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| http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_5180263 |
This Lenten season I am devoted to fighting for better healthcare for all families, particularly the children, teens, and adults I grew up with who suffered terrible abuses in private that were caused by the illnesses of others around them, without us having any recourse (besides the systems of Child Welfare and Foster Care, two horrors I would never submit to, nor would any of my native New York friends), which means I won't be doing the exact same type of pilgrimage as those of you who frequent church, but you still have to go. Sorry, though not very much so, because that's the deal: I take on the world, you take on our faith. This covenant extends to our entire faith, as well as those of you who have remained our dear faithful around the world. You are not alone.
In addition to today's message of hope, love, and mercy (during Our Most Holy Father in Rome's aptly titled "Year of Mercy"*, a time of great reconciliation and forgiveness for all of us, worldwide), I wanted to share some fun facts with you, too. We don't just work hard. We also work hard to enjoy each others company as well, both in celebration of St. Valentine's** legacy of eternal glory through love, and our continued recognition of the weekly Sabbath, as necessary breaks from our labors, so ordained for us to maintain our balance with communal care.
During my almost daily acts as a publisher, I scan through thousands and thousands of images. In my expertise, you learn to see the truth behind a great image that's immediately recognizable as art, and then you see all the rest. For a time, I "pinned" the ones I liked onto a public board for all of you to enjoy, until that application stopped the practice, intimidated as they are by the image-makers who make it great. It came to a head one afternoon for me, when I came upon the strikingly beautiful image of a native Indo-European boy from a prominent New York tribe. I did the customary actions I usually did with that software, went back to my home screen and POOF! He was gone. I mean, his image wasn't there for me and my subscribers to see.
I began a protracted and deliberately frustrating online chat with their "IT" support, along with the other users who complained about this big change in their successful company practices thus far. My subscribers could only see the image if they "liked" the category subfolder I placed it in, but the beauty and symmetry behind my purposefully and excellently designed stream of images on my home page that was done with my expert eye was gone, and that's what did it in for them with me. They couldn't find anyone better to design "their" advertising-sponsored boards that they wanted to re-route my audience to, hijacked as they were by far better talents than they, as a group of computer programmers and "webbies", will ever be. I knew it was done with a timing that speaks to both a love and a prejudice that hasn't died with the ages, enmeshed as he and I are in this timelessness.
I went on the warpath after that, furiously complaining and writing about their exposed hack onto our boards designed with "their" software, in this petty show of envy that hasn't dulled with time. C'est la vie. The image I was drawn to of a pair of lovers buried together will endure long after trendy social media apps come-and-go with an amazingly quick frequency in our fast human time that is dwarfed by both geological and universal time. After a while, it became irrelevant in the face of my daily life, a forgotten social footnote that probably won't make design history like I will, so who are they? They are no one to you and I because here we are together again, and that's what counts.
Besides, sexiness is found in far more places than some obscure image app, and heart-shapes mean way more than some bland teenager's cartoon emoticon easily placed but devoid of any real meaning. Care to dicker with my assertions? Oh, please do! It's what every parent lives for; schooling kids who know a lot less. See it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_%28symbol%29. "Happy Hearts" to you and your loved ones this holiday weekend made for love, because in any century or time, love is always the greatest answer you can have as a human being. Love is the key.
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