Good for the Goose? Good for the Gander!

Ducky Dynasty, funny show about a family that has made zillions out of duck calls, they are the thing you blow into they then make a duck noise and if you’re into shooting ducks, you will be excited as the noise attracts your prey and you can shoot them. Yep the family at Duck Dynasty are famous for their duck call and have made many friends and have the most popular show on the A&E Channel until now!

Until now, yep now they are famous for doing something a little different, they are famous as one of the family decided to speak his mind, to say what he feels, to give his own opinion on the Taboo subject of….tatata Homosexuality.

Why is it Taboo? Well Homosexuality and all other assorted subjects fall into the “Agree” or be dammed category which means if you don’t agree with it, “Shut Up”

Your opinion on Taboo subjects, your values, your thoughts, your feelings are not wanted encouraged or desired you basically have no rights, which is funny as all those people involved in all these rights movements fought for there rights of saying and doing what they wanted to do!

Now in the case of the Duck Dynasty Fella he gave his opinion based on his own Biblical Values, his family supported him on based on their own family values and moreover on the Value of the Constitution of the United Sates and that is his Freedom of Speech.

That lovely old piece of parchment called the Constitution is also what all the other freedom groups use as the tool of choice for their fight for rights and Freedom of speech and choice.

Are you starting to get the stupidity of all this?

On one hand we have every “Rights” group of a minority nature using the best legal eagles in the world to help them use that solemn document to get the rights they want. But hello if you use that same document given rights to say what you feel? Boy oh Boy are you in trouble, and in the case of the Duck Dynasty Family member? You will be hog tied, and muzzled and banned from TV for what you have said.

Now Mr. Duck Dynasty based his feelings on Biblical Passages that he truly believes in, but what if he was not a bible reading man? What if he was just your normal every day Joe that was not driven by scripture or ideology, he just had his own feelings and thoughts on the subject.

What if he is just pulled up randomly on the street and asked by CNN on camera, “So, tell us Mr. Average Joe” what are your personal feelings on Gay Marriage?

What if Mr. Joe had Mrs. Joe beside him and they had been married many years, owned an average house in an average suburb and did average things, didn’t go to Church or read a bible. What if his answer his own personal thoughts were “Hey, I don’t agree with them” Well folks the moment that Video screened on CNN I can guarantee you the caustic comments, the hate speech would resound from the comments section of that CNN homepage.

How dare Mr. Average not agree with us, how dare he have an opinion that is different to us.

Yes folks, in the case? Although I agree with Gay rights, I also agree with the right to say what I think and believe when you ask me, and last time I checked there was no law against that. But, an unwritten Law has crept into society and that is what scares me and we are now faced with the question, TO speak or NOT speak.

What do I speak? I support Gay Rights, but I also support the freedom to say what I feel and think. So in this case, both sides should remember something.

What’s good for the Goose? Should be good for the Gander!

These are Hodgies Words.
Big Hugs and Love to Ya

Pro Choice..MY Choice

My Doctor in Australia is a great Doctor, very old school you might think you’re sick, he feels you need a chat so you get that, you feel better and no drugs are needed. If you stay half hour he doesn’t charge you for an hour. He does great work for Charity; he is a good bloke and a good Doctor. A man of his word, I like and respect him as do so many others.
However, when you enter his Surgery he has a sign at reception. The sign says, “This Surgery is Pro Life, if you are seeking help with termination please do not make an Appointment” It’s in clear view and is designed to save him and others embarrassment, plenty of other Doctors in town who are the opposite. His choice, but he is breaking the Law, and now? He may lose his license to practice. As a Doctor? He has no right in this case to have a choice.
The Prime Minister of Australia? Love him or hate him, a straight shooter. A former boxer he is tough, not great with his words but a good leader, a family man. He has a sister that is in a Gay relationship but his personal choice is that he does not believe in Gay Marriage. It’s his personal choice, not the Country’s it’s his choice but he is labeled a dog, a man out of touch and this choice of his comes up every day and is a constant fight in his leadership.
I believe in God and I believe in Jesus Christ, I believe I will go to heaven. However I don’t believe that going to church on Sundays will one bit save my soul nor will the building the service is in and neither will the bloke in robes standing out the front. I don’t believe that one book is better than the other I believe they all have flaws and in most cases were written way back in the day and are laws of control rather than human or spiritual growth. I also believe that more people have died from Religion than been saved from it.
You can knock on my door, ask me not to eat this or eat that, wear this or wear that, pray on this day or that, tell me your way is better, your god is the only god whatever and I will simply say, “What you do is your Choice, the same as for me”
The problem with MY Choice, my Doctors Choice, The Prime Ministers Choice? People obsessed with their own choice don’t respect your choice, think you have no right to choice and will harass you until your choice becomes no choice and converts to, Conformity. They will fight you on Social Media, throw Bombs at you, Bash you in the streets, and hit you with litigation as how dare you not agree with “Their Choice”
What do I feel? Well if you want to get an Abortion it’s up to you, but if the Doctor doesn’t agree? Hello there is a zillion that do; he has the right to his choice and should not be a victim if he does. Tony Abbot? It’s up to him, it’s his choice and it should also be your right to choose if you want to get married or not. He should not be subject to ridicule and abuse, told to “get out” of the dark ages and agree with YOUR choice. It should not be the right to force a Church to go against what it believes to make the Gay Community Happy; the Church should also be respected for its choice, not beaten into submission and sued until it does. A Building does not make a Marriage work, People do.
It seems to me that many of the groups in the world today seem to have forgotten that choice is a personal thing. It seems to me that all these PRO Groups, be it religious, gay, abortion, whatever started a movement that was based on, “Choice” but something happened along the way, the point was lost and soon MY Choice, To these Groups? Became NO Choice.
It appears now that the Cry of all these Groups has become, “It’s my way or the highway” You Opinion is not important, your submission is.
Well, kids my feelings on Pro Choice? It’s MY Choice, respect that don’t wage war against it.
These are Hodgies Words.
Big Hugs and Love to Ya

140/90

Do the math! Yep we are a lot of time governed by numbers. Waking up in the morning to a number, running around all day to a number, looking at a number on a Phone screen and crying, snarling or laughing. Going to a cash register, opening mail and getting a shock at the number, looking at the numbers of candles on a cake and wondering where they all came from, yep it’s a numbers game in a way this life of ours.

Numbers to make you run around like a crazy person, and then one day you can get a number that makes you stop and really look at the numbers and in my case the numbers were 140/90.

The number 50 didn’t do it but 140/90 made me realize that this bloke who thought he was truly invincible did. what did it do? It made me see more clearly.

What’s so special about 140/90? Its high blood pressure and its nasty.

Flashing lights, Head Pressure, Hot Flushes wow am I pregnant, maybe going through menopause what is this I say as I’m walking through the supermarket looking at numbers on the shelf which by the minute are getting even more Blurry.  Then bang it hit me, I was for the first time stopped, yep a quick glance to my love and a comment of “Mahal, I don’t feel so good”

I was lucky, it didn’t stop me permanently and I was close to a clinic so the 140/90 number was given quickly as was the number of medicines I am now take and thank god my number wasn’t up!

Ok, I made the statement the number made me see more clearly, how can a number do that? Well it’s a number that if you don’t wake up or change? The next numbers will be 911 or 1800casket. So it has meant some major changes to the number of drinks I have, the number of Calories I intake and the number of appointments I make. It made me realize I’m getting older, but it has done more than that, it made me realize I have a very serious responsibility, and my wonderful friend Paul Boynton sums it up beautifully on his FB page Being Gay Becoming Gray – With Passion, Beauty and a Sense of Adventure

Paul wrote, “And finally, knowing we will never change the current reality by simply resisting it; we must each actively create the change. We do this by living passionate and an adventurous life that realistically and optimistically embraces each stage of the journey and recognizes that growing older is a gift and that being beautiful is not about age or looks but about substance and love.”

Paul’s wonderful page and life does offer wonderful encouragement and support to the gay community but with his words, “Growing older is a gift and that being beautiful is not about age or looks but about substance and love” He sends a message to all of us “Gray Hairs” a message of an awesome responsibility we all share and must take hold with Passion, Beauty and a sense of Adventure.

Made me think, the message is to live, share and demonstrate a life of substance and love to others as we, The Gray Hairs? Also have the wrinkles of experience to do so.

We have seen what inequality does, we have seen what hatred does, we have witnessed what bullying does and we have the “responsibility” to make sure our lives with all this substance all this experience mirrors and gives faith to others that to quote MLK, “With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood”.

Yes a Symphony that plays songs of Substance and Love not of hatred and bitterness.

Yes I have the responsibility to lower 140/90 to make sure I’m around to keep playing those songs, but all of us have the responsibility and ability to speak up, to demonstrate, to make sure that all Gods Children, Black and White, Straight and Gay, Rich and Poor, Young and Elderly, Abled and Disabled all join hands together and sing, “Free at Last, Free at Last, thank god almighty we are free at last. I think MLK might have sung the same.

So my fellow Gray Hairs, Do that Math, enjoy the responsibility, love all with passion and without prejudice, appreciate the beauty and have no fear of the adventure.

These are Hodgies Words.

Big Hugs and Love to Ya

 

 

Come out of the Closet

Now before you go and get all excited, no this is not a moment to announce to the world that finally I’m coming-out and saying I’m gay, main reason is I’m not. Yes I did kiss my mate back in the day when we were drunk as a bet and I did wear a really nice frock to a party once but I am 100% heterosexual.

Now we have settled that, let’s move on.

The Closet? Well it is a term associated with people who finally decide not to live two lives and be proud of their sexuality; it’s been a big thing for many people to finally “Come out” publicly rather than staying behind a closed door. Today though I thought about the closet in a different way.

I was walking around the local mall, not looking for anything in particular just having time out form stuff and I love the action of malls in Asia. Lots of people, lots of sales, lots of noise and lots of sale people willing and able to demonstrate the latest and greatest to you personally rather than you send out a search party for help or read the label.

Yep, the guys and gals working at these stores are experts at a particular product and they can give you all the data, show you all the buttons they could even tell you the name of the robot that made it in Korea no doubt. Minutes needed on Microwaves, watts of hairdryers, Gigs of Ram, Megapixels you name it they know and one of the best products they demonstrate? Karaoke Machines.

In the sound department of any store on any given day some young kid will be given the task to load up the tunes take a big deep breath and sing out aloud for the entire crowd to hear. You know what though? It’s better than American Idol, and on this day the presenter was something special.

My ears picked it up from the other side of the store, a voice that was so good I thought somebody famous must have taken the stand, but no it was just a regular store worker. Yep for many hours of the day this little guy gets to answer questions, move boxes but for twenty minutes each day? He gets to be a star.

I clapped and cheered and then I started to think, why is this kid still working in a store, why is he not on TV, You Tube or a top seller on ITunes? So I asked him why he is not out there giving that voice a shot at the title, and his reply.

I would love to do that Sir, but I couldn’t take the risk, I need to earn money to look after my family.

This kid had a talent that would overshadow so many of what is on our IPods today, but he hasn’t had the chance, he chooses to support to provide rather than taking the risk of Living a dream

Makes you wonder how many like him or her in the world. Singers, Actors, Writers, Painters maybe even Golfers, Chefs, Designers, Entrepreneurs how many are stuck in the closet. How many are out as Doorman, Salesman, Waiters, Maintenance Men even Mums or Dads. How many live a dual life, not living and being what they truly want to be and just wishing they could finally “Come Out of that Closet”

The reasons could be just like the guy in the store, it could be security, commitments or it could be just as simple as being just a little afraid of what people might say, or fear at taking a risk or even failure.

Yes it could be many reasons but I do know one thing? You never know, unless you have a go!

These are Hodgies Words.

Big Hugs and Love to Ya