Tag: 4th Presbyterian Church

Born Free

Born Free

Most gay anthem playlists include these songs:  I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor, Freedom! ’90 by George Michael, Vogue by Madonna, I’m Coming Out by Diana Ross, anything by Beyonce, Cher, Donna Summers, Lady Gaga and of course, Billy Porter. But no recognition for the song Born Free.

I recently attended a friend’s bon voyage picnic with my new dog. 99% of the picnickers were men. They adored my fluffy little white Westie with her pink-lined pricked ears. 

“What’s her name?” One guy asked. 

“Elsa,” I answered. 

He and his companion then broke out singing Born Free. Others joined in the serenade. 

Born free, free as the wind blows…

I looked straight at my friend with a questioning side smile and squinty eyes. 

“Gay,” was his answer. 

“Some kind of anthem?” I asked.

“Yep. From the movie.”

“Oh, I get it. Elsa. The lioness. Wanna go with me & Elsa to the Pride parade?” I asked him.

“Absolutely not!” he exclaimed. 

None of my gay friends express interest in Pride hoopla. At least not to me. But in social gatherings, I’ve overheard one or more talking about some cute guy they’d met at the Parade. It’s understandable. The Parade covers a lot of geography and seems to have no time constraints. If you live in Parade neighborhoods, you’re bound to meet a cute guy or two passing by. 

The rejection of Pride celebrations is a bit more puzzling. I’m not particularly drawn to St. Patrick’s Day parties and parades, but neither am I celebrating Irish freedom. After the first official Chicago Pride parade in 1981, I celebrated gay liberation at a raucous party in Lincoln Park . Plenty of our gay friends were invited. But they didn’t show. Perhaps they excluded us from their Pride activities because gay liberation didn’t belong to us? Nor we to it?

Political friends wave the flag, not necessarily to show they’re gay, but, as I do, to support gay rights. Showing the colors this year is especially important because recent laws in other states restrict gay freedom, including drag shows. 

On a stroll down Michigan Avenue the other day, I was overwhelmed by the display of rainbow colors in front of my church. There are ribbons tied to each iron fence post spelling out the iconic colors of gay pride—for the entire block in front of the church. 

“So colorful,” I mentioned to my walking companion.

“Doesn’t it make you feel kinda bad?” She asked.

“Whaddya mean?”

“Well, it’s a celebration for gays. And you’re not.”

Some of the church’s older adults asked to celebrate gay rights by having a drag show for their small group. The church denied the request. I’m excluded from men’s bible study, twenty-somethings and couples church groups. And like those, perhaps celebrating gay freedom with events like drag shows, really is (inadvertently) reserved for gays only. 

Fortunately, I can honor the entire queer nation by re-watching this year’s Tony Awards. 

Meanwhile, song compilers need to include Born Free in gay anthem song lists. 

Is Zoom a Reliable Alibi?

One of the joys of the Shutdown has been discovering crime dramas on what used to be mysterious and unclicked words on my TV screen. The series of murder mysteries on MHZ, Hulu, Britbox and Acorn are not necessarily formulaic, but they have one major scene in common: the detective always asks if the suspect was elsewhere on the night of; and if there are witnesses to the alibi.

I had an alibi last Sunday. The Shutdown service at my church was livestreamed into an adequate eleven-inch computer screen propped up on the desk in my bedroom. The sermon struck the taut chords in my silent mouth and unclapped hands. I needed a collection of witnesses to shout “Amen!” to Pastor Shannon’s sermon. But I was alone, looking out the elsewhere window weeping over the no-one. No one to join in a standing ovation, no one to see and no one to see me.

After the sermon I sang along with the tinny music emanating from the computer; an old hymn I love:

Live into hope of captives freed

From chains of fear or want or greed.

God now proclaims our full release

To faith and hope and joy and peace.

Halfway through I shuttered with a renewed and deeper knowing that I’d never attend a church service in person again. The pandemic Shutdown will hold me captive in chains of fear until the end of my days. Groups, especially singing groups are out of the question for my old bones in these non-vaccine days. 

I won’t observe Pastor Matt’s infant grow from a toddler to a Sunday schooler. He’ll never again see me ooh and ahh in the delight of his fatherhood. I’ll never sneak into an early morning service in my pajamas (hidden under a long winter coat), to hear Pastor Rocky again. And he’ll never see me admiring him in the way of a proud mother. Gabrielle and I will never again join arms, run up to Pastor Shannon after the service and proclaim our undying gratitude for her ministry. And she will never see the reflected glow of our admiring faces in the pews.

crrub140320Albert Einstein once posed a question to a fellow physicist, “Do you really believe that the moon only exists if you look at it?” It’s a common philosophical question, similar to
the sophomoric, “if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?”. In morning meditation I intentionally ask myself if I’m hearing sound or “thoughts of sound” as a way to go deeper, where there is no sound.

Intentional solitude is not the same however as the feelings of isolation that arise from the existential supposing, “If I’m neither heard nor seen, do I exist?” Responding to covid requires an abrupt “so long” to a group existence I wasn’t ready to leave. In an alternate elsewhere life, witnesses see and hear me on Zoom.

Is this a reliable alibi?