and loves for and with each other. When there is love, we can rise above all else.

The next day, on the recommendation of Oprah (and who doesn’t listen to Oprah?!) I went to see the film, “I Am” at the Sebastiani. A thought provoking documentary that asks two specific questions: what is wrong with our world and what can we do about it?

Although the film did not include any gay themes (which is okay) it did make me look at the current struggles of our community, for the answers to the questions asked were in some ways quite simple. One is that we truly are all connected and that we are all wired to cooperate with each other.

As Desmond Tutu said, “We are because we belong” and when there is true love for each other we can truly care about each other. “A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge,” said Thomas Carlyle. There are many beautiful quotes from amazing people in our history that made me think how peaceful this world could be if we would only listen to the words of wisdom of so many.