My Marriage IS Just Like Yours!!

I know. I’m sorry. I should have posted sooner. I left you hanging.

After 28 straight days of blogging, I hate that I have disappointed you, my loyal readers. In my defense, however, please allow me to explain why I have not posted yet today.

• I was up until after 2:00am last night waiting to get word on the proposed marriage amendment. Lying in my bed. In the dark. Clutching a dying cell phone in my cramped hand. Totally pissing off Ruanita (and the forty-pound boxer snoring in my crotch) with my tosses and turns. Shining the cell phone glare directly in her eyes on numerous occasions. Feeling as though a million hummingbirds tweaking on methamphetamines had landed on me and were all fluttering their wings in rapid unison.
• My alarm went off at 5:30am this morning.
• I had to go to work today because I called in sick two days last week and took an ill-conceived vacation day yesterday to sit around and fret about the elections all day. My slacker ways caught up with me.
• There did not exist enough coffee in all the pots in all the offices in all the world to have allowed me to form a coherent sentence this morning. My morning check-in teleconference with my manager kind of went a little something like this: Blah…. ummm…. yea….. blah…. drool…. chug coffee…. uh…. ummm…. I don’t know…. pool of drool.
• I don’t function well—or at all, really—on three hours of sleep. I have spent the entire day in this surreal state of being excited and jubilant and somewhat agitated and angry for no apparent reason and only semi-conscious. This must be how it feels to be Donald Trump.
• Oh yea…and I started my period sometime between California and Ohio last night. Joy.
• And there is this celebratory rally at the Capitol in St Paul tonight and I want to go and I want to take my kids because this is a historic election for families like mine. I want them to appreciate the fruits of our amazing democracy. But at the same time, I am exhausted. And the kids are crabby. And Sophie has Girl Scouts. And I want to want to go. But I don’t want to go. So I have this crushing guilt for being a slacker piled on top of the exhaustion and giddiness and agitation today.
• And frankly, I simply do not know what to say. How do I put into words what this election means to me?

But I will give it a shot since you, my loyal readers, are expecting it. Please forgive me in advance if this does not go well.

Last night was a turning point in this country for families like mine. A turning point for all people who value diversity and tolerance and respect and basic human rights. Last night, the state of Minnesota—and the great states of Maryland and Maine and Washington—finally took a stand. Good people finally turned to the haters and the bigots and the fear-mongerers and said, “Enough.” The people of the state of Minnesota declared in no uncertain terms that all families matter. All Minnesotans count. All of our kids deserve to grow up in a state that refuses to enshrine bigotry into its constitution.

Never before has a state ever voted down a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. But last night, Minnesota did. Never before has gay marriage been approved by popular vote rather than legislative mandate. But last night, Maine and Maryland and Washington did. Never before have the people of any state voted to elect an openly gay person to the US Senate. But last night, Wisconsin did. Never before have the supporters of marriage equality defeated every single hateful ballot initiative they threw at us in a single election cycle. Last night, we did. We did it. We, the people. We, the good, honest, tolerant, free-thinking people of Minnesota. And Maine and Washington and Maryland and Wisconsin. The tides are turning. People are opening their eyes to just how divisive and pointless and ugly and UN-AMERICAN the efforts of groups like Focus on the Family and Minnesota for Marriage are.

I am sure I will write more about this in coming days. When I am better able to form intelligent thoughts in my feeble little brain. In the meantime, thank you for reading my blog. Thank you for your kind and supportive comments here and on Facebook. Thank you for taking this ride with me and caring enough to examine this issue through my lens. Through my children’s lenses. Through the lenses of en entire generation of children who will grow up never being asked to vote on their fellow citizens’ basic human rights. An entire generation who will see people as people and nothing more. To paraphrase the great Dr. King, an entire generation who will judge people not by the color of their skin or their creed or their disability or their sexual orientation, but by the content of their character. I am a firm believer—even more so after last night—that his dream is alive and well today in the United States.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And thank you some more.

(And on a personal note—as a survivor of 12 years of Catholic school—I would like to issue an especially heartfelt thank you to all the Catholics who voted NO, in essence telling Archbishop John Nienstedt to suck it. You are, by far, my favorites. I love you.)