GoBecky.net Geek. Gimp. Goddess.

A new day, a new theme

As you can see, I'm shaking things up around here by switching to the amazingly cool theme-and-a-half Thesis. All of my content remains available, but it will be some time before all the sidebar stuff is back, etc. Hope you like it!

Would you like some irony with your headlines?

I think the editors of CNN.com are subtly telling us something this morning.

In the space of a couple screen-inches, we have the following stories:

• Same-sex marriage rallies stretch across nation
• Buy a house, help couple get divorced
• We're divorced -- you're not my friend

It's almost as if they're saying, "So, breeders, this is the sanctity you're trying to protect, huh? This is the sacred institution that gays will ruin? Because it kind of looks like you've already done that yourselves."

Wine for Wheels

Wine for Wheels is a partnership between superfancy California winemakers and the inestimable Wheelchair Foundation. For every $100 bottle of "cult" wine you buy, a wheelchair is donated to one of the 100+ million people with disabilities around the world who wouldn't otherwise have access to a mobility device.

The Wheelchair Foundation has been doing this awesome work for years, but it's this kind of partnership with the consumer-goods-oriented private sector that has real potential to change the world. It's rather like Product RED in that respect: people are going to buy stuff anyway, so why not harness consumerism for good?

Faith in the post-Prop 8 era

I've been struggling with my faith for years... nearly decades. To some extent it's been about my disability. But for the past few years, as I've begun to let those wounds heal, the struggle has been less about faith than about faith community. As I have felt myself opening up to the One again, I've found myself wanting -- needing -- to share the experience of the sacred with fellow travelers.

I was raised in the Catholic Church, and that tradition still resonates with me on an incredibly deep level. In terms of theology and Christology, I personally lean towards much more progressive teachings¹. I also believe, in the tradition of Zen Buddhism, that all is One². For me, participating in the ritual of Mass, relatively unchanged for centuries, celebrated by millions of people the world over, is a form of communion with the sacred that has nothing to do with the Pope or the Catechism.

But I haven't taken part in that communion for years now. Not because I don't want to -- I do, deeply -- but because, honestly, I'm scared, I'm angry, and I'm hurt.

A faith community should be a place of love, trust, and support, not of hatred and betrayal. [Read more →]

Keith Olbermann on Gay Marriage

Somehow it is all the more powerful for me to hear these words from an ally...