My Life

He knows his way in the dark Mine is the way of the Lord And those who follow the path of the righteous Shall have their reward This is an excerpt from the song "Stars" from the musical Les Misérables.   It is the inspector Javert singing about Jean Valjean, whom he has been chasing ever since he broke his parole.  Valjean robbed a house, and due to a series of attempted escapes, ended serving nearly 20 years in prison before he was offered parole.  He broke parole and became a very successful businessman and mayor of a town. Each man felt that what he was doing was good.  Javert felt that his duty to the law was righteous, and that anyone who broke the law was wicked.  Valjean felt that he was doing the right thing by providing food for his starving family, even if that meant steal from someone else.  He also felt he was doing the right thing by being a benevolent and respected mayor. While this is fictional, it teaches many lessons about life.  One that I would like t

Owning a dog has been very educational for me.  I have learned a lot about myself and about dogs simply by observing the dog that we own.  I have shared some of these thoughts before, and now I shall share some more. One of the many things I have thought about is the morals that our dog seems to exhibit.  Many people will say that animals act on instinct or that they do not have a moral code.  I strongly disagree.  Observing Konan, and all of the animals in the YouTube videos that Conrad watches, I know that animals are intelligent and that they feel empathy just the same as we do, and that their conduct is dictated in large part by their empathies. To illustrate what I mean by this, let me give some examples.  Konan bites us.  But when he does, they are play bites.  He is not biting with his full strength.  He would easily break our skin if he did, and possibly even break some bones as well.  But he does not.  He has only broken skin on a couple of instances, when he was overly

I happened across this article today.  I do recommend reading it.  It is a gay man's experience in coming to terms with his sexuality--saving himself from the brink of suicide--and finding love.  The title says it is part 4 of 8.  I have not read any of the others in the series, but I just might. What I wish to address in particular about his article are his comments about sex itself.  He mentions that he has always believed in abstinence until lifelong monogamy.  Then he mentions that when he has voiced this opinion to other people in the LGBT community, he has made enemies doing so.  This is the thing that I wish to speak about. I have talked before about sex, and I shall probably talk of it often in the future.  I think that it needs to be discussed more openly and frankly in our society.  I think that the shame that is often associated with even mentioning sex is very harmful, particularly to young people just coming to terms with new and heightened sexual feelings. The