Prop 8, religion, politics

Proposition 8 passed in November while I was on vacations. Everybody at home was happy that Senator Obama was elected President but were not aware of the other propositions on the ballot especially Prop 8 in California. I explained to them a little bit of the process and the difficulty to choose one side or another on a lot of the issues. In my case I had chosen to only vote on the ones of which I had a clear understanding. Of course Prop 8 was one of them. Since I have been back I have read articles, listened to interviews and some of my friends reactions. I don't even want to start on the issue. There are so many things wrong with this. Again Church dictated the State what to do, once again ignoring the "Separation of Church and State"....

Keith Olbermann on his TV show put it plain and simple to the people who voted for this proposition.



Another journalist, Lisa Miller, wrote an article in Newsweek covering some more specific points. The article is called "Our Mutual Joy".

"Opponents of gay marriage often cite Scriptures. But what the Bible teaches about love argues for the other side.

Let's try for a minute to take the religious conservatives at their word and define marriage as the Bible does. Shall we look to Abraham, the great patriarch, who slept with his servant when he discovered his beloved wife Sarah was infertile? Or to Jacob, who fathered children with four different women (two sisters and their servants)? Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon and the kings of Judah and Israel—all these fathers and heroes were polygamists. The New Testament model of marriage is hardly better. Jesus himself was single and preached an indifference to earthly attachments—especially family. The apostle Paul (also single) regarded marriage as an act of last resort for those unable to contain their animal lust. "It is better to marry than to burn with passion," says the apostle, in one of the most lukewarm endorsements of a treasured institution ever uttered. Would any contemporary heterosexual married couple—who likely woke up on their wedding day harboring some optimistic and newfangled ideas about gender equality and romantic love—turn to the Bible as a how-to script?

Of course not, yet the religious opponents of gay marriage would have it be so." (click here to read more)
By Lisa Miller | NEWSWEEK
Published Dec 6, 2008
From the magazine issue dated Dec 15, 2008

As 2009 approaches I can only hope that people will educate themselves and search for the truth, not let only tradition, ignorance and fear forge their beliefs.

Blind faith was probably invented to deter people's questions. If I do not want to answer you all I have to say is if you need to ask then you are not a believer. And people fell for that. The same way nowadays some politicians say that if you criticize your government you are unpatriotic. That is exactly the opposite. Only one who cares enough would question and criticize. Not to just do so, but to make change happen, to advance and be better. Religious systems have hidden so many facts for so long in order to keep their power over the people that of course they are scared of anyone asking questions. You can ask questions without questioning your faith. I have read Bishop John Shelby Spong's book "Jesus for the non-religious" and am now reading "Born of a woman". You probably would have a hard time finding a more religious person. He is a believer in God and Christ and have read passages of the Bible every day since he was 12 years old. His questions have never strayed him from his faith. If anything his quest has only made his faith stronger because he understands so many things so much better now. Still, he is perceived as some kind of a heretic in some religious circles. I guess that is the fate of those who seek the truth. It always has been and maybe will always be. It is so much easier to just go along with what we are being told. We don't have to do any work, any thinking, any research, nothing.
History tells us though that in the end, the "heretics" are vindicated and the truth does prevail no matter how hard some try to bind it. Not that long ago, we thought the Earth was flat.

Back home

I am a flight attendant. For the past 14 years I have gone from one time zone to the next and from one country to another. I have always been able to get back in my own time once back home, if not right away at least in a couple of days. I have been back in San Diego for 4 days now. I am still jet-lagged. I cannot seem to be able to get back in Pacific time. But I think it's more than that. I barely eat, hardly leave the house and have not had a good night sleep yet.
It's been weirder than usual because I stayed longer with my family this time. Usually, I'm there for a week or 10 days max but I was there for 16 days and it made a big difference. The only nice thing coming back home was to find the beautiful weather and feel the sun without the 90% humidity and the sudden tropical deluge. I tend to think that I get along with my family because we are so far away and I only get to see them twice a year. I know better. Maybe that is why I try not to stay too long because it makes it that much harder to leave them. The bond between us is so strong. We care about and love each other not because we are family, but because we genuinely like each other as individuals. I guess I have been down since my return because I miss them.
We have started to work on our family tree and have uncovered some things that we were not aware of. Both because as kids we never asked and because we were never told by the adults. We asked mom and dad lots of questions about their family, especially our great grand-parents and beyond. We have learned some amazing facts completely unknown to us. We saw pictures we had never seen before like the ones of my father's dad and mom when they were young and his maternal grand-mother who raised him. I learned that my maternal grand-mother had 4 husbands and not 3 as I always believed. All this is just fascinating. We are learning about people that we knew as kids but could not tell what the family relation was until now. Pretty sad when you think of it but at the same time normal I guess. As kids you know "uncle this" and "auntie that" but do not really know how they are related to you unless they are your parents' siblings or own parents. We have learned more in those past 2 weeks than we have in 40 years! And we are just starting...

Here are some pictures of my stay.

Gwada 10th and 11th day

Yesterday for the first time I was without my family. The kids were in school and everybody else was working. I had breakfast by myself then did some laundry. My highschool friend Pascal came and picked me up around noon, and we stopped by his parent's (my highschool adopted family). Pascal and I had lunch together then hung out and saw some other friends in the afternoon. I got back to my sister's around 6pm and we all went to my brother's for dinner.

I spent the night here. This morning I watched TV with my brother until the others woke up. My nephew Florian prepared breakfast for me and we all ate together. Today is a beautiful clear day. We have a beautiful view of the mountain from my brother's. No clouds blocking the top; the sun is rising and even with the breeze it is getting hot already.

Today we are going to my sister's for lunch.

Gwada 9th day

Not too much to mention for today. Daily walk with sis before breakfast. Around 11:30we leave for the beach where we spend the whole afternoon. We went to the kid's favorite beach: Saint-Anne. Blue tranparent water in a calm lagoon with no waves. The water again is the right temperature. We finally leave because we have to go to a birthday party (another one!). We get back home early but we all are exhausted. I will be going to bed early tonight.

Gwada 7th & 8th day

Did not go for my walk as my sister and I started right away to plan the evening party. Things missing on the grocery list, things to do, things to clean...etc. The weather was still not great so we decided to mow the lawn before rain came. A couple of hours and a few blisters later, we get ready for our trip to the mall. After groceries and a stop for a hair cut we are on our way to mom's for lunch and a nap.

We are back at my sister's and get stuff ready for the party. We don't want to be in the kitchen while guests are here so we are trying to have most things ready to go.

Some of my oldest friends are here. We have known each other since we were 10 years old. We always see each other when I come here. I am so happy to see everybody. We have obviously different lives now but that connection is still there and I believe it will be there forever. We were jocking that we would still get together when we are 90 years old with the kids and grand kids!

Today I went on my walk by myslef since everyone in the house was still sleeping when I left. We all had breakfast together after I came back. Jeannot started to do some work in the garden and I helped with the walkway, cutting grass and cleaning hedges. The day seemed to have gone by very fast today. We had a late lunch and it's almost sunset already.

Gwada 6th day

Six days already. Times flies! Tomorrow we are having a party for my sister's birthday so the two of us spent the day gathering the goods for the event. The weather was overcast and it rained a lot so it was perfect for shopping. I hope the sun comes back soon.

Gwada 5th day

After my daily morning walk with my sister, again we just hung out at the house with the kids. Last chance to go over homework since they go back to school tomorrow morning. After lunch, my sister, my sister-in-law, the 4 kids and I, drive to Saint-Claude to visit my dad. We spend the whole afternoon with him. He looks great and it's good to see him. We leave dad just before 7pm. During the one hour drive back to Lamentin we go through a deluge. Tropical weather at its best.

Gwada 3rd and 4th day

Yesterday was another laid back day. I did go for my walk in the morning, but we just hung around at my sister's house after that. I helped the kids with their homework, then we had lunch, then I took a nap. Life is so hard!!!
In the afternoon we went to Giovanny's birthday, my cousin Ingrid's oldest son who turned 7. Another birthday party.... and my sister's in on the 5th. The good thing with all those parties is that I get to see family members that I would have to go visit. More time to myself!

Today I took avantage of the kids being on vacations again and spent the whole day with them at my sister's. We went to the beach for a few hours in the afternoon and had a blast. The water was perfect. That's one of the things I miss, living in San Diego and being so close to the water but not being able to go in (I know, I'm a wuss). You can see though some of the damages caused by the last hurricane. The beach shore is a little different from what I remember but the scenery is still breathtaking. We went back home and simply ordered pizza. The kids are exhausted. We eat while watching the French take on the US elections!

Gwada 2nd day

I woke up yesterday and decided to go for a walk. I know that I will be eating a lot while I'm here and I do not want to gain one pound. I walked for about 2 hours and felt good, although the heat and the humidity kill you. After breakfast we hung out at my sister's until lunch time. We then went to Paolo's house for Lorenzo's birthday. Ghyslaine, my sister in law had prepared a feast and we ate pretty much all afternoon. We always have a wonderful time when we all get together eating and laughing. We were there until late in the night.

Gwada 1st day

I really do not know why I stressed so much about my trip. I guess I really wanted to come home. It's my nephew Lorenzo's birthday today. It's my sister's on the 5th. The kids are on Holidays from school and my sister took a week off. It is the perfect setting for me. I get to maximize the time spent with them all.
I only really started to plan my trip last Friday. I had an idea of how I would get here but had not looked up the loads until then. I spent hours looking at all possible options to get me here and back to San Diego. On Friday, flights looked really good and I was happy. Saturday when I woke up and checked, things had changed dramatically. I went into panick mode. I did not want to waste days trying to get on a flight.
It was very frustrating because I had different tools to plan my trip and each of them had a different story. Our website from work gave weird info as the same flight listed in different itinireries came up with different loads for the same day. Did not seem very reliable. I then checked each airline's own website and looked up the seats still available for sale and got some numbers which on Friday make me feel good. On Saturday those numbers were not good anymore. Then when I called the airline to get listed on the flight, again I got not very reassuring words from the agent. I went to the airport in the afternoon to pay for my tickets. As Henry put it, it does sound that if I am buying tickets I am getting on the plane right? Wrong! We buy discounted tickets that allow us to get on any flight with the same routing. For example for my LAX-MIA ticket on American, I can get on any of their flights going to MIA at any time on any day, granted there are seats. I bought a bunch of different routing for my way back to give me as many options as possible.
Norman and Henry came to pick me up and drove me to the airport. I still had to buy my tickets on Air France (the most important) for the flights to and from Guadeloupe. I got those and the boys drop me at the commuter teminal. I checked in at the American Eagle counter and the agent (a very nice lady) told me that "tonight is a great night to travel since the plane is not full". She gave me my seat right away (they usually give out stand-by seats after boarding has started) and told me that the flight from LAX to MIA looked good too!!!! What? A couple hours ago the agent on the phone gave a completely different answer. I felt a big weight lifted from my schoulders. The flight from SAN to LAX was not even half full. The flight from LAX to MIA was fuller but there were still empty seats and I ended up in a row of 3 with just another lady. The flight was uneventful. I was tired but it was hard to sleep with my back bothering me and the tight space. We landed in MIA and after recuparating my checked bag I run to the Air France counter. I had not been able to list myself on the flight the day before and sometimes the agents can be very temperamental and uncooperative. Not the case today. The lady was very nice and even offered me a window exit which gives a few extra inches. She too gave me my seat right away. Another unsual fact. I proceeded in the concourse and waited for boarding. I had a whole row to myself. The plane was maybe 1/3 full on the first leg to Port au Prince, in Haiti. After a one hour stop over, the new passengers came on. A little fuller than before but not more than 1/2 for this leg to Pointe A Pitre. We landed in Guadeloupe right on time. My sister was waiting for me and of course the first stop was my mom's place. We then drove to my sister's where we stayed for a while before going to my brother's where we spent the evening. We had dinner together while listening to music and being goofy. We got back to my siter's around 10pm. It had been a looooong day for me.