He stood outside the pottery shop, at the foot of the hill, next to the intersection. He was slim but not quite anorexic. His baseball cap was faded, spotlessly. I admire good grooming.
I approached the steps to the shop as he approached me with a clipboard. He spoke, “I’m from Yes on 1.” I smiled in happy acknowledgement. “I think I’ve signed all the petitions.” He didn’t have a petition and I kept right on talking. “The marriage equality commercials have been very effective. I think this time around we’ll win. Have you seen the Expedia commercial?” I went on to describe the YouTube ad, wiping a couple of stray tears off my face as I spoke. He took my name and contact information saying, “We have to use your energy, people will respond to it.”
“Let me tell you my story.” I took a closer look at his prominent cheekbones. I recognized his look. He loves his partner, his partner loves him. They don’t live in this state. They’ve been graced with an inherited, old, farmhouse here in the countryside. They spent idyllic summer vacations there with his partner’s family. They trust the local doctor. They hope Yes on 1 will pass. They want to be together in a place they love when the end comes. They need the law to protect them, to guarantee unlimited access to care for each other in sickness, the legal right to love each other until death parts them.
Equality is equitable for everyone.
elroyjones 
This almost made me cry, and that is something. So simple and honest and straightforward…no pun intended…you go, girl.
That man was a testimony to the NEED for marriage equality. It does not diminish my marriage if gay people are afforded the same right to marry.
It doesn’t diminish anybody’s anything.
Amen.
As humans, we’re all in this together. I’m so happy to see you out and about tonight.
I’m happy to be out and about… though, I still can’t seem to focus long enough to put something on my own blog. Thankfully, there’s good stuff like yours to enjoy!
You capture the gist of the situation so well. How could people not want this man and his partner to comfort each other in shared ritual, life, and equality under the law.
We all need to love without persecution.
Can I hear a hearty AMEN to that!
AMEN, Sister!
“They want to be together in a place they love when the end comes.” And then there are those who want to see “the end” come collectively. They pray for it. Smitten with certainty.
It’s a source of perplexed amazement that those who claim kinship with divinity relish a violent end. “Smitten with certainty”, I can see the self-righteous expression that accompanies the sentiment, you nailed it. Who are they to judge?
Beautiful and correct.
So are you out wandering the streets to meet these people? (This is what jealousy looks like in print.)
George and I just had an exchange about my exchanges. He said people could pay for my company. Alas that ship has sailed, and rather than walking the streets I am relegated to wandering them aimlessly, clothes unmatched and askew, wondering why my “clap on clap off” doesn’t turn anything on. “A faded rose from days gone by…”
Not so much a faded rose from days gone by. People would pay for your company. Many would. Just to have a conversation with you. The truth.
You are generous and people are lonely, incidental to all of that, I am quite fond of talking.