Earthmares

Thank goodness I have very little effect on the world, my previous post notwithstanding. (I hope all the attention given across America for that particular cause saves just one life that would have otherwise been taken away by the effects of an ill society.)
For weeks after my post about Earth Fare, I did not see one of the cashiers that I had blogged about.  Oh, you are thinking right... it's a strange mind that would link a blog that no one reads to the disappearance of a cashier. I have no defense to that suggestion.

I'm reading a book called Flash Forward for fun. There have been too many serious books on my Sony Reader. The TV series was based on this science fiction book I am reading. Time travel type stories always have paradoxes and flaws that bother me. This show in particular had them in abundance, but because I like time travel shows of all sorts, I watched it and liked it, until the show disappeared without an ending. I'm savvy now and realize the broadcast networks will never deliver what they promise. They are too wrapped up in current ratings to see artistic significance, kind of like politicians are wrapped up in the next upcoming election to do much good for our country in the long term. Some of the greatest TV shows of our time had to struggle in the beginning to be recognized as worth a future risk. Continuing shows have ended in mid story for a while now, with the networks showing little compassion for viewers who want to believe (that the show will have an ending.)

The book, Flash Forward, is a little different from the TV series. The book is more scientific and the paradoxes are questioned a little more tightly, yet they fall apart under scrutiny. If you could see a snapshot of the future, say a 2 minute slice of time, wouldn't it be somewhat likely that you would change something so that this snapshot would inevitably be imperfect?  Say, you could break a mirror that you saw in the flash forward. While the book does a great job of chasing around the paradoxes, the TV show was more entertaining. It wasn't lighthearted but it was just more entertaining by not chasing the paradoxes so much.

In the television show, the pivotal character tries to change his future and has the ability and money to flash forward at will. He tries endless flash forwards to find a path where changing an action might help him escape a fate that is impossible to escape, no matter what pathway he chooses.

Meanwhile, I still have this poor cashier in limbo. Could my minute actions have caused some future consequence that was detrimental to her? Did the manager Brad read my post? What about the comment I left? It was unlikely that either of these were important, but where the heck was she? She was trying to keep things together, though she was straining under the stress. It was a stress I identified with very certainly as you can tell by the fact that I was worried about this at all. Additionally, things had gotten better at Earth Fare right after I posted and commented in the comment box. The problem was that right after that this cashier was nowhere to be found, and I frequent this store a lot for my observational base of knowledge. Then finally, there she was. I was never so happy that I was unimportant.

It Gets Better

Two of Wanda and my finest friends are in this video. I have been a victim of bullying myself in various parts of my life. Once the bullying of a superior where I then worked was so bad that I questioned for at least a year what joy I had in life. There seemed to be very little. I looked at other workers, even workers doing much more labor intensive lesser paying jobs and wondered, "Why can't I just be like them?"  Over time, it got better, much better. If I hadn't stuck around and persevered through this crises in my life, I would have never known the wonderful life I have today. At the time it seemed hopeless, but it was far from that. That time became one of the most important learning experiences in my life. Much of the enjoyment of the life I now lead is the result of my appreciation  of what I now have as compared to what I didn't have before. It gets better, I promise. Things change, you guide your life forward to a better place and you appreciate it so much more when you get there.

My wife and I, living in the southern United States where intolerance towards gay people is much more profound, have never hidden our complete support of the right of everyone to be who they they want to be. We hope we have affected a few to realize that a new world stands before us. We support our beliefs in our politics and we support our beliefs through our conversations with coworkers, friends, and family. If you've listened to the stories about our cruises, you know. All of them involved our gay friends and all of them were life changing events. It's hard not to find inner change when you are with deeply loved friends.

Thank you Jonathan, Steven, Michael, and Danny for the whole new world we found in your friendship. Jonathan and Steven were there when I decided to ask Wanda to marry me. They shared our joy, the greatest joy I have ever known. They were there for our honeymoon cruise. They have been phenomenal friends and loving friends from the first time we met. Yes, life is good. If you don't feel that way now, realize that it does get better, and it will feel that way to you someday, if you let yourself reach that someday.