Changing flight plans will cost too much, so I'm leaving them the way they are. As much as I'd like to see all the sights in Ireland, we need to plan in the more conservative direction. After all, I was promised free lodging, wasn't I? Is it possible to see plenty of sights on a budget? Of course, the main attraction for me is free, Pip. I'll bet he's walking by the time Gramma comes. Benji was 14 months old before he started walking. Some people say that's a sign of a deep thinker. In his case, they were right. Pip will be too, I'm sure.

Mike and I just watched Memoirs of a Geisha. It had some gorgeous cinematography, but the story was disturbing. What a dreadful childhood the main character Chiyo endured! The book is on my reading list now. He also got Dreamer, but I can't spend another 3 hours glued to the tv. Maybe tomorrow or Saturday.

My neighbor Art came over with his key and telephone number for while he's in Gulf Shores on vacation. He's always asking if he can help me somehow. Wonder how he would feel about helping Mike while I'm away. He gets up early enough. If he would just come over every morning and help him get dressed, Mike would be fine for the rest of the day. I can board the dogs at the vet so he doesn't have to fool with them. Not sure how he will get out the door without Mick going out, maybe I should board him, too. He likes to eat out, so meals are not a problem. The sooner I let Mike in on my plans, the sooner he can start making plans of his own. My fear is that he will start having chest pains the day before I leave, whether real or imagined, he knows that will keep me at home.

The more I read about our church's general council coming up in June, the more it reminds me of the SouBaptConv which also occurs in June. The Episcopal meeting will have much more pomp and circumstance, but the atmosphere of hostility and polarization will be the same, too palpable to ignore.

When I adopted my new church home in 1990, it championed tolerance and diversity, represented balance and reason, was not afraid to study intensely, debate openly and break new ground. Tradition, Scripture, and Reason were the three legs required to hold up the stool; all were the same length or the stool was unlevel. (Ed Bacon added a fourth leg - experience, to make it even sturdier.) Sure, there had been some who left when women were ordained or when all races were welcomed, but rather than destroy the church as they predicted, it strengthened it.

From having a homosexual boy grow to manhood in my home, I learned that he was and is a gift from God, no different in his intrinsic value from his siblings. I believe God designed him to be exactly the way he is, all the way from his beautiful brown eyes, his dark curly hair, his compassionate heart, his very high IQ to his sexual orientation; it was all a part of the same wonderful package. I enjoyed his company in the kitchen and in the mall, and was furious when his father called him a sissy. There was nothing sissy about him. The only sissiness I saw was in his father's reluctance to accept someone different from himself. And that's what I see in these macho men who are wary of those who go home to a partner of the same sex.

We Christians claim to follow a man whose sexual orientation we do not know. (Maybe DaVinci knows, maybe he doesn't.) And our Savior's most prominant apostle seemed to be nonsexual. According to the Bible, their closest companions were of the same gender. Would they be accepted today or viewed with suspicion? I just don't understand how the "husband/wife, 2 kids, 2 cars, and a dog" came to be a spiritually superior model for ministry. It's a bunch of bunk.

For a different view of this issue, check out the Salty Vicar John Wilkins. Makes me proud I had Wilkins ancestors.

http://saltyvicar.typepad.com/salt/2006/03/leac.html