Community

This is the lovely Latonya Still. She ranks high on my list of friends. Her beer drinking, book reading, batgamon playing hub-a-roon-dawg, Kevin Hamilton, graced me with these words a month or so ago. He thought he might have offended me, so he wrote me an email to let me know what was going on in his brain - this quickly turned into him debriefing his recent viewing of American Beauty with laninjanator and his anger and confusion about men and women and justice and feminism that followed. What he didn't realize is that as he emoted, he spoke words that I needed to hear at that very moment. It is not easy being a woman married to a man these days. And had I still been single in a few more years, we all know that my plan was to move to Tahiti to become a lesbian and own a sno-cone stand. We have so many awful examples surrounding us about how men focus on themselves, leaving the women who love them in the dust. We see this in our fathers, our pastors, our presidents. It has been hard for me to learn how to fully give my feminine self to my man of a husband. Kevin did not know this. How beautiful, when people listen to the nudging of the Spirit AND have the courage to speak boldly and truthfully into our lives . . . without fear or disclaimer. It makes a difference.

"be thankful for herb.
he is rare.
he is trying to be rare.
he does not want to be "kevin spacey" (from American Beauty)
he does not want to be twisted and tormented.
he is different in his mind.
he is trying to be.
and that is a gift to him and to you and to his community.
i love that man because there is a hope for goodness and God -
which is not our modern american man!"