Snowflakes settling in the middle

Today was National Coming Out Day (NCOD). The usual talk trying to reconcile religion and spirituality and the usual efforts at dialogue between young fundamentalists and young queer folk with rainbow colored hair struggling to be accepted by their respective religions and coming to terms with the world around them. I look at them and pray that soon all of them will settle down happily in the middle and live as neighbors. The young fundamentalists will eventually temper down and be tolerant and the young rebel will eventually get a decent hair cut, find a partner and a niche in society.

This desire for a society that eventually converges into a homogenious yet diverse middle makes me wonder if I am growing old. After all, I've been out there on the fringes and raged about all sorts of things. Maybe I have become too comfortable with my situation (whatever that is!) ... or maybe, I am beginning to believe that we need the extremes of opinion (one side espousing high Biblical morality while the other side espousing open polyamorous situations), before we can - nay, if we have to- achieve the balance in between. So its all good. In the end, gay, straight, white, black, narrow, broad ... and all else in between ... will just settle down somewhere in the middle, as they have done so many times in the past on so many issues. And when one topic has been resolved another will come up... after all, life itself is defined by the conflict of extremes. (Hopefuly, this nuclear weapons issue, will also eventually settle down - as it must - without taking the world through a nuclear carnage!)

A lot of people came out as "straight allies" (I am a crooked ally!) and duely showed their support by signing their names on reams of paper. Hopefuly as time passes we'll have to resort to electronic signatures for fear of chopping down too many trees. For the time being, I don't think it cost us more than a few branches and a couple of twigs.

But to our pleasant surprise the Snow came out with its support... and boy has there been a gale blowing all afternoon. Its been one dramatic "coming out." Well I am sure there are some gay snowflakes and some straight snowflakes and then there are the ones that are simply wet and boring! Snow flakes that float gently and settle indiscriminately on every surface. Snow flakes that are inquisitive and will creep into every nook and corner. Then there are a ton of different snow flake crystal patterns. In addition, there is flaky snow and on a really cold night snow can even turn treacherous ... bottomline is: Snow understands diversity. As I write this post, I can hear the wind howling and the snow blowing around - over a BBC report about Amma hugging 25 million people.

Hmm! Its getting cold and I could very well do with a hug... even if its from Amma.