Friday, March 26, 2010

Squaring the Circle

Arch Nemesis,

I've been thinking some more and wanted to add another serious post to this. Now, I know we have our fun. I call you an abomination, traitor, evil, so loathsome the Devil himself would toss you out of Hell; you know, light-hearted things. And you with equal light-hearted thought call me friend and misguided. We are equal on this as I see it. But of course, I would expect evil to deny the righteousness of its opposition. So I forgive you for your horrid, depraved, merciless ways.

In my last letter I attempted to enlighten you on just a tiny sampling of the people you wish to fight against. I could go on and bring in anecdotal evidence from as far away as the United Kingdom to just a matter of a distance that spans less than a football field. All of this would do what for you? Would it reveal the error of your ways and let in the light of the rightness of my cause? Surely not. How do I know this? It is manifested in the form of a mutual friend. A friend that I shall simply call Doctor. Now, Doctor has not the eloquence that I possess (who does have that gift to the degree that I possess it?) but I have noticed your friendship with him. Doctor, as you well know, is gay and happy about that. Now, I'm sure you'll say things like, "I love the sinner and hate the sin" but really, what does that mean?

I may despise your evil nature with a passion that surprises those around me. I may even consider you the very antithesis of light and goodness and that if there were such thing as a soul that yours would be the type that would suck that essence out of all others. But, I devolve into teasing you light-heartedly once more. What I did want to share was how fuzzy that line is between loving a person and hating what they do and how despite that you still manage to shelter yourself from that reality. I shall continue. Now, I will concede (a rare moment, indeed!) that habits are far easier to separate from the individual. A smoker is easier to be around and still separate the person from the addiction.

What about us wily gays?

How do you separate a person from their "addiction." And what is that addiction? Is it loving someone so purely and truly that they want to spend the rest of their lives with them, or even raise a family with them? Is it the desire to actually marry or wanting to have health care benefits and all other legal rights afforded a heterosexual married couple? Such a strange form of addiction. What about the desire of gay couples to attend churches, political rallies, be active in the lives of their children? Are these all manifestations of an addictive behavior? Where do you draw the line?

Imagine yourself telling Doctor, "I love you, bro, but I can't accept your lifestyle." What does that mean? I will substitute "addiction" with "lifestyle" and apply the questions of the previous paragraph to this word. What do friends do? I know that if one of my friends were to have a celebration of sorts, that I would go and show my support for them whether it be a bat mitzvah, baptism, birthday celebration, or even an anniversary of a wedding. I would do this regardless of their religion (or lack thereof), political affiliation, partner preference, sports team of choice, university allegiance, preference of good or evil, etc.

If you knew Wild and Seeker (which you very well may), I hope you would be able to transcend their preference in partner or their religious affiliation. I know that I would do so with you - I would ignore the rancid darkness that destroys your very mind, the cruelty which festers inside of you. Yet, alas, I know this to be not the case. Despite knowing Doctor, you still choose to maintain the views that you have likely held since a child. I would even go further as to state that the simplicity that you saw the world in at a young age is still maintained in those views now. You choose not to see that a circle fits into a circle hole. Rather, you'd rather put a square in the circular hole. Why, my arch nemesis?

May you see reason someday,
Mr. Sanity

The Non-Superficial Quality of Others

Arch Nemesis,

It has been quite some time since I have last written a letter exposing the evil that is you. I shall now reveal more to you. I have gone down a path of self-discovery towards understanding just who I am and who others are. What am I talking about? I realize that you probably cannot fathom to any degree what I am talking about. That's expected, arch nemesis. I shall explain it to you.

Clearly we are not one-dimensional beings. Even a pure evil being such as yourself has some form of variety in comparison to other pure evil beings (I find this hard to believe with you). I'm talking about labels here. Labels are useful for many purposes. For example: I am good and you are evil. I have labeled myself under that most virtuous of terminology while giving you the most vile of terms. But there is more. You in your evil nature, contemptible as it is, are more than just that. You are naive, book smart, and cruel. Sure, some of those duped by your evil-ness, may claim that you are kind, awkward, and even dorky, but I try not to listen to the opinions of others duped by you.

My example in this are a group of individuals that fall under the same labels as me: gay and Mormon. We share these labels in common but in some cases this is by name only. Those individuals, as I shall classify now, are men that I consider to be friends. In my virtuous debauchery I have seen them to be moral, kind, humorous, and intelligent. It is quite doubtful you will ever find such strength of character in any of your evil hordes that you associate with. Their labels define an aspect of them but do not totally make them who they are. No label - be it religious, psychological, or social - can do so. We are who we are due to the totality of all variety that we give to our so-called labels and their interactions with each other.

First example, by way of introduction, is an individual that I shall name as Seeker. He is your typical guy: wants to have fun, intelligent, and funny. Meet him and you'll think nothing beyond that. What makes him on the side of good like I am as opposed to your side, my arch nemesis? He is gay and Mormon. That is the one dimensional label that I'm talking about. On closer inspection, there is more to him that creates the richness of his personality. He possesses an ability to know where he can and cannot go in life a quality that even I, in all my grand perfection, admire and envy a little too. I will say no more on that in case he should stumble across this letter and discover it to be himself. So what makes Seeker unique? In my arrogantly humble opinion it is his kindness towards others. It is both gentle and firm, loving and funny all at once.

My second example will possess the name Wild. He takes a different path than Seeker but both are equally strong in personality and desire to find what will harmonize with their hearts and minds. Both are good. Wild at first glance: handsome, shy, and a leader. He has the same labels as both Seeker and I. But there is, as expected, more. He struggles to find the balance between what is right and what is familiar. He stands with the familiar while aching to cross over into what is right and what is good. I admire the courage he has to decide where he will go. I know he will do the right thing for him.

Why did I post this? Certainly any other person will find all of this so obvious and even claim my descriptions are still superficial. Yet I, in my generous stinginess know what is to be done. This is the first letter of several that I want to use to explain a non-political point to you, creature of darkness. Hopefully, you'll understand the truth soon enough.

May you see reason someday,
Mr. Sanity