Marshall and I didn’t get married in P-Town last weekend. Turns out, we’d need blood tests, then fill out a form of intent, and then wait 3 days to wed or get a court order to speed things up. Instead, we sat outside town hall and cheered with a few hundred others each time a couple came out bearing their licenses. It was very celebratory. And there was a lovely feeling that our history is barreling along. Something the news people didn’t pick on was that the cheering crowd included many of Provincetown’s old guard, Portuguese Catholic families of fishermen, who were very happy for their gay and lesbian neighbors. What a delight that Civil Unions is now retro, so far in the distance as we move along. M & I may get married there on our anniversary later this summer.
I am just about to put tomato and basil plants in the garden and I am wondering what are the spiritual things YOU might do or say or think or feel as you are planting? Can some of you tell the listserve so we can all learn how Light can be brought into the task of putting in new plants?
The last thing I am wondering is why we are a list serve of hundreds and we hear from only a couple dozen? Is this the nature of groups in general? Is there a way that we can hear from so many that we never hear from?
All’s well here in Putney. The neighborhood is planning a huge yard sale. Curtis’ outdoor barbeque is open for summer. The new town library has begun construction. M’s college will have a drag show/bon fire as classes end. The chimney sweep came by for a cleaning and found everything set for next winter, now to find some firewood.
Hoping this finds us all having a day of Light and smoothness.
Just a quick note for some friends, who might remember that I used to do music. I got a call a while back from a radio producer from Texas who wanted to know if I was the John Calvi who wrote the song The Ones Who Aren’t Here. It was JD Doyle who does Queer Music Heritage on KPFT 90.1 FM in Houston.
We did an interview and talked over how I came to write the song.
JD has just let me know that the broadcast date will be May 24th at 10 PM EDT. The station is netcast at www.kpft.org <http://www.kpft.org/> and this show is already on his website www.queermusicheritage.com <http://www.queermusicheritage.com/> . It’s a one-hour show. The first 20 minutes is an interview and music with Janis Ian whose work I have loved since her first hit Society’s Child in 1967 and later At Seventeen and Stars. After me there’s an interview and music by Steven Franz of Florida.
Nice to be remembered for something I wrote 23 years ago. Hope this finds you well. Love, John
PS Marshall and I are off to Provincetown Cape Cod to celebrate my 52 birthday this very day and we might get married, there on Monday.
War brings out the worst in all people. We have always known this. We are now seeing how one army can torture and kill prisoners and this brings another army to retaliate. War eventually becomes a competition to see who can leave humanity farthest behind and treat people the worst. There are no winners only survivors and too few of those. This, among a long list of other reasons, always makes war the worst choice that can be made. International law, the rules of war, never hold. And while a few make billions of dollars, many others suffer greatly for ends never achieved. We must now all work together, not only to end the American war in Iraq, but to remove America from the business of war. We must stop sending our young people to capture weapons of mass destruction that do not exist. We must stop torturing people as we claim to bring democracy. We most stop the beheading of young men, ours and theirs, and bring this sickness to an end. I pray that the words of the great prophets of each religion will be heeded- it is the sacred work of each and every Christian, Jew, and Moslem to work for peace not war.
I don’t know if it’s the lovely spring weather and the comfort of winter being gone, or the fact that some recent films on the Palestinian occupation have shown life so uncivil and murderous, or the recent news of abuse of Iraq prisoners and the pitiful American responses. Or maybe I am just getting old enough to appreciate the small things that so many don’t have. But I feel a deep contentment for small good things in my life.
Today I worked with 20 people to relax deeply and avoid burnout before going off for international work. This evening I read to Marshall as he lay in bed with a slight fever. I read him to sleep from one of Jan Morris’ lovely travel books. Tomorrow I will work with a young woman hiding from a controlling husband. And work on mailing the Beethoven letter.
And amidst that, I laughed with the neighbors at dinner tonight over little nothings. Planned an escape for Provincetown, Cape Cod next Friday with Marshall as I turn 52. And talked with the neighbors cat as I went out to pee in the field where she sits waiting for field mice as the sun sets.
My little corner of the world has some pain and hard work. But it is beautiful and there’s plenty. There is such noise in the world and so much information of suffering and it makes me grateful for two things. One- that I can help a little. Two- that I can still notice the lovely small things in my life. And maybe a safe home and a full pantry are not small things. And maybe a good marriage is an outrageous luxury.
Dear Great & Holy Spirit,
Please help me to be merciful in my prayers on the lousy bastards robbing the country blind by these wars known and unknown. And help me not to be blinded and numbed in my heart as I learn how much the world hurts. And please may I recall enough of the beauty around me to keep my joy in balance with my grief.