Today has been a long and
exhausting day. While I bristle
uncomfortably when someone refers to my or someone else’s sexual orientation as
a lifestyle, one lifestyle that, whether I like it or not, I have to claim loud
and maybe not so proud is that of being a procrastinator. As such, I found myself at home last night
with multiple loads of laundry to do in order to be able to get packed to fly
to Portland today. That coupled with an
early flight this morning at 7:30 AM made for a very short night for me.
Then, I got to spend a large
portion of my day in airports and on aircraft, activities that I actually
usually enjoy, but I think the sleep deprivation overshadowed my
enjoyment. Then, one of my flights was
full, and I was placed on a later flight.
Through all of this, I managed to maintain an optimistic attitude. I tend to be a fairly “glass half full” kind
of person, but, somewhere over the course of my last flight, figuring out
public transit to get as close as I could to my hotel, and then walking the
remaining ¾ of a mile to make to the hotel, I was feeling pretty drained.
On top of all of that, the language
being used by some to describe LGBTQIA persons, to speak to us, or to talk
around us at this General Conference has been lacking in the basic dignity normally
afforded another human being much less to fellow members of your own faith
tradition. Reading various posts on
social media since the beginning of the conference has painted a very ugly
picture, and I was feeling the weight of that along with my fatigue when I
finally arrived at the hotel here in Portland.
All of that weight lifted off of me very quickly though as one familiar
face after another greeting me with a hug and a smile. It truly is amazing to in this work with all
of these amazing people. There is such a
joy in the connection that binds us together and to this cause of full
inclusion.
Then, tonight after dinner, we went
to a local church for an Indigo Girls concert.
Even though my tiredness began to creep back in a bit during the
performance, it was very energizing and uplifting, and the opening acts,
Momma’s Boyz featuring Kingdom Krew! and J Mase III, were great as well. I wish I had it in me to share more, but I am
drained. I’ve been up since 5:30 AM
Eastern after only having 3-4 hours of sleep, and it is now almost midnight
Pacific time. Time for sleep. Check out pics from the Indigo Girls concert
on my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/authenticculbs
.
~ Culbs
No comments:
Post a Comment