There are moments when I look upon my sweet children and am taken away to thoughts of what they will become. I want them to be respectable. I want them to be happy. I want them to be self-sufficient and above all I want them to be moral.
Some of my first young memories are sitting around the kitchen table with my brother listening to my dad spout off the slogan that would later, in my teen and adult years, stick heavily in my mind. The Golden Rule- treat others the way you would like to be treated.
I didn’t know it then, but these few small and seemingly insignificant words would later shape me into the person I am today.
They would help me get through some tough decisions and certainly get me out of a pickle or two.
I didn’t grow up in a religious home, but stridently try to understand the views of others. I never was touched by abuse, but find empathy for those who were.
I was born with the innate urge to be attracted to the opposite sex, but know overall that happiness and love is what truly matters.
I have never once met an individual who prefers same-sex relationships to rebuke me for loving my husband, so in turn I would never do such to them. I have friends who have admitted to me their struggle with their sexual preference and know of people who still hide silently behind a lurking veil of fear and judgment.
And it saddens me to no end, when I see what these people who I care for must go through in order to love freely and openly. It amazes me that same sex marriage is even a topic no less a hot topic in today’s media.
Have we not evolved far enough in our culture to understand that love should know no bounds? Cliché yes, but nonetheless true.
This morning as I read an article berating homosexuality, explaining why it is an immoral, unhealthy and an unjust way of life I felt troubled.
It occurred to me that I should be feeling angry, as this man who wrote the article is flinging delicate attacks at people I love and care about.
I should want to be outraged that the author is telling me that by supporting same sex marriage I have cheapened life as we know it. I should be disgusted that he implied that as the rate of same sex marriage increases society will undoubtedly crumble further into ruins.
But as all these thoughts splashed through my mind I realized I felt none of this. All I could feel was sadness.
Sadness for this individual who did not have someone to instill into him The Golden Rule.
Sadness that his children will possibly take on the same views as he.
Sadness that my once fervent notion of equality has crumbled just the same as his self-proclaimed revelation of our crumbling society.
I take a quick look at my children who play on the living room floor.
They engage in their fancy filled play and are none the wiser to my unnerved feelings from the subject at hand. I silently say to myself that I can only hope they will not become bigots of society. I stridently hope they will never judge their fellow man, but instead get to know and understand them- embracing the differences that every human on the face of this earth possesses.
It is then that I realize these qualities I want so badly to see in them will not come to fruition with hope. Open mindedness, fairness, and an unbigoted opinion is something we all come into this world with. A quality that should be nurtured rather than opposed.
Which is why I will continue this ritual of teaching The Golden Rule to my children. I will teach them that kindness must be rewarded with kindness. The differences in the human race are not something to belittle but something to rejoice. Diversity is a beautiful thing, even if sometimes you do not understand it.
So with thoughts of The Golden Rule drifting through my head I bring this article to a close.
I doubt that I have changed the views of those of you who do not agree with my stand on this subject. But what I do know this piece of modest writing will provide, is a reminder to myself as to how I want my children to move forward in this world of ours.
And as parents that is the finest plan of attack we can provide in the fight for equality.
Lindsay Brown is a Sylvan Lake mother of two and freelance columnist.