I ran across three stories in my web wanderings that I thought might be of interest to you guys this morning. The first story is a bout the commencement speech given by Director/Writer Josh Whedon to his Alma Mater, Weslyan College. It is perhaps the best commencement speech I have ever read encompassing a little truth, a little humor and a little bit of brilliant advice. The speech was highly entertaining yet revealing of simple truths and challenges for this years graduating class. It is well worth the read.
Next up comes a story about an out Gay college basketball player named Jallen Messersmith. Jallen was born in Missouri, raised as a Mormon, survived bullying and is now an Out Gay Athlete at a Catholic College in Kansas. He also goes on more dates than his teammates. Talk about making lemonade out of a basket of lemons... this story is heartwarming and serves as an excellent example for Gay and Questioning young athletes or for anyone who is looking for inspiration for overcoming obstacles in their life path. Jallen is happy being just one of the guys, and the guys are happy to have him. Would that all young Gay athletes could say the same.
The last story comes from Kathy Baldock over at Canyonwalker Connections and has a tie in to the metroplex suburb of Grand Prairie, TX. For many months last year, Kathy was cyber stalked by the assistant pastor of a fundamentalist church in Grand Prairie who set up multiple You Tube accounts to persecute Kathy whose life work is to bring the Christian Church and the LGBT Christian community closer together. The daughter of the assistant pastor also got in the act with her anti-Gay Christian rap video that went viral last year. This last Sunday Kathy and a transgendered lady on her staff, Lisa Salazar confronted that assistant pastor, David Jarzabek and his daughter Jessica at The Word Church in Grand Prairie. The results were somewhat predictable, but the story has both its lessons and revelations of the unabated bigotry of some fundamentalists who can't see the glory of the cross because of their own shadow of prejudice blocks the truth from their eyes. This is why we continue to fight and why we still have so far to go in this state to gain even a smidgeon of equality. If I may be crass, these fundie folks have their head so far up their asses they can only see shit and think that they are looking at the truth. I applaud Kathy's efforts and am thankful she has gained some peace, I don't think I could begin to be as cool and collected as she was if I was in the same situation.
Now for your Hump Day Musical Moment, I have a little Mid Week Mozart for you with this 1998 recording of Vadim Repin as he performs Mozart's Violin Concerti 2,3 and 5 accompanied by the Vienna Chamber Orchestra conducted by Yehudi Menuhin.
Then to close out this post and help you over the mid week hump and headed downhill for the weekend, I have this eclectic collection of Hump Day Hunks for your visual appreciation and mine. Thanks for stopping in, see you again soon. Until next time as always, Enjoy!
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