red light. green light. red light. green light. red light. green light. red light. green light. red light. green light. red light. green light. red li

last night we went to jason's (i know, right?!) for to get a bite of supper, and we were sitting there eating, as we are wont to do, when a pair of men sat down in the next booth. they began talking and frankly, i could have tried not to overhear, but it was much easier to just listen, so i did. i can't replay the conversation for you, but the basic gist was that the younger guy (he looked to be in high school) was receiving advice from his elder (who looked to be maybe in his mid-twenties) concerning the younger guy's coming out to his parents.

yes, THAT sort of "coming out".

the older guy was describing his personal experience with the exact situation the younger guy was in, and my very first reaction to the whole thing was how unconditionally super it was that this younger guy had this older guy to talk to. most everyone faces times when they could do with a bit of advice, and alternately, a wide variety of advice is generally not that difficult to come by. the problem with the wide variety of advice is that most of it is crap. solid, first-hand, experience-based advice -- that's some good stuff right there. and, let's just be honest for a moment, the situation this young guy was in is not all that common. not unheard of, certainly, but not common, so good advice might prove difficult to find.

i was encouraged. here was this angsty teen facing an unusual situation and he was discussing it with precisely the sort of person who could wisely advise him - someone who'd been there, done that. it was all butterflies and light.

so that was where i was yesterday. today, i was still thinking about those two guys. why did they so captivate me? i pondered this. i let the thoughts drift around in my head like clouds in the sky and i looked at the thoughts and tried to determine the shape they were taking. what i came up with is -- we draw lines and herd people into corrals,and we claim acceptance of the herd in the next corral, but true acceptance doesn't involve corrals at all. simultaneously, i wonder what life is like in the other corrals.

that's all i've come up with. i really don't know how all this fits together.