Same-sex Marriage (any marriage) and Water Fountains

Picture taken by Langhoff Creative LLC

Just a few weeks ago the State of Michigan was talking about abolishing the law that made same-sex marriage illegal. This inspired a mass same-sex couples to get marriage certificates the following Saturday. Now, the governor of Michigan is saying he will not allow the over 300 couples' certificates to stand. Um...this makes me think... A LOT!

We live in country where today (April 4th, 2014) there are 17 states that have legalize same-sex marriage; all since 2004 when Massachusetts took the plunge. Good for them! We started as a country at Plymouth Rock, so why not start a major movement in this same state.

Depending on your source, there have been over 100,000 same-sex marriages in the US since 2004. Wow! How great for them! People who love each other, got to make it legal. They got to stand up before friends, before family, before who ever they wish, more importantly, they got to stand up together  and tie the knot!

Dee, Me, Jammi (guitar) - taken by Langhoff Creative LLC

My question is, why do we feel the need to have distinctions when it comes to marriage; same-sex and heterosexual marriage? Why can't we just call people "MARRIED." Is there a place on the marriage certificate that says "same-sex" or "heterosexual"? If so, why?

I'm just asking questions. Believe me, I'm not trying to down play the importance of our country moving forward. I think it is about darn time and, well, over due, to say the least! I'm just hoping we can some day move beyond the need for labels and celebrate the ways we are alike. Maybe one day we will get to the point where any couple who chooses marriage is simply referred to as  "two people who chose to join together for the pure joy of loving each other." Man I hope so...

Story Time (Water Fountains): Besides being in a rock band (or two) in high school, I played soccer. We would spend the summers on a travel team out of Scotia, New York, called Highland Soccer. This helped prepare us for the Modified, Junior Varsity, or the Varsity squads. Another part of our summer preparation was to attend the Lake Placid Soccer Camp, about two plus hours north of dear old Scotia. This would usually be a week or two  in July (my parents sacrificed a ton to send my brother and I to camp for two weeks for many years, words can't express my eternally gratitude to them for doing so). 

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AT camp, I was first introduce to the wonderful invention of the water fountain tube! It was a ten foot long piece of one inch PVC piping, with holes drilled every eight to twelve inches. It was attached to a hose and would spray water in a thin stream between six to sixteen inches into the air (depending on who was manning the pressure knob at the end of tube or the nozzle on the faucet).  

Soccer camp was an eye opening experience. Not just because of the unique way to hydrate campers (sometimes twenty at a time), but I got to meet a vast array of kids from all kinds of cultures,  races, and colors. We would hang out together, play soccer together, eat together, training together, gamble with Skittles, Starburst, and other candy together, and drink water from the same water foundation (or water tube)...

The funny thing was it never crossed our minds to have separate water foundations because we were different colors or races. We just drank water because we were all alike. Less than 50 years ago america still had separate water  foundations for black people and white folks. Now, we don't think twice about drinking water and who might have drank from it before us. We just drink. We just focus on the behavior of drinking, not the judgment of separation.  

It's kind of cool that we got to that point... Don't you think?

With compassion and kindness (C&K),
BD Scott