Friday, August 25, 2006

Alone

When I learned how many of the men I had been friends with in college were gay, I was astonished. I discovered that two women acquaintances were homosexual and eight long-standing male friends were also gay. Eventually I spoke to all these men. Two had married, had children, and divorced. One had been married briefly and then had the marriage annulled. One was in a committed gay relationship that had lasted fifteen years. Two had had various gay relationships and were still hoping for true love. One had been deeply involved in the gay lifestyle, found it was taking him nowhere, had made the decision to be celibate and said that he was very happy. Another had spent years pursuing a gay life and then surprised everyone by marrying and having children; he had counted the cost and decided that more than anything even if it was not always comfortable, he wanted a family. My life would be less without these good friends, and I shake my head with the irony of it all: I had thought that Gerald was the only homosexual man I had ever known. As the wife of a homosexual man, I had felt so alone. And so, I suppose, had the three wives of my friends—the women who had been left in the wreckage by men who only wanted to do the right thing. Why had we all been so alone?

Carol Lynn Pearson,
in Good-bye, I Love You

The first part I quoted yesterday of The Buried Life speaks of "lovers powerless to reveal to one another what indeed they feel." There is a sense in which this is necessarily true. Some feelings are impossible to fully verbalize. But in another sense, we only perceive that other feelings are too incriminating to be honest about. Happily, every time I've tried to be less alone by sharing my burdens with my wife, good has come of it. It's not always immediate. It's occasionally an emotional and messy disaster at first... but then there's the truth out in the open, manageable as only the truth can be.

Was it a good thing that I didn't hang out with gay friends in college? Was it a good thing that I didn't have a support group who may or may not have encouraged me to be true to my values? I don't know. Luckily, there are many supports available to gays these days along the entire spectrum of thought. One should be able find a group consistent with their own values without too much trouble, for what groups are worth (see my sidebar, for example).

There are books, movies, and news clips being produced with increasing frequency that shed light on gay Mormon issues, and I can only hope they reach some of the closeted folks who are trying to figure out how to deal. As for me, I do wish some of my gay bloggin' buddies were around every once in a while to sit down and share a cheese fry. But, luckily, sitting here by myself I don't feel lonely at all.

9 comments:

Chris said...

Happily, every time I've tried to be less alone by sharing my burdens with my wife, good has come of it. It's not always immediate. It's occasionally an emotional and messy disaster at first... but then there's the truth out in the open, manageable as only the truth can be.

Yes. My relationship with KK is obviously very different now than it was--and than yours is with Mrs L--but this has been my experience as well.

Samantha said...

AAAWWWW...Chris beat me to the punch. That was the EXACT quote I wanted!!

I've noticed that the emotional and messy part usually happens around midnight or after. We've tried to avoid talking late at night for that very reason--without a lot of success, I might add. But I never seem to regret the honesty part...then again, I've never asked Darrin how HE feels about it, but he's a bishop, he needs to get used to that confession thing.

If you ever have one of your "cheese fry" chats with "bloggin' buddies", I hope you'll let me know. I probably won't eat (especially since I don't know what a cheese fry is), but I'd love to hear what ya'll have to say. :)

Anonymous said...

l, you have pulled a lot out of pearson's book. imagine what it would have been like to read it when it first came out, without the context of blogs, oaks, tribunes, brokebacks, etc. etc.
i came across it in the house of a friend we were visiting, reading it deep into the night [didn't want anyone to see me read it]. my first reaction? i'm not alone! my second reaction? i think i'll stay in the closet, stuffy, but safe.

Unusual Dude said...

I love cheese fries. I think we need to get together and help Samantha try one.

B.G. Christensen said...

Ugly and I get together for cheese fries frequently. You should join us sometime.

B.G. Christensen said...

(We even eat them in the plural.)

Unusual Dude said...

I wanna come! Pick me! Pick me! Hey Master Fob, I thought you were moving across country or something.

B.G. Christensen said...

Yeah, I am. You'll have to join us for cheese fries in Seattle.

Beck said...

I've been alone (in this certain sphere) for so much of my life that I don't know what it would be like to hang out with a bunch of "gay buddies". I don't know that I can even imagine what that would be like!

But, as hard as it was to admit certain things to my wife, we are now trying to be a team of two. And through this blogworld, I've opened in ways never before imagined. I'm not so alone anymore.

Maybe a cheese-fry together with other gay buddies isn't so hard to imagine after all...

Thanks,

Beck