I'm Just Sayin'...

Whether gay, straight, bi, questioning, or lesbian...man or woman...christian, wiccan, mormon, jew or atheist...we all have the same basic desires and goals. Yes, there are minor alterations on the details and specifics...but overall we are all the same in many ways:

-We all want to be loved.

-We all want to be accepted for who and what we are.

-We all want to be happy.

-We all want to belong.

-We all want to be remembered.

-We all bleed.

-We all cry.

-We all feel pain and joy.

We are all blessed when any of the above are attained and actively seek to make those goals become a reality...

Likewise, there are those of us that fear any and all of the above because it means that who we are...is okay. Acceptance in the face of a society or religion that tells you no...tells you that because of who or what you are, you are not worthy of any of those things.

There are times that blessings and love bring confusion and emotional torture because others see something that you cannot. Others have accepted you for you, when the very thought leaves you confounded and searching for more reasons to prove them all wrong...

Make you act as if you know what that "higher power" believes in...what that "higher power" deems lovable and precious...which in turn then begs the question...who died and made you God? Sometimes the negative and rejection ends up being easier to hang on to because it is something you can wrap your head around. Something I can wrap my head around.

As a pessimist by nature, I fully acknowledge that my view point is, at best damaged. Yet it is all I can hold tight to all the while being the very thing I want to get rid of in the hopes of achieving the commonalities I listed earlier. We are indeed our own worst critic and enemy...we all hold ourselves to a higher expectation than others do which makes it incredibly easy to falter. However logical our thoughts may be at any given time, there will always be an extra "spin" on what we believe in...what we show the world...what we expect from ourselves. We forgive others more easily than we do ourselves. This is concerning to me yet I am just as guilty as the woman sitting next to me on the bus, the neighbor down the street or my bishop standing at the pulpit on any given Sunday.

So for all the differences that we all cling to in the hopes of proving our individuality from those around us...we are much the same. In fact, we have more in common with each other than we can even understand. Perhaps one day we/I will forgive myself just as I forgive others and love myself like I love others...and focus more on what binds us together as a species instead of what makes us different. Maybe someday, we can all do that. Just think how far society could go and the great achievements we could attain if we were to just accept each other for all our strengths AND all our weaknesses. Instead of spending so much time telling each other we don't belong, we are wrong, we are an illness or addiction, we are hated by God, we are abnormal...we could all be so much more than we are now.

I'm just sayin'.