Glass Houses
Sorry, but it’s been a good little while since I blogged. Had the self diagnosis of walking pneumonia, plus travel and writing a new book equals few and far between Marcus blog posts. I’ll try to be more consistent.
So, let’s talk about sex. Okay, let’s not talk about sex, but let’s talk about all of us, together, in this thing we call life. The human experience.
Sex is in the news a lot lately. First it was the Russians and their stance on Olympians who are homosexual. Then, it was Michael Sam, the Mizzou football player who “came out of the closet” before the NFL draft pick.
Provided it’s consentual between two adults, I could not care less about the sex lives of anyone other than my wife and I. I usually stay far away from this topic because people’s views are so entrenched and almost immoveable. Heck, I probably used to be that way, too. But, somewhere along the way, I finally understood that, if my house (i.e., marriage, family, home) is in order, I really don’t care what others do, provided it doesn’t harm anyone.And, now at this stage in life, I’d really rather be true to my beliefs, malleable though they are, and open to the viewpoints of others. I don’t think everyone who views the world differently as wrong, nor do I have the desire to correct them.
With the Michael Sam story, as a straight guy who used to play football, I put a lot of thought into it. At 18 in the locker room, I may have had different ideas. At 38, I just don’t care. There has been a TON of press around Michael Sam’s story on ESPN and other news sources. Yet, I’ve found no one who sums it up better than this Dallas sportscaster.
twentytwowords.com/dallas-sportscasters-shocking-response-to-michael-sam-coming-out-as-gay
Reason I like this so much isn’t because it agrees with my viewpoint, but because this editorial calls for consistency. When our own houses are in order, I think we tend not to try to control the houses of others. And that’s what I want to do.
There is no one who can say that Michael Sam’s choice to reveal his homosexuality did not have major potential for negative action. To me, this makes Michael Sam one of the gutsiest people I’ve come across in a long while. That’s the same courage as Jackie Robinson or Elizabeth Cady Stanton or the Buddhist monks who lit themselves on fire to protest the war in Vietnam or (dare I say?) Jesus.
When someone expresses an unpopular opinion and knows they may not only be chastised, but physically harmed for saying what they feel, THAT is courage, friends.
