Monday, August 13, 2012

All Geared Up




All geared up and ready to go!

As we speak, Astrid and I are packing for our annual trip westward over the Big Pond next week.  We’ll land first in Michigan for my favorite nephew’s wedding on The Farm, after which we’ll fly to Atlanta to be with my kids, grandson and friends the following 2 weeks.

Without belaboring the point, some of you know my conservative, fundamentalist, Christian, preacher-father family history.  However, in the same kind of way I usually do NOT like to use the gay/lesbian/homosexual words to describe myself, I do NOT like calling myself a Christian, even though I mostly am.  I just don’t like the negative definitions and interpretations that have nothing to do with either.  I’m a lesbian, but…not like that.  I’m a Christian, but…not like that.  And no, it’s not an oxymoron.

Which brings me to dancing at the wedding.  Astrid and I have a daily practice of dancing which is very important to us both.  However, knowing this could be a touchy situation for many in the family (for whom dancing is still relatively new), I wrote Peter to ask his honest druthers about our dancing at his wedding.  This isn’t about us but about him, I said.  Luckily, he generously replied that he and Andrea would be offended if we didn’t!  In fact, her sister will be bringing her girlfriend and plan to dance the night away.

Did I mention this will be the first time most of my extended family will finally meet Astrid (after our 5 years of knowing each other this month)?!  Astrid takes it all in stride.  She doesn’t care if they like and accept her or not.  She is who she is, she says.  Take it or leave it.

I wish I could be so…tame.

Which brings me to the absentee ballot I’ll fill out in Atlanta for the November election.  Who do you think will quicker facilitate Astrid moving back to America with me as my wife?!  As she prepares to retire in the next couple of years, her Euro and my dollar will both go much farther there.  I’d like to think we’ll have that choice once the time comes, even if we decide not to do it. 

I want the possibility.  The option.  Without having to ask.  For all of it…the dancing, the moving.  I don’t really ask for much, do I?  To be honest, I wish I wasn’t even having this conversation!  Do you get as sick and tired of it as I do?

What is it they say to never talk about in a public forum like this:  sex, religion and politics?!  Okay, then.  You didn’t hear any of this from me.

It’s time.  Time for a lot of things.  Time for change?  But for right now, we really are all geared up and ready to go, which is so much better than the alternative, all dressed up and nowhere to go, don’t you think?
Wish us peace.  Wish us shalom.  Life is short (tick tock).  Life is good.  We keep believing all things!