This song recalls for me another springtime and the bittersweet memory of my first love, forever panting and forever young, in the tremulous dawn of manhood more than half a century ago. I've written about Pat before, if you care to read the story - that chaste and secret love we shared came to a sad ending but gave me moments of joy I've never forgotten.
Other loves and other disappointments followed; but at this late age, living contentedly with M.P., I realize how blessed I was to have those friendships and passing joys. How true the saying is - better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.
Yesterday, I happened to come across this recording by the Mike Faraci Band, a local NYC group, which is an amzingly good cover of the 1972 Badfinger original. Huh. How do those young'uns even know about such antique music, I wonder.
By the way, Mike is a man of parts: lead singer, guitarist, composer, artist, interior designer, and is highly skilled at carpentry and other DIY projects. Rather studly, too. Check out this tour of his New York City apartment - his aesthetic is not mine, but I can appreciate what's he's done with colors, textures, and light:
This was my "coming out music" - reminds me of happy times, hot summer nights, and one very hot guy in particular. Much fun.
Today's Google doodle celebrates the beginning of "Pride Month" with a spinning disco ball:
I got to wondering, just when did this Pride Month business start, so I looked it up on Wikipedia. To my surprise, I find that Bill Clinton first recognized Pride Month in 1999. I must have missed the memo.
I've never changed my belief that gays and lesbians make up about 3 percent of the population; that's 3 out of 100. You can look at the whole field of statistics on this subject and debate it all you want to, but I'm not going there. So by very simple arithmetic, that tells me there are about 10 million gays and lesbians in the United States, the population of which is 342,543,550 as I type this sentence.
(See the U. S. Census Bureau's Population Clock for up-to-the-second figures on the U. S. and world population. See Statistics Canada for Canadian figures. And here's a cheat sheet for you: roughly speaking, the U.S. population is about 8 times bigger than Canada's, and about 3 times bigger than Mexico's or Russia's. However, both India and China have about 4 times more people than the United States.)
Well, anyway, is a whole month of Pride really necessary? It matters not to me, because I'm an old man who doesn't get out of the house much anymore. I've never been to a Pride parade. M.P. and I did go to a Pride celebration at the county fairgrounds on a June night in 2019 - we got there in the cool of the evening about 9 p.m., when it was all winding down.
We nibbled things from the food trucks, listened to a few speakers and singers, and bought some trinkets to take home: a friendly, pleasant, down-home crowd of all ages, very like what you'd find at a real county fair - plus a lot of rainbow flags. There were even some straight couples there, pushing babies in strollers - why, I have no idea. The next year, it was cancelled on account of the pandemic, and we've never heard any more about it in this vicinity.
But I guess there has to be a Pride Month, because you just know that 10 million screaming queens could never agree on a single week, let alone a single day!
P. S. -- M.P. is offended by the disco ball. He says it only represents the little twinkly barflies, and leaves out the butch gays and the lesbians. I guess he's right. We are thinking of suing Google now, and we will certainly file a discrimination complaint with the Grand Gay Cabal. Stay tuned for further updates.
I came across this little story about forty years ago, when I was returning to the Christian faith after a long period of agosticism. It meant a lot to me then. It means even more now, looking back across the years.
There are things you can't really understand until you have lived a long life, travelled a long way, loved much and lost much. And then you see the footprints. Thanks be to God.
Click to enlarge.
And in the wilderness (as thou hast seen) the Lord thy God hath carried thee, as a man is wont to carry his little son, all the way that you have come, until you came to this place.
Official photograph of Representative Barney Frank, 2008.
Former Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, one of the first openly gay congressmen and a champion of gay rights, died yesterday at his home in Ogunquit, Maine. He was 86 and had been receiving hospice care. A mainstay of the Democratic Party for many years, he brought his considerable intelligence, shrewd pragmatism, and outspoken personality to bear on many important issues during his thirty years in the House, and was the co-sponsor of the landmark Dodd-Frank reform bill in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Frank is survived by his husband, Jim Ready, two sisters, and a brother. He was a hero of our community who will be much missed and long remembered. Here are some videos recounting his life and accomplishments:
Steve Hayes reviews the classic celestial fantasy, filmed in glorious Technicolor in England at the end of World War II, based on the play by the great Noel Coward. Never mind what the critics said at the time, or later - this is a beautifully filmed, delightfully upper-crust comedy of the kind that isn't made anymore. And darling Margaret Rutherford, the old dear, is a complete hoot! If you've never seen it, your're in for a treat - enjoy!
Bonus: The English country house that was used for exterior shots is still standing just outside London, and just as lovely as it looks in the film. Check out the real estate listing from 2019 to see some stunning photos of the inside and outside.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, harmony; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that I may seek not so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
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We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.
and welcome to the Blue Truck, a blog for mature gay men with news and views on gay rights, history, art, humor, and whatever comes to mind. Plus a few hot men. The truck's all washed and gassed up, so hop in buddy, let's go.
CAUTION: For mature gay men only beyond this point. Some posts and links may not be suitable for children or the unco guid. You have been warned.
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My Story
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Churches say that the expression of love in a heterosexual monogamous relationship includes the physical, the touching, embracing, kissing, the genital act - the totality of our love makes each of us grow to become increasingly godlike and compassionate. If this is so for the heterosexual, what earthly reason have we to say that it is not the case with the homosexual?
It is a perversion if you say to me that a person chooses to be homosexual. You must be crazy to choose a way of life that exposes you to a kind of hatred. It's like saying you choose to be black in a race-infected society.
If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn't worship that God.
