I loved meeting you, eric and phillip on friday! I have to say that the love in that rally was palpable. Those pictures are awesome, and the video is beautiful. I love it when Connor stares at your soul through the camera. He doesn’t let just anyone pick him up

On November 15, while waiting for my love to get off from work, my son and I stumbled upon the equal rights rally in the Civic Center. Now the Civic Center is currently and always will be THE place for demonstrations, rallies, parades and other such political kerfuffle. AND being that my family lives in the Downtown area, we come across events on a fairly regular basis. Usually I turn the stroller around and head in the other direction because tensions are high and there’s a ‘danger’ alarm that goes off in my head. But not this time. This time I felt perfectly comfortable walking around, comfortable letting my son out of his stroller and letting him walk around. Why?

Love

The overwhelming feeling of love resonating from every single person I encountered. The initial outrage had faded over the last two weeks. Not gone entirely, which is understandable, but overshadowed by an incredulity that suddenly one person’s love was somehow less valid than another’s.
My mother’s best friend was a woman named Margaret Burke. She was beautiful, vibrant, artistic and loving. She loved her friends, she loved her cat, but above all she loved Patricia, a woman she devoted her life to. Maggie was also an activist. She helped paint the walls of the Women’s building, she enlisted my help and the help of my button maker to make rainbow GLOE (Gay and Lesbian Outreach to the Elderly) buttons. If Maggie and Pat could have gotten married, they would have, and I can’t imagine them not being able to do that.

I’m not the only one who felt the love that day. Anyone who has spent time around babies knows that they are very sensitive to people around them. They’re like good vibe barometers, I swear. My son has in the past fuffled enough to make us leave an area when someone around him was being negative. Which brings us to the rally (we weren’t there on purpose really, I don’t believe in using children who have NO concept of politics as little sign holders for or against anything). My sensitive, wary of strangers 14 month old, wanted out of his stroller. He wanted it bad and when I got him out he walked up to someone! A perfect stranger! MY son! and what did he do? He flirted, he chatted, he wanted UP! This baby, who has shied away from family members when they get a new haircut, who freaked out when I tried to pick him up once while I had my hair tucked up in a black knit cap, wanted this bespectacled stranger to give him lovings! I was amazed at how comfortable my son was but looking back on it I can’t imagine why, my son was honing in on the love.

Thanks I am definitely touched! I was just drawn to this sweet little guy and thanks for being so open; I felt such love and family all around us at the protest. I told Eric your story of how he started following us when we left. Give him a big hug. Thanks for persisting with the Comments bug and I’m glad it’s fixed.

James,

thanks so much for the videos and amazing blog coverage. It was nice to meet you on Saturday. We spoke briefly outside pasta pomodoro. I was the one in teh really big rainbow dress. Anyway, i subscribed to your blog. May i put a link to your blog on my blog?

clayton
crinthecity@gmail.com
crinthecity.blogspot.com