Ordinary Lives

Susan's son serves in Iraq flying helicopters. Today there was news of a helicopter crash west of Baghdad, and many of us immediately thought of Susan and Jamie. She posted her reaction to the news on her blog. Just another mother worried about her soldier son.

Lisa lives near a river. This past Spring the river overflowed its banks. Lisa kept us posted in her blog. Just another working woman worried about the rising river and her home.

Not too long ago Gordon was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer's. On his blog we get glimpses of his everyday life with his spouse along with occasional updates on his Alzheimer's. Just another couple living with the ramifications of an eventually severely debilitating disease.

These happen to be three people who blog regularly. In spite of their involvement in lbgt issues, they all live lives familiar to everyone. There are others.

B & P share custody of P's daughter with her mother. They take her to church almost every Sunday. They take her camping. They help her with her homework. Just another family working together to make sure their child receives the best they can provide.

P & J worked hard for a number of years so that J could return to school and begin a new career in nursing. Just another couple making sacrifices to see that one of them could follow their dream.

G travels nearly three hours round trip every Saturday to visit his mother in the nursing home. Some weeks he must make the trip two or three times in order to meet with doctors and nursing home staff regarding her care. Just another adult child caring for an aging parent.

When Brian and I started dating, it was a couple of months before I took him to meet my family. That same weekend my brother brought his soon to be fiance home to meet the family. Scott and Maureen were married at the end of May the next year. Brian and I moved into our first apartment the next month. Years later Mom told me that she watched both couples go through the same stages of their relationships at the same time--until my niece was born.

The condo complex where Brian and I lived for most of our 11 years together was filled with couples and young families, all of whom were pretty much the same age as we were. If someone was ill, other folks in the complex would stop in and make sure that person was okay and bring food while their spouse was at work or on a business trip. If someone needed to run out on an emergency errand, someone else in the complex would watch their kids. When a snowstorm buried our cars, everyone would pitch in to dig them all out. We collected each other's mail and watched each other's homes when someone was away. In other words, it was a tightly knit neighborhood.

When Brian and I separated 12 years ago, we had to sort through a lot of stuff. I remember sitting in the attic going through the boxes of Christmas decorations to make sure that childhood ornaments, stockings, and other cherished heirlooms went into the right person's boxes before each of us moved on. My friend L remembers doing the same thing when she and her husband divorced.

Basically, we get up in the morning and go to work. We come home in the evening fix dinner, do some chores, watch a little television, and go to bed. On weekends we take care of the house and the yard. We make trips to the library to get something to read. We go to the grocery store to buy food. Ordinary lives being lived in neighborhoods and communities across the country and around the world.

This is what so many heterosexuals are afraid of?

Peace,
Jeffri