Friday, January 26, 2024

Because I Don’t Understand Anymore. What do you believe? 07.28.2022

if human life is what i REALLY care about (and I think we’ve all established that i do)….


…and if advocating for all people to have access to the things I have access to and have always had access to my whole life for no other reason than this little one that, as a fetus, I had no control over:


I was born into my family because my parents had sex without me knowing about it and now I live here in this society/culture. So, in my neighborhood we had food, running water, a pet dog, safe schools, lots of white people, a school system that offered arts & sports and extra curricular activities. We had guidance counselors and dual enrollment opportunities in high school. And Western ethics and Evangelical Christianity were the only tools I had as my basis of morality. My decisions were simply shaped by me being born to two white parents who were also born to (or adopted by—in my dad’s case) two white parents in a middle class small town in Michigan. I didn’t choose my circumstances and the life I was born into, nature did. 


I can easily recognize that there are people in this world and in my country and in my own community that are born to VASTLY different circumstances. So, the only way to understand what that would be like is to seek out real life examples of people that are different than me and think of how my definition of morality and ethics might shift…an example of a situation that plays out over and over again in our communities. 


And then I imagine voting for a policy that will effectively force a single mother living in poverty to use her body to grow a baby. For the sake of that unborn baby. This woman comes from a long line of generational and racial trauma and poverty and she’s black. Her household income is around $25,000–and she does not have company funded medical benefits (and don’t even think about paid maternity leave). There is limited access to safe & reliable & affordable childcare & safe schools with access to helpful resources in the area where she lives because the houses in her area are not worth as much as a middle class white small town in michigan. Property taxes fund public schools. So, guess who has nicer school districts? 


And if she wants to get food for herself and her growing fetus, her job better accommodate for that addition to her life—but it won’t. 


So, she tries assistance programs but there are hoops to jump through to get those resources. And that would require a vehicle (but she don’t have one) and paid leave from her job (nope) and she’s currently struggling to feed just herself. She doesn’t have adequate insurance so she compiles medical debt. And even if she gave her baby up for adoption and some family (best case) pays her medical bills…she has persistent incontinence and painful clogged milk ducts and no money to treat any of it. And so…the baby goes to foster care. 


Now it’s 2022. And these anti-abortionists have been touting the same shit for years…so why the fuck is our foster care system so broken if you are insisting these babies be born. Why are there areas of such extreme poverty and desperation in our own communities where circumstances like this exist. And you’re worried about forcing a person to carry a baby for none other reason than that kid…must simply be…born? 


Did you forget they’re being born into two IMPOSSIBLE situations. Roughly half of foster youth nationwide never even finish high school. 1 in 5 will be homeless after that. And 1 in 4 will be involved in the criminal justice system—within 2 years of aging out or just simply disappearing from the system. 


Oh, if father is long gone and has given up rights to the child (4 out of every 10 children are born to a single parent home where the father has left—and it’s not illegal to do that, the law just takes their parental rights away after a period of time). And that happens all of the time. You can abandon and neglect your child as a father without any form of punishment or real compensation to the mother…and you’re worried about this kid being born? So, just assuming she can easily receive child support it and doesn’t have to go to the trouble of going to small claims—oh wait, we’ve already established it would be pretty difficult with no car, no money, no proper childcare or PTO to speak of.


…even so, child support on average is about $403/month for one kid (assuming a person lives in Michigan). But, she live in poverty. She has medical bills. Childcare. And then the cost of existing as a human in this country. And her circumstances cannot be changed in 9 months. 


But it is illegal to abort the fetus. So she has a kid but because of where she lives and what color her skin is…the kid will NEVER have the same opportunities I had. And statistically speaking, they will likely suffer. And how is that fair. Mom suffers physically and fiscally and emotional and mentally just so the fetus comes to term and is born with all the odds in the world against them. So, whose life gets better because of this? …and please don’t tell me her eternal life. We don’t even know if she knows about god or has ever been taken to a church or ever will. 


Not to mention, LOOK at how we treat young pregnant women in this country. We literally all sat on our asses and watched a show about children having babies for entertainment. Combine going through puberty and development with unsupportive father figures and unsupportive parents, oh…and take a trig final while you have morning sickness. 


So, again, whose life improves? Whose life gets better because this kid is born? The single mother’s? Is the kid’s life better simply because the kid was born? 


Or…is it your life that is better if she has this kid? 


Because you still get to go to heaven either way but you also don’t have to pay any of her expenses or watch her kid or live in her home or work her job. And if you care for the kid, is it just the fetus? Because that kid’s life is statistically going to be pretty horrible. 


…it’s pretty simple. You live in a reality where having a baby would upset your life quite a bit—as it does—but this situation would not be your reality. 


Just because I will never know this theoretical woman’s experiences first hand, what kind of American or Jesus lover would I be if I didn’t fight to end racial disparities and poverty and fight the root cause of these issues. We aren’t  taking care of our own citizens. People take care of what fulfills them personally...because that’s what they’ve been taught. 


And then they tell people they’ve earned everything they have through hard work. No. You were given your life and your circumstances. Because you were born to a family that made it easier for you. 


I want this world to be better and I am willing to give up my own climb to wealth and power and bigger houses and nicer cars to make sure of it. 


How many times this summer did you stress about having to get your lawn mowed? When there are people living in the city you live in that will never come close to owning a lawn mower. Or a lawn. Ever. 


And you just tithed 10% of your pay check to that church that people volunteer their time at to direct traffic toward on sundays to a building nicer than all the community centers that serve the homeless in your community. And everyone there looks like they got to church in a late model SUV to BUY their latte at the church cafe to contribute to…more churches and church cafes? While people starve on the streets less than 15 minutes from the front doors. But please tell me how you’re doing the lord’s work.


I have no qualms with people who have a hard time conceiving a reality where a woman would choose to abort a fetus, rather than bring them into the world or (other option) put them into the foster care system that is irrefutably broken.


But you are not pro-life. You are anti-abortion. And you think it’s your religious duty to vote to prevent murder. But it just doesn’t happen that way. Numbers go up. You hurt our country and humankind by deliberately forcing women/people (and children) to carry a fetus to term when they can’t afford to sustain a pregnancy or another human life and the alternative is just as bad. You take and destroy more lives than you save them. And that’s just a fact. 


We cannot stay the same anymore. Look around you—if all your closest friends look the same as you—think similarly and believe the same things as you—if they never correct you or question you or challenge you, how will you ever really know if you’re the one that’s right? If you’re all the smartest people in the room, does that really mean that there is such a huge divide between human beings that we are unwillingly to accept that someone else’s life and family might matter too? …like can you really say that you are just protecting your belief system? Because I don’t understand that anymore. What do you believe? That suddenly everyone is going to become a Christian and be saved from their circumstances and never have an abortion again? How exactly would that happen? What policies should we support?


I cannot say that I would be making the same decisions in any way shape or form…let alone what kind of decisions I’d be even ABLE to make about my reproductive health in that situation. 


And that’s assuming I’m straight presenting. 


No one, with ABSOLUTE and full confidence, could ever say they would know what is best for someone else’s life without knowing exactly where they came from and the generations and generations that led to them being in their circumstance. 


If you really care about saving lives and not a tired rhetoric that you only believe because your mom and your pastor told you to, worry about your own life. Don’t have any abortions yourself and you’ll go to heaven. We’ll be busy trying to build the kingdom HERE. Thy will be done. 

Monday, May 9, 2022

help me understand 05.09.2022

You love them until they openly reject your rhetoric. 

You love them until it’s hard for you to listen to their opinion because it’s not the same as yours. 


You follow closely until it requires you to pull the plank from your eye. 


You love them with a clause. 


You love them “even though they….” 


You love her “we just can’t…”


You love her “but…”


You love her “…despite”


What you’re saying is “we love them even though they aren’t worthy of love…” and some of you think this was the message of Jesus. 


That we are to love everyone even though they aren’t worthy of it. So we use this to help us justify our hatred for people. Listen to me. I’ve heard this at dinner tables I’ve sat at:


“Well. You know. She has a girlfriend now. But. You know. We are still called to love her even though she’s gay. Ellen is gay, and we love Ellen.”


But, Jesus’ message was not this message. It wasn’t the message of “love others even though they are sinners because some sinners are cool and do good things”. 


He said…no one here on earth is worthy of love in the way that our faith has traditionally defined it (with rules and sins and hatred for defiance to the rules and laws of sin) 


And the message was that all our “sins” are weighed equally. So, we love everyone because everyone here is worth it. PERIOD. There weren’t exceptions to this love. Do you understand? The Jesus I learned about said…fuck your religion. Fuck your theology. Love one another without reservation. 


WE should LOVE People WITHout CONDITIONS. 


Unconditional. Agape love. Isn’t this the good news?


I’m so confused. Where is Jesus? Where is this Jesus you talk about? Where is the Jesus that surrounded himself with the filth of society? With people like me? 


Where is this Jesus? He’s not in your church. 


Are we supposed to isolate ourselves from the problems of this world???? 


Are we only to be friends with people who align with our own thinking? Are we only to love people who look like us? 


Where is your God? Who is all powerful and all knowing? If he is all powerful how is he contained in that book written by a man in a world we didn’t live in? How can you dare to know YOUR truth is the only truth?


How can you reject a world where the people were fully cared for?


Where is this god you spoke of to me who loves us all and befriended the unloved who bucked society’s rules? Where is this Jesus here? 


He’s not in your church. He’s not in your heart. What good are you doing by setting yourself apart from a world that’s growing and learning to love people better than you? 


Where is your Jesus? Where is your growth? Where is your heart? Why are you complicit in this bullshit? What are you fighting for? Love???


Where is your compassion and love and where are your eyes at? Where is your resistance to this….idolatry? 


Lay it down. Like really lay it down. What legacy are you leaving with compliance to this system of “love” on the basis of attendance and your tithe??? What good was ever done by following the status quo??? 


This is the idolatry he spoke of. This is the madness Jesus spoke of. Jesus was not a Christian. He was a man. A Jewish man. Who was sick of rules deciding who was taken care of and who was loved. Who was sick of a system profiting off of a perceived salvation. 


It feels like the current systems of Christian love have bastardized a man’s legacy in the name of their own comfort and salvation. If we take away your church, if we take away your idea of sin and salvation…what do you have left now? Can you still love people without this and could you go out into the world and love people like Jesus from the Bible? Because it seems like everyone else is doing it better than you. It seems like everyone else is fighting harder than you for the oppressed to be heard. For the broken and sick to be healed. For the hungry to be fed. For the lost to be found. Not the white woman to buy a new house and car in a nice neighborhood and good schools. We shouldn’t thank God for that. We should thank God our circumstances allowed for that and do our best to make sure we fill the cups of others whenever possible. Because we have the means to. 


JESUS FOUGHT FOR THE OPPRESSED. JESUS DIDNT FIGHT FOR THOSE WHO WERE REPRESENTED. He was popular because he went against the churches. The organized. The regulators. 


Lay it fucking down. This is your power. This is the power of the Pharisees. The power to control the uncontrolled. 


You feel good attending on sundays because it rids you of the guilt you feel for clinging to your possessions and your nice way of living while the underprivileged people that can’t even afford to drive to your church on Sunday suffer because they can’t find something to eat and they aren’t in a different country—THEY ARE ON YOUR CITY STREETS. 


Tell me why there are 2 MEGA CHURCHES in Kalamazoo, MI where the head pastors live in absolute luxury but there are still people LINING up for free food at the organizations that try to provide for the hungry and homeless in Kalamazoo. WHERE IS YOUR JESUS. WHERE IS HE. 


WHY is it that these churches in Kalamazoo can open multiple locations. Million dollar facilities on the same streets where I was asked for cash on Saturday night? They can endorse beautiful establishments in the most sought after real estate in the city and staff them but there are still homeless, there are still hungry, there is still gun violence, there is still racism…..HELP ME UNDERSTAND WHERE IS YOUR JESUS. 


I want your Jesus here. I want His Kingdom to come here. I want that Jesus. I want him deeply. I require that Jesus in this world. But I do not see him in the faces of you. I do not see him at your church. I do not feel him in your hearts when I hear you sit around the dinner tables and express your disgust for queer people, and your disgust for a young black mother relying on WIC for her similac, express your disgust for a pregnant woman who is pregnant with her 5th child by a different man because she was the victim of sexual abuse and neglect for most of her life and was never able to understand the meaning of love and the right to choose who touched her body. 


You want to protect your ability to feel better about your life because the current laws and systems support the safety and preservation of the life you enjoy. And heaven forbid you make sacrifices to that life. Because you earned it, damnit. You worked hard for it. And you shouldn’t have to give anything up for the lives of others! What’s that, Jesus? Oh yeah, I LOVE JESUS. He’s my hero. Long live my savior. He saved my life and I am called to be more like him! 


Where is your Jesus. Tell me. Where is your heart for more than the people in your life that look like you. That live like you. That live near you. That talk like you. Where is your love for the people in your city living in filth and poverty and hardship and your version of sin …they’re not at your church. Would Jesus be at your church? God. No. He wouldn’t. Ok?

Saturday, July 31, 2021

chameleon 07.10.2021

 Shelby trying to list off brands of chewing tobacco: 

“YUKON!”

“TAHOE!”

“HUSKY!”

Everyone else, “……grizzly?”

Saturday, July 10, 2021

What They Should Teach Us In School 7/10/2021

Mindfulness and meditation to quiet mind chatter (by doing art or listening to music or moving your body or breath work, etc.). We should learn more about diversity, equity & inclusion and understanding the unconscious bias. And…nutrition for health and wellness and not body mass index. And maybe teaching them how to establish essential values for themselves and how to live by them and how all facets of their life would be affected if they were or were not truly honoring those values. Maybe we stop forcing a freshmen in high school to choose a career pathway…when they are almost 10 years away from their prefrontal cortex being fully developed. So, why don’t we teach people to figure out who they are and invite them to embrace all of it and walk firmly in that before they figure out how they’re going to get a job that has good retirement benefits so they can be comfortable FIFTY years from when they are being asked to contemplate it. I don’t even know what I am gonna eat for dinner, let alone what I’ll be doing just ONE year from now. So many young adults feel like they are lacking real purpose and they’re unhappy. So, if you could teach an adolescent to periodically check in with what drives them and WHY it drives them (essential values)…they’ll feel more fulfilled in the long run because they’ll have a strong awareness of self that allows them to name their emotions, how they’re expressing them, the level of importance, and what the situation calls for in order to realize harmony within all relationships. And maybe then we would have a more capable and confident workforce because they chose a job that fit well with their inherent and known strengths.

Friday, July 9, 2021

Sick Of Dave Matthews Band 07.08.2021

 To Stefani


It has taken me so long to get the energy to write this to you. Because nothing felt right and I don’t think I was ready to process all of this. I don’t think any of us ever will be. I know I’m experiencing pain but I also know the pain I feel is just a fraction of the pain that aunt cheryl, uncle Mike, Daddy, Jer, JR, and Mack are feeling. I’m writing this to you because I miss you and I love you and you left us far too soon and I never got to tell you all the memories I cherished growing up with you. To note: saving us when our car broke down, coloring with me, asking me to make you a morning playlist because you were getting sick of Dave Matthews band, when I was 7 I remember you taking me on a ride in your convertible Spyder with the top down on Thanksgiving day in Chicago—simply because I asked you, and shooting hoops with us in the basement for hours and hours. 


But. Why I’ve finally found the strength to write this is…


I’m sitting in my backyard watching tiktoks. And it was this video of a girl just sitting there with some soft music playing. And the sound then prompts her to close her eyes and imagine the younger you running up to the current you to give you a hug. And first of all I was not at all prepared for the waterworks that I experienced…But, second of all, I just had the vision of you, Stef. Because as a kid, I remember seeing you and being so excited to hug you. I thought you were the prettiest lady in all of the land. I told everyone when I was in 1st grade that I wanted to be an eye doctor. You were the best cousin a girl could dream up. 


Because you always saw us. But, like, in a way that made us feel so special and cared for and known. 


And, I guess, as an adult, I realize I’ve been trying so hard to emulate the love that you showed me and being that to the little people in my life. i have 4 nieces that absolutely adore their “auntie shelby” when i walk in the door, lots of little hands grab mine and lead me to their next adventure at mimi and peepo’s. i wanted to be their favorite when they walked in a room because of how I felt about you when I was their age. So, I’ve succeeded and I know that now. Especially after watching that video. I’m a total mess as I write this because I am so so grateful for you and all you brought to my life and so many others. This isn’t fair. I’ll never understand it. But I love you so very much. And I will admire all that you are for the rest of my life.

Damn you, morality!!!!! 07.10.2021

 J
I’ve basically decided that arguing with anyone these days is a complete waste of energy. Everyone has their minds made up already. 


ME

Lolol. It’s so true. But then I think about me. 


ME

And I’m like


ME

Yo. I changed my mind. 


ME

Or…ACTUALLY


ME

I think of it as I’m living my authentic self. I feel like I’m the same kid I was when I was 5. Like. Before all the hurt and confusion of the world got to me. 


ME

Like wow. Humans have free will and we aren’t being moved around by a giant puppeteer?? 


J

My only qualm with the idea of living as a full authentic self is that authentic self can have problems too. Like I wanted to kill my landlord today but I know I shouldn’t. 


ME

Hahahahahaha


ME

Damn you, morality!!!!!


ME

I’m only suffering every day because I believed that if I didn’t suffer constantly and agonize over my sins that I would live in the firey pits of hell forever? 


When do you think Christians are going to realize that they’ve just been being selfish by sitting in church and sucking up weird endorphins during the fancy worship and then going home and hating everyone after? And they’ve been selfish because ultimately we (not me presently) only care about saving ourselves from Hell…instead of, I don’t know, just enjoying our lives on earth? And not simplifying the experience as just a prelude to eternity and using that line of thinking to (unsuccessfully) pacify any kind of painful emotion.  Like imagine how great the world would be if we actually just loved and helped one another like Jesus said. And not used an ancient script to help us come to terms with the fact that we are turd humans and since we are, we are going to use this magical textbook to justify why we can be turds. 


J

But we have to pluck words and read them in plain English even though the magical textbook was written for an entirely different context in an entirely different language. But it says women should be silent in church so it’s a sin if you speak up


J

But we’re cool with ignoring the weird stuff from Leviticus


ME 

I think I read a passage once that said when a woman gets her period she needs to sit outside 


ME

Ok. But can we do that like at a spa? Outdoor spa?


J

It’s real! 


J

And if a dude has a wet dream he has to go out and bury it or something


J

But we read some stuff from the New Testament as it’s supposed to be directly applied to 2021 America


J

And then hit people upside the head with it and make them feel guilt for things they might not need to feel guilty about


ME

And I also remember feeling so guilty for never getting through the lineage chapters in the Bible 


ME

And always feeling so confused when people like got excited about reading the same book every day. 


ME

I can’t even watch the same movie twice. 


J

I’m not fully deconstructing (maybe decon light) but I think it see the Bible as the story of Jesus and people who read it daily are experiencing God through it


ME

Oh I’m with you on that. 


ME

I love Jesus 


ME

Like I really do. 


ME

Because he was human. And he loved people really hard and wide out in the open. And he never changed who he was even when he got shit on over and over. 


ME

That’s the kind of love I want to emulate. 


J

Preach


J

Not the “let’s storm the capital to and push our religion on everyone else by making some weird Christian nation” type of love

Friday, January 18, 2019

Some Good Days 01.18.2019

Year 6

We walked home from school to find that mom was home early and we had a new puppy.  She told us the story about how she had to go to the grocery store after she got her, so she put her in her pocket.

Year Unknown

The house smelled like pipe tobacco and dad tied flies with the supplies in the wood chest that grandpa made.

Year 18

I walked to my Pontiac Sunfire after finishing my Biology final. It was the end of my first semester of college.

Year 15

My baby brother was 4 and we fished off the dock that afternoon. We caught one small sunfish.  At dinner, my brother said that his favorite part of the day was fishing with Shelby. Dad said his favorite part of the day was when we called the house phone from the dock so he could come get the fish off the hook for us.

Year Unknown

I walked out into the hall before the sun came up. There was a plug in nightlight. I had to walk to the living room to see if Papa and Grandma Trudy were awake yet. The tell was the sound of the chairs squeaking from the kitchen. Papa would make me oatmeal with hot water from the tap.

Year 6

On Wednesday nights, we walked across the street to the baseball diamonds together to watch dad coach little league from the dug outs. I thought all the boys were cute.

Year 15

Despite the major breach of peace that night, we played Mad Gab without keeping score until she forced a laugh out of me. But sometimes I couldn't help it and I would cry a lot so she held me and cried, too. That night our parents didn't scold us for keeping them up late.

Year 20 Something

Mom and I set off on our usual 4 mile walk and about 4 minutes in she realized all her clothes were on backward.

Year 6

We didn't pack sweatshirts so we borrowed some. They were too big. We ate tuna fish sandwiches on the beach and watched the sunset. Just the four of us.

Year 7

I practiced at the campground with my dad all weekend to learn how to ride two wheels. We got home late Sunday and my dad's friend called our house. I set down the corded phone in the hall to go pick up the cordless so that on my way upstairs to give dad the phone, I could tell dad's friend about my new skill: Two. Wheels.

Year 14

I was sitting on the couch and you were in the big red chair. To our absolute shock, he came back inside and he kissed you right in front of me and walked back out through the garage. When his car finally left the driveway we were both losing it.

Year 27

We took a Friday off in late September.  We split a sub and two bottles of wine and stayed on the water until the moon was high.

Year 12

We bought a gallon jug of water with the cash we had and hid in the playground for hours vowing to not be grumpy.

Year 10

I wanted to hold my new baby brother the longest. For the first time in my life, I recommended that the oldest go first.

Year 15

I turned 15. Dad made 40 hot dogs for all 40 girls I invited to my birthday party. My sister's friends showed up and one guy with super long hair gave me a Hawk Nelson CD as a birthday gift. He's been my brother-in-law for over 8 years now.