Witt's End

What makes a song enlightening or uplifting? What makes music "good or appropriate"? Especially between a division between secular and spiritual music? For worship? These are questions I've muddled over and over in my head for a lifetime.  Music has always had a hold on me. It's always been a help to me. Truly I think I often undersell how much I use music for emotional processing, intellectual development, contemplation, connection, and yes worship.  --- I remember sitting in a youth meeting. The conversation was about music. It was an attempt to define what was good, better, and best in music. And was bad music. It wasn't an artistic or technical critique. It was a moral one.  The discussion started about lyrical content. I think that was a natural progression. Curse words are bad. Sensual or sexual lyrics are bad. That the was the top of the docket for conversation. I get the reasoning behind it. Don't agree with it as much as I did as a teenager. But I get

 So I’ve written about this on this blog a little bit. But I feel it’s time to be a little more declarative. I’m bi. As in bisexual. And with what is going on in the world I don’t feel like I can hide it my place of privilege anymore.  See I’m married to one of the smartest, kindest, beautiful women in my world. People see me with this beautiful creature and would assume my living experience is entirely heteronormative. A straight marriage. I have the privilege of four natural born children. I got to have them with the love of my life. Because of that. Assumptions are made.  I had the honor and privilege to serve as a soldier in the army. That alone brings assumptions. Then there are the assumptions that come from the faith I bear.  —— I’ve had the ability to hide. And I don’t feel like I can anymore. There’s a lot happening I don’t feel like getting into on the macro level. But I need to on the micro. —— I’ve slowly came out. I posted in my blog. I’ve told people I’ve trusted. But now

 I have to address an elephant in the room. One that I have skirted around confronting directly. And I feel more and more that I need to.  There is not a moral equivalence between being homosexual and being a pedophile or groomer. There is a not a moral equivalence between being bisexual and an adulterer. There just isn't. Now some people maybe surprised that such a declaration has to be made. But I feel I have to. Most of my childhood I heard about how sinful homosexuality was. How deviant it was. How much worse it was than any other sexual sin.  I still here people muse and wonder how anyone could be gay. Then the very next line from those musing is how people who are gay are groomed into. There's an element of predation surrounding it all.  When I'm around such talk in the current era I'm usually silent. Sitting watching people shred others. And I'm ashamed of that. I feel I need to speak up more and more.  See they're talking about me. Yep, me, the bisexual.

  We are all children of God full of inherent goodness. All human rights need protection for that reason. But not all rights and humans have need of aid right now. I’ve been thinking a lot about how I prioritize my time and effort. Who do I spend my time on. First and foremost is my family and loved ones. They fill my cup, I fill there’s, it’s the inner circle. And it takes the majority of my time. So how do I spend the rest of my limited resources? I’ve actually had to prioritize lately so I got very analytical about this. And I came up with a list that I’ve been using. An algorithm if you will.  It’s four questions and I’m going to list them in the level of precedence I think. Who’s dying more often than they should? Who faces harm from both the governing bodies and society at large? Who faces official discrimination or disparity? Where are there inordinate disparities of outcomes in society? It take these four and run them through one more simple question. Given my limited sphere of

 Most people agree with statements like, "all people deserve dignity and respect." I mean it's a fairly universal platitude. It's why people of all creeds and stripes latch on so much to Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech (or at least parts of it). But there's a problem with what dignity and respect mean. There's a divide on how that respect is expressed and represented.  Race, sexuality, gender identity, disability status etc are not equally respected in our nation. We're moving toward legal parity (we're not quite there yet but we're working on it), but the reality is our nation has gulfs we need to correct.  There is disparity of outcomes when it comes to race , there are worse mental health outcomes for marginalized groups , and t hese groups are the majority of recipients of hate crimes . Looking at those scenarios it can be difficult to reconcile wanting everyone to get along with the reality of the scenario.  I wo

People think about things that effect them first. And the amount of interaction they have with an issue is directly correlated to how much they contemplate it. Because of that I think it's easy for people who are part of the LBTQIA+ community to forget that there are those who never questioned their sexuality or gender identity.  For some of us navigating complex emotional and identity crises is part of existing in a heteronormative culture. We find ourselves analyzing how we fit in society. But it's a unique experience to us.  For the majority of the population that just didn't happen. It doesn't cross their minds. They're straight. They're a man or a woman. They just exist in the world. Unless you experience something different, or care deeply about someone who experiences something different it's just an abstract. It's not something to worry about.  There's something to say about life and thoughts just going on. There is no motivation to do so and