Santa's Reindeer

Watching one of my coworkers walk by with a set of antlers on got me to thinking of Santa's Reindeer. A few years ago I was with a friend and her young nieces when they visited a local farmer's market advertising "Live Real Santa's Reindeer." I walked up to the little petting zoo area with Emily, a three year old at the time to look at the reindeer. It was only 2 days before Christmas and Emily in all her three-year-old-wisdom looks at Dasher and Prancer and then back at me and says, "If Santa's Reindeer are here, how is he going to fly his sleigh?" I swear every mother and child in the area stopped and looked at me.
Thinking fast I replied, "Well, these are the back up reindeer. You see, Santa has his first string team that he always uses but there are also extra reindeer in case one of the regulars gets sick. These are some of the extras that Santa lent to the farm so you could meet them. He still has his regular team and some of the backups at the North Pole."
After a short pause Emily simply said, "Oh. Can I feed them?"
While she put the change into the feed machine a mother walked past me and quietly said, "You're good."
Another Christmas crisis averted. Whew.

Speaking Up and Speaking Out Part II

We have been getting more involved in St. John's MCC since moving to North Carolina in September. Pastor Belva often says no one comes to the church by accident. I think we are a pretty good example. Last spring Tara and I sat down and said okay, we don't want to spend the rest of our lives in Erie and quite frankly we don't really want to spend another winter in Erie either so if we could choose anywhere in the U.S. to live where would it be? After much debating we put our finger down on Raleigh, NC. The weather is much better, the job opportunities are there and we are still not too far from family. Plus NC has mountains, ocean, rivers, etc. that we enjoy. Raleigh also has a Metropolitan Community Church, an inclusive Christian church.
So we did pretty well, in September we moved to Rocky Mount, NC, 50 miles east of Raleigh when I was promoted to Training Manager. We attended the church as guests the first time and were greeted warmly. By the third service we were assisting, and now 3 months later we are members of the choir and about to become full members of the church.
It's funny to me to look back at the past few months and see all this fall into place. The skills that Tara and I have are ones that were lacking to help in the coming year. The past two weeks we have been attending the annual members forums and vote. Mainly to observe and this week to help count votes for board member positions since we are not yet members ourselves. We both had an opportunity to speak during the forum last week and I had a chance to see the power my words can hold. Thankfully I'm using them for good.

Speaking Up and Speaking Out Part I

Saturday was World AIDS Day. A day to remember the disease is still out there and still growing. I was an HIV/AIDS educator in college and used to keep up on the statistics. I learned a few scary ones today. The vast majority of people contracting the disease right now are between the ages of 15-25 and over the age of 55. It seems the young still think they are invincible and the old think it doesn't apply to them. Every 60 seconds another person under the age of 25 gets the disease.
I lost an uncle to the disease in 1997. Now parents are facing losing children. Apparently, we need to step up education in school. Unfortunately, just saying, "don't have sex" doesn't work. Education also needs to be stepped up for the AARP crowd as well. Just because you are old enough to get an AARP newsletter doesn't mean you are safe from a sexually transmitted disease.
BTW, one of the fastest growing groups of people getting HIV are straight women. There's some interesting food for thought.
I had the good fortune to be present in the 1990's in Washington, D.C. to witness the last time the AIDS Quilt was laid out in its entirety. The Quilt is composed of large panels created by friends and family in memory of someone they lost to AIDS. The reason the whole thing hasn't been laid out since the 1990's it it is now too large to do so. When I saw it, the Quilt took up the entire Mall. If you stood at one end you couldn't see the other due to the curvature of the Earth. I can't conceive of it's size now. Different organization can request a section of the Quilt to display. Part of the agreement is you will read all of the names of all of the people who have a panel. The list takes days to read non-stop. It's a powerful experience to see a Quilt section. It puts a face to such a large epidemic.
I know, I sound like I'm lecturing but I stepped away from educating others on this disease years ago and feel like I should take some steps back toward that.
The visiting pastor in church today spoke of Linus from the Peanuts. She mentioned that if you go through life with your thumb in your mouth like Linus, you can't speak up for yourself or others who cannot speak for themselves.
Take a moment and remember those who have HIV and those who have lost the fight. Most importantly, take a moment to think about those who are at risk for contracting it, especially the teenagers.