Same and Shame

A short while ago there was a program on TV about Transvestites Wives. It was also about Transvestites.

One of the TV’s lived in Yorkshire. In male mode, he works in the steel industry and explained that his work colleagues know nothing of his female self. Though if any of them are interested in the concept of Transvestite wives, I expect that everyone knows now.

Another who lived in Scotland explained how local people had tried to get them to move away.

One tgirl went out with one of the couples for a first trip out as a girl in the daylight. They spent a day in Blackpool. Nothing especially bad happened. But there were taunts.

I think that one of the feelings shared by everyone was a desire to just be allowed to get on with living and to be themselves.

Society has a mixed track record  on this.

It seems that there are quite a lot of people who find it very difficult to live with people who are different than themselves.

That’s why there are places where it’s hard to be gay. Or lesbian. Or Christian. Or Muslim. Or female. Or transgendered. Or black. Or Asian. Or disabled.

During a lunchtime walk I thought about this.

It seems that there are people who want to attach some kind of shame to other people.

 

There is no shame in being.

The shame is theirs who mock and taunt.

Or give the blame to God.

A God of the same.

Unable to accept the different.

Infinite Andreas

Last night Horizon (a television documentary program that has a scientific kind of bias) was all about infinity.

I only caught a part of it.

It included a consideration of the possibility that the combination of an infinite number of chimpanzees with an infinite number of typewriters and an infinite amount of time would eventually write the complete works of Shakespeare.

Some of the mathematicians explained that there are an infinite number of universes, each with an infinite size.

This, it seems, means that whatever is possible must certainly exist somewhere.

In fact, because the laws of science would be different in different universes, then a whole lot of impossible things must also exist somewhere or other.

Somewhere there is another Andrea sitting at a laptop computer typing this blog posting.

And another using different words.

And another writing Shakespeare.

And another … and another … and an infinite number of others.

Somewhere there is also a chimpanzee named Andrea typing a blog posting with exactly the same words as I am using.

The mathematics of infinity, the mathematician on Horizon gave the impression, makes this not just a probability – but a certainty.

Me?

I’m a sceptic.

I’m not convinced that infinity is all that it’s cracked up to be.

Thinking aloud

Here are some thoughts … what do you think?

 

Illogical Operators?

Male
or
Female
Is an inadequate way
Of viewing the world
For some
The or
Is an and

 

Chat room Chat

What’s new?
Carefully
Wondering what the reaction might be
I explain
Even though I do not understand
That I
A guy
Am also
Somehow
A girl

While and Matthews, Poles, Love and Fear

Having listened quite a lot more to Chris While and Julie Matthews (http://www.whileandmatthews.co.uk/) , I must say I like them a lot.

I bought the CD from Amazon’s download site and spent quite a while searching out lyrics of the songs somewhere on the WEB … with no luck at all until tonight. Googling for “distant as the poles” came back with a hit …the parent page of which is: http://www.whileandmatthews.co.uk/Julie%20website/Song%20pages/ which has lots of lyrics.

I mentioned the song Distant as the Poles in an earlier post.You can listen to the first bit at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002E3D0IA/ref=dm_dp_trk6 (click the preview button when you get there) and also there is a version from a fan.

 

And the words:

Distant as the poles
Julie Matthews
From the album ‘Quest’
While and Matthews

You cannot hold her anymore
Though everyday I see you try
She's bursting with the urge to run and fly
And where she's bound you cannot hope to be
As distant as the poles and the poles will never meet

She chases comets in the sky
One day she'll catch one in a jar
You would rather watch them from afar
And what she dreams you cannot hope to see
As distant as the poles and the poles will never meet

The tighter that you hold her
The wider bridges grow
The more you try to mould her
The less she'll come to show

You cannot hold her anymore
So have the heart to say goodbye
And open up the cage and let her fly
A blazing trail of comets in the sky
And love her just enough to set her free
As distant as the poles and the poles will never meet

 

When I first listened to the song it reminded me of the feelings of a parent as a child grows … the pain of letting go. And yet there isn’t another way.

I think that as time has passed I’ve learned, a little at least,  that holding onto people too tightly seems to be a sure fire way of pushing them away.

Driving back from work tonight I thought of the way that futility of getting things by force. The way that compulsion seems to be doomed to failure.

Ultimately, it seems, we do what we want to because we want to do it rather than because we have to do it.

The things we do out of compulsion don’t last. The first chance we get … we do something else.

I think it explains why, in the end, love is stronger than fear.

Pink Punter Pictures

Here are a few additional pictures taken at the Campanile hotel and Pink Punters.

Nikki:

Andrea:

 

Emma and Laura:

 

The God of Earthquakes and Tsunamis?

The other week on the morning after Pink Punters I watched a little morning TV before leaving the hotel.

There was a question and answer type of program on.

The main question ran something like: does the earthquake in Haiti prove that there is no God?

I think that the discussion is worthwhile, even though the answer is patently: no it doesn’t.

There have been other, more severe earthquakes. And there will be more.

And yet still people believe that God exists.

And now … with apologies … but this tickled me … did you hear about the dyslexic, agnostic insomniac? He laid awake all night wondering if there really was a dog.

There have been people that have attributed the earthquake to God … as an act of vengeance. Pat Robertson, a Christian leader, has been quoted as saying this. Other Christians have denounced the idea.

Last week there was another program about the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami. A clip of a sermon being given in a mosque … the preacher explaining that the tsunami was a punishment. I expect that there are Muslims that denounce this idea also.

There are difficulties in trying to hold together a theology that maintains ideas that a God that:

• knows everything … including the future
• can do anything
• loves

There are ways of making some kind of sense of it … but it’s only some kind of sense. No one that I’ve heard of can explain it fully. I suspect that anyone that claims to be able to explain it must be deluded.

One of my weaknesses is that I have a need to understand things. Things need to make sense.

It makes it difficult for me to believe in God.

Earthquakes and tsunamis are not the only problems.

Either way … the concept that earthquakes and tsunamis are mechanisms by which God punishes the wicked seems to me to be absurd.The apparently innocent seem to be punished just as badly.

If God is there … I hope that (s)he is not a God of earthquakes and tsunamis … at least as a mechanism of punishment and control.