in which i assure you that i am very much alive, and also talk about heart strings

i know what you're thinking. i haven't blogged in a little over a month, so surely i must have died. i can assure you i did not. rather, my addiction to my computer did. i realized that i was becoming a slave to my laptop, and all of my time was spent thinking about what websites i needed to check up on and what blog posts i needed to read, rather than on how to move my story forward.

anyway, i'm cracking open my laptop because i have something very important to discuss with you. i'll try to keep it from being preachy as much as possible. you see, yesterday i had the misfortune to come across this article. and i wish i were lying when i tell you my eyes watered and i could taste bile in the back of my throat. maybe i was being a little bit naive, but i thought this country was past the whole racism thing. at least, past it to the point where any actor could be cast in a movie and it wouldn't matter what color their skin was. i mean, casting directors know a heck of a lot more than we do about that sort of thing, don't they?

my first reaction to the article was to be angry/shocked/upset, to the point where it was all i could think about. but after talking with some people i love, i realized it isn't worth it to get angry at these people. being angry isn't going to make them better people. being angry isn't going to suddenly fix the problems of the world (which have been piling up lately, i tell you), so really, what's the use?

what i can do is tell you that this is an issue that is very important to me. i grew up as a navy brat, and as such, moved around A LOT. we're talking every 1-3 years, some dudes in a big truck came and boxed up our house while we drove (or flew) to yet another home. i loved every minute of it. why? because it allowed me to see many different ways of life, instead of just one tiny slice of suburbia (or the projects, or a mansion, or wherever it was that you grew up). i've met men and women, rich and poor, fat and thin, gay and straight, black and white and golden and red. and let me tell you something: they all had something to teach me.

i will be the first person to admit that i'm not perfect. i harbor some prejudices, and i'm not proud of it, but it's the truth. however, i try not to let them affect how i interact with people. if i close myself off from an entire group of the population, whether it's based on age or race or intelligence or sexual preference, i'm denying myself a wealth of experiences. where exactly is the sense in that? maybe it's just me, but as a writer, i'm always striving to learn about new people and places and things, because my next obsession just might be the one to fuel my bestseller.

i guess what i'm trying to say is this: a person is a person, regardless of their gender, race, age, sexual preference, intelligence, etc, and they deserve respect as such. i am a firm believer in the old "if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all" adage, and i think the world would be a lot better off if people could just practice a little tolerance at the very least. as my friend christine put it: "a perfect world isn't one where we all agree. it's one where we regard each other without animosity."

just something to think about. :)

j