Thoughts on Gay Marriage

As many of you likely know, over the past few days, there has been a lot of hubbub about the Supreme Court's hearings on 'gay marriage' cases, one of them centering around California's highly-controversial Proposition 8 and the other addressing the equally-contested Defense of Marriage Act. You've likely seen a lot Facebook profile pictures changed to the red and pink equals sign over the past day or so, and you'll likely see a lot of heated arguments-- I use that word intentionally in favor of 'discussions'-- on social media platforms over the next while.

I wanted to do an overview of some of the rights that LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) activists are seeking, and I'll add my thoughts on each as I go. Then, once I'm done with that, I'll blah-blah for a little while about what's going on between my ears in terms of the question in general. If you stay for nothing else, at least skip to the end and read the last three or four paragraphs worth of closing commentary. I get less long-winded as I write, so you have a better chance of it being short-ish.  :)

 I think it's important to define what we're really talking about here, because the different sides spend so much time bickering and arguing over what means what that everyone's too tired to listen to what anyone is actually saying. So the following list will cover rights that are currently denied gay couples seeking legal recognition for their long-term, committed relationships (comparable to what traditional marriage supporters would call "marriage"). This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive list, and also, I'm not going to use the 'M' word, because I think to really understand this debate from a legal point of view, we have to set marriage aside and look at the issues. I'll come back to marriage and all that later, though.

Magic, Monasteries, and Maslenitsa

The past while has been quite the adventure: that is for sure. I guess the highlight of the last month or

so has been Maslenitsa, but I'll save that for the end. My life over the past two weeks has been dominated by work and translation, and that's been good, I guess, but I am glad to have today as a break from it all. I decided to take my honors thesis in a new direction, so I'm now translating and analyzing Russian verbal charms, which has been a lot of fun. My analysis is based on the confluence of Christianity and paganism within these spells, which will likely be pretty apparent to you in the short charm that follows:

94. Charm against bleeding
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. There is a sea-ocean, from the sea-ocean rides out a man so old, the steed beneath him brownish-gold, but thou, blood, stop for all time. For ever and ever. Amen.

Anyway, so that's that. It's been super interesting and super difficult at times, because a lot of the terms and ideas are pretty old. The texts themselves are from the 17th century, and I would say that I know only about half to two-thirds of the words. For the rest I spend forever guessing roots and modern variants and then looking them up in one of four or five dictionaries, both print and electronic. I've had some good success so far, though, and it's honestly been a lot of fun. I like the old, magic-esque quality that they all have. It seems right up my alley in terms of interests.

hospital bed

HOSPITAL BED

for no one really understands

the Loneliness of Death,

the Sorrow that ensues within 

those last few moments' breath.

and no one truly comprehends

the Pain of true Regret, 

the moments you would fain relive 

and words you can't forget.

One of the things that I love most about writing is it's an opportunity to develop empathy. In order to create characters, plots, or dialogues that are at all realistic, you have to frequently leave your own life, your own experiences, and drown yourself in the thoughts and sorrows and aspirations of people from all different age groups and walks of life.

"Strive"

Wade

Through the shadows of yourself,

Through the caverns of your confusion

And the dark night 

Of your doubts and fears.

Wander

Through the wonders of reflection

Through the thoughts of yesterday,

Of time long past and yet 

So here, and now.

Wait

Upon the quiet hope 

Of memories yet unarrived–

Upon the daring of a moment, 

And the hope of today,

Of a thousand summery tomorrows.

"pity these hands," à la e.e. cummings

pity these hands,

gnarled and crippled

that never ached

to bring another aid,

that never sweated

in the cupped palms of a lover

and grew wrinkled, old,

alone.

pity that heart,

battered and befuddled,

deprived of love

by love once lost,

that never knew mankind

nor humanity–

that heart

that ticked and tocked

for want of other occupation

and then, gears grown thirsty

and beset by rust,

one day

stopped.

The Googlot

We never had a Googlot in the village, but we learned about them at Wikademy. Mom said that if she got some more clients, we could consider buying one, but I knew that there would never be enough clients in our small town, so I built my own. It wasn't long, I guess, before the CR showed up and took it away, but by then, we were already so used to it that I didn't see any way of living without one. So, when I saw one standing at a Magna-rail stop one day, I woke it up and grabbed its hand and led it quickly to the blink gate in the McDonalds by the depot. Bush! Mom was mad when she figured out what I had done, but when I told her that the neighbor had taken a look at it and wiped it clean, she calmed down a bit and even started to smile a little. I think she had really always wanted one, but she had grown up around laptops and clear-boards, so she still wasn't really used to any of the newer Applied Ingenuity software. I mean, they had robots and stuff back when she was a kid, but it was like they weren't even alive. They couldn't think or carry on a real conversation or anything. They just kind of sat there and repeated programmed phrases or fulfilled repetitive tasks, and they were always breaking down or having to recharge. That was before Takashi and Sandhi came up with Rejoints and Plaskin-- I just can't believe they used ball bearings for so long or that they were able to work when every screen had scratches all over it. Bush... Doesn't make sense at all...

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Also, for those of you interested in gaming, 3D graphics, and/or artificial intelligence, this is an interesting video. There is one swear word and an animated female android who is never fully naked but is pretty close to it (privates and breast covered up though). Anyway, a really interesting look into potential issues in the future of artificial intelligence.

To Peter and Back Again

That is, in fact, a monkey in a sweater.

We arrived in St. Petersburg (henceforth, Peter, as it is referred to in Russian) on Thursday after a rather enjoyable train ride where all the Russians stared at the loud Americans for seven hours straight. We, of course, felt very flattered that others thought us so fascinating as to pay so much attention to us. We were supposed to stay at a hostel that night, which, if we had been in Western Europe, would have meant we spent the night with a bunch of backpackers, young tourists, and generally interesting people. Unfortunately, Peter didn't get the memo or something, because we walked in and it was fully of forty-five-year-old ex-cons in wife-beaters. We had joked before arriving that we would end up in some hole-in-the-wall place, one where there's a creepy guy in the corner who just stares at you and doesn't ever say a word. We coined the phrase "Kyrgyzstanian in the corner" based on its alliterative quality rather than as any statement about Kyrgyzstanians, who are some of the nicest people ever. Anyway, we didn't exactly have the "Kyrg in the corner" in mind when we got there, but it soon became much more relevant. Most of our new ex-con friends were pretty inebriated and didn't give us much of a problem, but there was one excessively friendly one who insisted on telling us that the Kyrgyzstanian in the other room had stabbed someone the week before, and the Kyrgyzstanian in the other room insisted on yelling at us. So, we decided that there wasn't reason to find out whether the rumor about the "knife fight" (as the friendly one put it) was true and ventured out to find somewhere else to stay.