Sunday, Dec. 05, 2004
Dear Diary:

Little boxes, little boxes ...

Alan is a conservative, in his 50's, at the moment in Florida, but most of the time he lives in the American heartland.

Okay, from that sentence make a picture of Alan in your head. Am I right in guessing that picture involves a man, wife, grown kids, maybe grandkids, and somewhere in there is a Bible?

Well, here's the deal. First off, forget the Bible. Alan is an atheist and pretty outspoken in dismissing religious faith.

Oh, and did I mention that Alan is gay?

But ... but ... Godless homos are Liberals.

Little boxes, little boxes ...

Shell and The Group Captain are conservatives. They support the current American administration vociferously. So it goes without saying that they're riding that administration's moral values bandwagon, right?

Um, no. They support gay unions.

But ... but ... only Liberals think that way.

Little boxes, little boxes ...

I could go on and on but you get my point. It's very easy to slap a label on someone, cram them into a comfortable little box, put them up on a shelf and ignore them.

It's very easy to divide the world into Us and Them and decide everyone who isn't Us thinks exactly alike. If you are a liberal as I am, it's quite possible to live a life where you only have liberal friends, you only watch liberal tee vee news, you only read liberal media and when you go on-line you only read liberal web logs. The same is true for people who are conservatives.

The problem with that way is you never, ever have to think critically about your own beliefs. The problem with that way is you miss the fact that some of the stereotypes you hold about Them are wrong. Most importantly, the problem with that way is that we lose sight of the common ground we share.

And that's the thing. We do share common ground. Fr' instance, I am a liberal, but I have real misgivings about the direction of a lot of children's entertainment.

This would be the part where we all join hands, start swaying and sing Kumbaya. Really. I mean it. Oh, and right after I get done writing this? I'm off to solve the Israel-Palestine problem.

From time to time The Big Adventure gets nominated for a web award. I know. I am as stunned by this as you are. Because I very seldom talk about my politics or matters political (I prefer concrete action to words) I can only conclude that the nominations come because of my passionate commitment to flooding the internet with stories about my cats. I never campaign to win any of these awards. It's honour enough to be acknowledged in the world of Catz Roolz, Dogz Droolz.

But when I was nominated for a Weblog Award for being an incredibly obscure web log, I decided to campaign. Why? Well, the universe of the Weblog Awards is the universe of mostly very conservative web logs.

I knew that if my three loyal readers would push The Big Adventure up near the top of its category, then people from the conservative spectrum would drop by to see what the noise was about. For nanosecond upon nanosecond, I would have a microscopic little soapbox from which to infect Them with my liberal notions.

Oh yes, while it might appear that all I do is endlessly ramble on about cats and gym stuff, what I've really been doing is sprinkling liberal cooties.

Don't worry, though, they wash off.

--Marn

P.S. � The Big Adventure has been nominated for a Web Log Award. These awards are run much like a Ukrainian election, meaning that you can vote more than once�every 24 hours, if you wish.

I think my three loyal readers can agree that this nomination was some sort of computer error. The odds of it ever happening again are oh, say, the equivalent of me being hit by lightning. We're talking a one shot deal here. I need your votes.

(This would be the part where the room goes dark except for a single spotlight. I wander into it, looking extremely piteous. Well, even more piteous than normal. There is heart rending violin music playing softly in the background. Inexplicably you feel your eyes well with sympathetic tears.)

Remember, I am older than dirt. How long do I have left to live? I ... I ... I could die without ever knowing the joy that is winning a Web Log Award for being obscure.

Do you understand how empty and meaningless that would make my life? Do you? Huh? HUH?

I'm just sayin' ...

Mileage on the Marnometer: 916.7 miles.
Ten percent there rubber duck.Ten percent there rubber duck.25 per cent thereTen percent there rubber duck.Ten percent there rubber duck.Ten percent there rubber duck.Ten percent there rubber duck.25 per cent thereTen percent there rubber duck.Ten percent there rubber duck.
Oh man. This is going to be hard
Goal for 2004: 1,000 miles - 1609 kilometers

Going Nowhere Collaboration

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She's mellllllllllllllting - Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012 - Back off, Buble - Monday, Dec. 19, 2011 - Dispersed - Monday, Nov. 28, 2011 - Nothing comes for free - Monday, Nov. 21, 2011 - None of her business - Friday, Nov. 04, 2011 -


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