TrelaH @[email protected]

I wanted an Ask Science Mike logo t-shirt to wear to Dragon con in September, but there are none for sale. Took advantage of a day off to create some fan art from a thrift store t-shirt and some fabric paint. I'm pretty happy with it. @mike

Studying Social Work-early 90's I learned that children bought & sold in the sex trade were charged as prostitutes. The adults buying & selling them usually faced no charges. Since that time advocates have worked tirelessly to change public attitudes & unjust laws & to provide help for victims. It takes time & lots of work but things can change for the better. "So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up." Gal 6:9

New in my podcast feed this morning: Stephen Colbert on You Made It Weird. I wish my commute were a little longer!

Some people will live their whole lives in the same community, same church - never leave home and family. Others are compelled to a hero's journey. It is hard. It is painful. It is worth it. If you find that you have to leave the life you thought you would have because you think, or feel, or ARE different, take courage. You will struggle. And you will be OK. You may have to journey far to find your calling and your tribe, but you will be so glad you did.

@vishnu @mike My rowdy friends & I had fun at T&W last night! Met a bunch of cool new people, had some good conversations. Some parts of the event were uncomfortable. I mean, yeah, some of the topics were tough. I squirmed a little with that. But OMG, the chairs in the pit in front of the stage were tiny metal torture stools that caused serious squirming 😂! I hope you had a great visit to the very weirdest part of ATL!

Michael L. Ruffin is a minister in the UCC. I like this poem as a work of political commentary, but I'm also seriously writing Samaritan's Purse to ask for this. Apparently, Trump & Graham are buds, so maybe we could get these kids some blankets, for the literal love of Christ.

Just listened to the new Loving This podcast, and now I'm trying to figure out how to create a "Llama Soft" tee shirt. (Earth Sandwich tees were sold out at the End of the World in ATL.)😂 I also kept wanting @vishnu to realize that while a llama might want to be a goat, a lama would be at peace being a lama. And a caterpillar would ask, "WHO are YOU?" Listening took me back to the days when I could just walk over to a neighbor's house & spend an afternoon being silly, pursuing truth. <3 Carrie!

Keith Green had a very simplistic, dualistic understanding of Christianity. AND he was a gifted singer/songwriter. So I loved him when I was a middle school kid in a conservative church. He sang, "Oh Lord, You're beautiful. Your face is all I see." When I left my childhood faith behind, I dropped Keith. Lately, I'm embracing non-dualistic thinking. This morning, this song is in my head. Everything, all I see, is the face of the Divine. I'm singing this song with gusto. 😃

Got my tickets!! @mike @vishnu I'll see you at the Variety Playhouse in #Atlanta !! Can't wait!

I have a friend who keeps saying they don't understand the Avengers phenom, so I started thinking about it. Humans love mythology. Always have. The Bible got turned into an instruction manual and history/science textbook in this country & lost the magic. So Americans craved BIG stories that tell deep human truths on a legendary scale. Some comic books were telling those myths. Some brilliant filmmakers decided to use modern CGI tech to spark the American mythical imagination. Magic!

Three more days. Three more days till my kids are out of school! Three more days till my next Audible credit and I can get Pete Holmes' Comedy Sex God in my ears! Three more days!!!

2/2 We can learn. We can change. We can grow. God never writes us off. God can use us. Yesterday's lectionary scripture tells the story of Peter telling God that he'd never touch anything unclean, or be around "those" people, & God showing him that there are no "those" people. We're all clean. Peter learned. He grew. He changed. I am praying that God will use me to spread the message that there is no "us" & "them". That's the message I shared all year with some beautiful 4 year olds. <3

Yesterday, I taught the last Sun School lesson for this class of kindergarten students. I love those kids & I've really enjoyed teaching this class. This year, I've had a chance to look at how I learned these familiar Bible stories in a conservative Evangelical upbringing & think about how I understand them differently now. Yesterday's lesson was about Saul "seeing the light" & becoming Paul. I told the class that sometimes we are going to be really wrong about something, but we can learn. 1/2

A podcast made me very happy this morning. Pete Holmes was a guest on the wonderful Unorthodox podcast, talking about Ram Dass and Michael Gungor @vishnu . So many podcast loves colliding in one space. Delicious!

Sometimes I wonder if the phenomenon of gender dysphoria is more pronounced in societies with more gender stereotypes. So, someone may think, "I have a vulva, but I don't feel female, b/c I have "male" preferences/behaviors(P/B)" or "I have penis but don't feel male b/c I have "female" P/B", but those P/B are just _human_ P/B that we've _labeled_ as gender specific. Do we paint people into a corner by saying things like "REAL boys don't like nail polish and lace"?