I think I might be almost ready to stop writing about political things on a daily basis. Yesterday was very emotional. Towards the end of the day, I asked Melinda an important question via email. While she voted No on Prop 8, she was conflicted about it. I asked her to explain to me the nature of her conflict. After she explained that a bit, I asked her how she reconciles the harsh judgments contained within the Bible (the one condemning homosexuality, for instance) with the existence of a loving and accepting God.
In all my years of private school, church, and Sunday school classes (and there were quite a few), this is something I was never able to figure out on my own. It is a contradiction that has always baffled me. (Because we all know you can't say something like "God is love" and then say "God hates fags" and expect it to make any sort of sense.) This is something that I'd really like to understand on a logical level. I will be interested to hear her response. And I may even share it here.
Truthfully, despite my anger at the passing of Prop 8, I just don't want to believe that 52% of the people in this state are bigots. I want to understand where they're coming from, to be honest. I want to know what it will take to break down these barriers of inequality. I need to believe it can be done.
So I'm starting small - with one friend of mine who can perhaps help me to begin to grasp what's at work here.
And speaking of small things, I have fallen head over heels in love with pinhole photography. I've been hearing about this phenomenon for months now, but this past weekend, I decided to try it out myself. Luckily, I have an awesome husband who did all the dirty work, because I just don't trust myself with a drill. I was able to use one of my lens caps for my 50mm lens to make the pinhole. Next thing you know, I was taking some pretty rudimentary but wonderfully imperfect pictures.
Our bedroom window:
The kitchen faucet:
Partly eaten apple (with lovely light leaks):
Mao (with crazy cool light leaks):
Flowers from the cutest husband ever:
Peeling paint:
Grass:
Trees and sky (processed a bit more than the others):
The coolest stray cat ever:
These pictures are probably not impressive at all, and that is okay. They were fun to make. I should be using a tripod while doing this kind of work, because (obviously) things can get really blurry. I happen to love blurry photos (well, in certain contexts), because I get tired of "perfect" photos. Still, I'm hoping to get a tripod for Christmas so that I can take long-exposure shots without lots of camera shake.
I enjoy experimenting, and I hope this is only the beginning of a lot of photo-making experimentation for me.
7 comments:
The people who impress me most are staunch Christians who were independent and thoughtful enough to come to the conclusion that, despite whatever their Church or the Bible may seem to say, voting yes on 8 was wrong. For that, I applaud Melinda and others like her.
On a completely different note, do you have any experience with the Gorillapod? I have a friend who has one for her point-and-shoot, but I'm wondering if the version for a DSLR is worth it.
Yeah, I feel Melinda.....I feel kinda uncomfortable with prop 8. Just because i was raised catholic and now I'm Christian.
But again, WHO AM I?....to denie people their rights. and also like you I don't think God is a hateful God either.
If God is so loving, then why would "Christians" be discriminatory if they think God is all loving?!?!
MY personal opnion means little in the "real world" and it holds little value. So by me denieing other people their rights is just plain wrong.
I personally don't care if ANYBODY gets married it's just that because of my upbringing, I'm a little uneasy if that makes sense.
i really love that you're trying to understand where your friend is coming from. i think if more people did that, instead of giving in to the gut-reaction of cussing them out/arguing/etc, we'd be a lot closer to have equality for all.
so thank you for your actions. i, for one, really appreciate them.
God does not hate "fags" - or anyone for that matter - that's just how some people choose to interpret the Bible and I feel they give the rest of us Christians a bad name. I'm guessing I feel similarly to Melinda but am not at all eloquent with a keyboard so I wont even try to explain so I'll just let her :)
for an experiment i think yr photos are interesting. pinhole neato
Cool photos!! That pinhole thing is super fun. I am anxious to read Melinda's response--or a summary of it in one of your future blogs.
i kiss you for trying to understand.
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