Thursday, May 21, 2009

Is it a choice?

Is love a choice? I know a lot of people who would argue that love is an emotion. My dad has always told me that lust is an emotion, and love is a choice. I didn't always agree with him, but first hand experience has changed my mind.
Emotions don't make me love him when he's feeling depressed. Emotions don't make me love him when he's moody and upset. It's during those times that I choose to love him still, to listen and talk and help him work through it.
Emotions don't make him love me when I'm in a bad mood. Emotions don't make him love me when I'm being irrational. Emotions don't make him love me when I've been too busy to talk for over a week, or when I'm going so fast that he doesn't even know what city I'm in. But he chooses to love me still. He chooses to let me rant. He chooses to let me cry and then tell me how much he loves me.
If I let emotions dictate our relationship, I might have given up when people I trusted said that we would never last. When my friends turned away from me. Instead, when one of my friends told me I had to choose between him and her, I made my decision. I choose to love him.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The Ring







I just had to put these up. I know they aren't great pictures, but I absolutely love the ring. We went for a walk today, just around the block. He stopped (right in the middle of the street) pulled out this ring, and asked me to marry him. He put the ring on my finger, and at that exact second a random black cat appeared out of nowhere. It was so funny. For some reason, it just seemed perfect, in an odd way.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal

What happened to all men being created equal? Thomas Jefferson first stated that all men were equal in his drafting of the Declaration of Independence. Over the years, America has overcome many obstacles to become a country where all men are free, and all men have the same rights. People like Rosa Parks, Jackie Robison, and Martin Luther King Jr. struggled to make this country a safe place where all men could live together peacefully. Now, people like Maggie and John Anderson are undermining everything that we’ve worked so hard for.
There is currently a “buy black” movement sweeping our nation. African Americans are being encouraged to only patronize businesses that are owned and run by other blacks. This is seen as not only a political statement, but also as a chance to support other blacks.
What would happen if I let it be known that I only shopped at exclusively white establishments? Could I get 4,000 people to follow my progress on facebook? Would I be labeled a visionary? Would others praise me for taking a stand for my people? In all likelihood, no. I would be called racist. I would be accused of hating blacks. There would be public outrage at the fact that I was singling out other races and refusing to patronize their businesses. I would get emails calling me a “hater”. People like the Andersons would be crying out that laws be created to stop people from doing this type of thing.
Maggie and John have a daughter, Cori. What is she learning from all of this? Is she learning that she lives in the land of the free? Is she learning about the men and women who have died for her freedom? Is she learning that, regardless of the tone of her skin and the tone of her neighbors, they are exactly the same? No. Her parents are, by example, teaching her that the color of her complexion does matter. That she is different, and perhaps even better, than others. Is this the equality Jefferson was referring to?