I was reading an article today about the rise in diverse donors and advocates, gay and straight, Republican and Democrat, conservative and liberal, who were actively supporting Equal Marriage as a national law. It was inspiring. The fact that so many Americans (and non-Americans as well) have looked at the issue of Equal Marriage from so many different perspectives and have all endorsed it as beneficial for the individual, the community, America, and the planet, is heartening.
While we are so varied in our opinions and points of view on so many things political and social, America is discovering that Equal Marriage is a good idea.
We, at GENERATIONS cinemastories have always believed and supported that. We are still proud (and still get goosebumps!) when we recall filming the first gay, public wedding in Boston in 2004 (Rob and Dave), at The Arlington Street Church. Mayor Menino hosted a special pre-wedding reception at City Hall. The media world lined the velvet rope with video cameras to record the mayor escorting the smiling couple to the clerk's desk in the basement of City Hall and smiling over their shoulders as they filled out their marriage licenses. The short walk from City Hall to the courthouse (where the couple were to get a 3-day waiver in order to go directly to the Arlington St. Church for their ceremony) was dense with supporters, a surprisingly few but very shrill group of protestors, the wedding party and the ever-present media swarm. We will always remember the joyous celebration of the day.
We all feel better when we focus our energies on what we want, rather than on what we don't want. If we value community stability, family, and personal freedom, we can't help but value the right of every adult to form relational commitments that have social and legal implications.
When Shakespeare wrote: "Love is not love which alters when it alteration it finds..." he spoke about love as boundless and non-specific. When we now marry, we may be committing to partnering with someone for 60 or more years, during which time both of us will change in countless and unpredictable ways. To Shakespeare, love is not the relationship, which will undergo shifts and weather patterns over time, but rather love is the pure, compassionate awareness that holds the relationship safely and permits each partner to grow.
Thankfully, love feeds upon itself and when personal needs such as a solid family relationship are met, we are most likely to feel beneficent enough to extend our caring to our communities. Working for non-profits is always gratifying for us for in addition to telling a great story, we are using our combined talents and skills to reach out to the public for support. In addition to telling the story, we find that what's most important is showing how beneficiaries of non-profit services feel supported
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