Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, June 10, 2010

I can live without money,
but I cannot live without love.

Judy Garland, a singer, a mystery,
a wonder, born on this date, 1922


What is there to say? What do you think of when you think of Judy? I think of deep deep sadness. You saw it on her face onstage, trying to pour out her heart, dealing with booze and drugs. Such talent. Such brilliance. Such vulnerability. This is why she is such a “Gay icon”. Gay men especially saw their own longing for love, but they also saw their own vulnerability – strong men who saw no hope in a viciously homophobic culture for being a normal human being. I resonate with that. And I thank God that I lived just beyond that time, when Gayfolk began to reject their dehumanization, when we learned to stand up for who we are with pride, and to reject the self-hate that had been imposed on us. Judy laid it right out there – her desire for Love – and her despair at not finding it, and the self-destructive behaviour it drove her to. She gave us the power to say No.

All of us can live without piles of money – but we can’t live without Love. ALL of us. ALL of us. Whatever our sexuality. And none of us, none of us, can be deprived of it. Should be deprived of it.

I see America on the path, religiously, politically, socially, of rejecting Love – and therefore rejecting the God so many claim to follow. I don’t know how long it will take – but like Judy, it will destroy us.

And I think that will be blessing. New Life usually arises from the ashes.

Brian+