Photoblogs for March 19, 27, 28, 1, 2: Who Are You? What Do You See? Are You Judging Me?

March 19, 2015: “Serious Tea”

Who Are You? A local pottery artist creates handmade pottery.  I looked at this cup and it hit me in the hard.  Who Are You?  I reflected and asked myself, it is these little things that help me figure out who I am, where I am and who I want to be.  Such simplicity that holds my tea but through the cloud of tea brings a bit of clarity.  Seriously this is serious tea.  Who are you?  Ask yourself this and look deep, it may lead to change, lead you to a more productive place where you find balance.  That is who I hope to become.

March 27, 2015: “Whats Morality”

I walk by where I grew up the first few years in my life inside a church along the canal in Lockport, NY.  You learn things based in two thousand year old book.  Millions of people around the world base their lives on these teachings.  By these teachings I mean only the ones they agree with because we all know the old testament really doesn’t count.

I’ve been told I’m going to hell by literal interpreting of not believing.  More so recently there are two stories in the news.  Duck Dynastys Pastor Phil decrying athiests and the Indiana passage of the religious freedom to discriminate act.

I am an atheist, I believe in a thing called science and fact.  Phil Robertson was speaking to a conservative group and said the following:

“I’ll make a bet with you,” Robertson said. “Two guys break into an atheist’s home. He has a little atheist wife and two little atheist daughters. Two guys break into his home and tie him up in a chair and gag him. And then they take his two daughters in front of him and rape both of them and then shoot them and they take his wife and then decapitate her head off in front of him. And then they can look at him and say, ‘Isn’t it great that I don’t have to worry about being judged? Isn’t it great that there’s nothing wrong with this? There’s no right or wrong, now is it dude?’”

Robertson kept going: “Then you take a sharp knife and take his manhood and hold it in front of him and say, ‘Wouldn’t it be something if this [sic] was something wrong with this? But you’re the one who says there is no God, there’s no right, there’s no wrong, so we’re just having fun. We’re sick in the head, have a nice day.’”

“If it happened to them,” Robertson continued, “they probably would say, ‘something about this just ain’t right.”

Morality is not a question of having god.  I am a moral person, I get my morality and values from my families and friends.   Spewing hate filled speech is horrible.  I have a question for you all:  If the bible teaches you to love your enemy, go into the world with love why is distorted to attack your enemies and preach hatred. 

It is not just christianity but every religion trying to convert someone, somewhere.  Can’t we just let it be and teach human kindness and treat each other how we wish to be treated.  Discrimination is the name of the game for Phil and Indiana.  Morals and values are not and will never be owned by religion as long as religion keeps killing, keeps discriminating, keeps spewing hate. 

Please someone tell me how horrible of a person I am and that I have no morals or values because I am an atheist.  The best part is you know me and understand that I am warm, caring and a good person.

March 28, 2015: “Follow Your Arrow”

Kacey Musgraves came to the Town Ballroom in Buffalo, NY for a show.  I haven’t seen her ever in what I would call a headlining show.  I have seen her a few times before.  Today I was blown away by everything she did.  It is rare for a such a young artist to truly know who they are and hold true to every piece of it.  Will she ever be a superstar, I don’t think so.  She has a distinct style that is more folk/Americana than country.  She performs to tell a story and make sure her lyrics are heard. 

She is progressive in her song choice while practicing what she preaches.  On stage she commands the room, engages the audience and doesn’t hold back.  She speaks with the tongue of a sailor while her songs elegantly expose the truth.  She played for almost 2 full hours with all of her original music and a few covers along the way.  She put her stamp on the show by telling the crowd to shut up and stop shouting ignorant things.  She follows her arrow to beat of her own drum and will have quite a successful career even if the crowd didn’t know enough to learn her music before they showed up.

April 1, 2015: “What You See is Not Always What You Get”

What do you see?

What is this?  Look closely and if you can’t tell you are not seeing the whole picture.   The whole picture shows that winter is still here, that is fading slowly.  Look closely and question everything in life because reading only the cover will never give you the full the story. 

Did you see snow?

April 2, 2015: “That’s So Queer”

Queer, queer, queer, that’s so queer.  A common word thrown around tonight at Andrea Gibson’s spoken word performance in Buffalo, NY.  An excellent performance full of emotion and stories.  I went into the event knowing that Andrea is gay and an activist for the cause.  One thing I never realized was how beautiful words could be.  I was surprised to hear the word queer thrown around so casually.  I guess I don’t spend enough time around the gay community to realize that they use that word amongst themselves.  I always thought of it as a straight white man as hate speech.  Which I guess it would be if I used it or someone else did to antagonize. 

In Indiana and Arkansas they passed or are trying to pass a bill to discriminate against the LGBT community.  As of this writing Indiana’s Senate has approved an amendment to make discrimination illegal with specific language to include gender identity.