Everyone who knows me knows I love gray weather. The gloomier the better. I like everything about it, in moderate doses - lightning, puddles, rain on a metal roof, rolling clouds, early twilight, oil lamps, the smell of lit candles and extinguished matches, board games, battery-operated radios, and the thought that in the most severe of those inclement times, everyone else, like me and those close to me, are inside, together, sharing a moment that the sun would scatter into a million irrecoverable pieces were it to part the clouds.
There is no deeper significance behind liking or disliking something, no intrinsic meaning behind one's attachment to gray skies or sunshine.
We don't ask ourselves why we stop and listen to a child's giggle, stop and watch the sun briefly hug the horizon, a bird float on a tuft of air, or a maple tree whirlybird twirl to the ground like a miniature helicopter. You develop a fondness for these things in the same way you do food or music or people or anything else.
I think I know why some people think other people are crazy that don't like something most people like most of the time: Because those odd preferences are associated with 1) activities the majority don't prefer, and, more importantly, 2) judgment.
A trivial example:
a) I don't like football. I don't like anything about it. I don't like the game, the sound of the announcer's voice, the ubiquitous presence on TV, the whistles, the crunching tackles, the brain damage to the players, the poor example set by some players, the marketing, the noise, the enthusiasm of others enjoying the game, the cost of tickets, and the fact that it delays 60 Minutes 1/2 hour on Sunday nights to finish 2-1/2 minutes of the game.
b) Anyone reading this that really likes football may think I judge them for it. Not so. I think it's a huge waste of time and a thinly guised surrogate for warfare[1], but I don't begrudge anyone any enjoyment they get out it.
A considerable example:
a) I am tolerant of homosexuality. Not only am I tolerant, I accept it as a perfectly normal behavior that should be tolerated by others. I do not view it as a sin and I do not think other Christians should either.[2]
b) Anyone reading this may assume that because I am so insistent on tolerating what they believe to be aberrant, I must have a deep-seated, hidden reason for doing so, ie, that I am gay. Not so. But I understand the tendency to think so. It is a burden that tolerant people bear. When an issue touches uncomfortable racial, sexual, political or religious subjects, tolerant people are lumped together with the same group of people they are tolerating. That will never change. Anyone familiar with fundamentalist religious thought will know that even the word "tolerance" itself is associated with a sort of Christian treason.
I guarantee there will be people who read this who won't understand. They'll think, "Hmmm... don't like football, likes gay folks, there's something not right with that boy."
I love all people of all faiths and colors and persuasions. I celebrate life and marvel at its delightful variety and consistency despite the differences, and feel the pain, no matter how small, no matter why, of of anyone who is marginalized because they are different.
Tolerance sometimes means acceptance without understanding, often without liking,often while disliking.
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I started this on October 5, a day that happened to offer a fresh, thick, humid layer of fall scents. The air was so full of seasonal innuendo, every breath provided a new delight.
[1]
I started this article and this example before Calvin College sent out its alumni survey on whether or not they should begin a football program.
[2]
If you have an open mind that is not yet made up one way or the other, you owe it to yourself to read retired physicist and pastor John Burgeson's balanced view on the topic. I first came to know him while reading his posts in a Christian Creation/Evolution forum, which often splintered into topics like this. I read everything he wrote there, as well as another man, Glen Morton, who was nothing like Burgy but had a lot of insightful things to say. I ran out of time and haven't been reading posts there for years.
http://www.burgy.50megs.com/more.htm#10
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