Tuesday morning rant

I was at the gym this morning (yup...still going!) and as I was in the locker room getting ready to leave I started chatting with an older lady. Now, we all know the reputation of male "locker room talk", and I have to say I would have preferred to have listened to that. It started off innocently enough with her telling me that she wanted to be a 94 year old (she's probably in her late 60's now) running marathons. Somehow it then turned into that she was happy she had her kids later in life so that she was able to enjoy her teen years (I'm wondering how old she thought I was?!). It then became a preaching session as to how it's impossible to have children teaching children anything about values because they think it's funny to have babies at 17. And to top it all off we know that there is already a severe lack of morals in our world because people are allowed to marry whomever they like. At first I wasn't following her and then I realized that she was talking about gay marriage. Aahhh Alberta. Much as I love it there are certainly some aspects that I hate. Like a Premier who is adament about the notwithstanding clause and the redneck attitude that seems to be so prevalent here. I blame my parents for teaching me that all people are created equal and everyone deserves respect and fairness. I was also taught that it was ok to believe whatever you like as long as you aren't hurting anyone. What ever were they thinking by teaching a small impressionable child that?! It seems that we are not equal and that there is a large contingent of our population who are going straight to hell. The way I see it is if two people love and respect each other enough to want to commit the rest of their lives to each other (gay or straight) they deserve all the encouragement and support in the world. It does not affect my life in any way and I'm always impressed when people take that step. Besides, when you look at statistics heterosexual people haven't done a bang up job of marriage!! And to top it all off, I don't understand why the religous right is so concerned about the gay community going to hell. Again, it doesn't affect them as they are all surely going to heaven!!

A lovely way to start my morning today... being lectured by a stranger who doesn't know my views, who felt compelled to share hers and to be reminded that we as a community, both local and global, have a lot of work to do.