alternative pt 2

after yesterday's post about alternatives, today, i had one of my own: an attack of extreme weakness and pain that kept me in bed most of this morning. though i'm healthy and regularly exercises (weights and running), there are still those times when i get pretty weak and need to eat something or rest after exertion. and i still limp on a rather regular basis, but rarely do i have episodes like this morning where my leg is heavy and numb, yet there is a shooting pain that runs the length.

i saw a trailer of a movie the other day called music within based on the true story of the guy who wrote the americans with disabilities act. i want to see this movie because i identify myself as disabled. this may seem quite strange as i now lift 90 lbs in the gym, run about 3 miles 3 times a week, have lost over 40 lbs in the past year, and don't use any crutches anymore. but there's still that mental image i have of someone who is obviously not like the others because of the way he walks. that's my identity, my alternative perception of who i am. and though i have no diagnosis and currently am not taking any medicine, i still have that image of myself.

and speaking of an alternative view of oneself, i watched the movie lars and the real girl with ryan gosling. see this movie! it's a touching story of a young man, lars, who is lonely and socially awkward who constructs a story about a girlfriend. it's powerful in the uniting of the family and community to help lars and how he learns about love and friendship. see this movie!

alternative

the good thing about being in a liberal new england town is that things are different. whether it's eating more organic products (beer included) to being conscious of energy consumption and renewable energies, using one's own grocery bags when shopping for organic and locally grown products from the natural foods co-op, footwear (some of my most comfortable shoes were bought here in middlebury), you just know things are different up here. the very nature i've studied two foreign languages in an immersion environment in the green mountains is, by its very nature, alternative to conventional study in other parts of the country. i've also been exposed to alternative media, podcasting among others, which opens wide the news and information i receive in a time quite different from the three broadcasting networks. am i more informed about news and cultural events than my father was at my age, or is it simply a question of accessibility?

another alternative thing popular in vermont and throughout new england is alternate sexual lifestyle, primarily homosexuality. on campus, there are signs everywhere promoting diversity and acceptance and ensuring a safe place for one to express or question his or her own sexuality. one thing i do not appreciate about this policy, as with its policy on gender discrimination, is the assumption that we all have discriminatory tendencies and that we should make every effort to accept everyone who is different from us and repress the acknowledgement that we are different--even in capabilities.

the following are some questions i'm facing as i'm developping a friendship with someone who is in a homosexual relationship:
1) am i to love this person as i would anyone else who is heterosexual and a sinner?
2) in a list of ways to recognize the sinful nature in Galations 5, there is sexual immorality along with jealousy and others, so is someone who sins (homo)sexually different automatically from the heterosexual who has "fits of rage" or anything else on the list?
3) is homosexuality an unforgivable sin which automatically excludes one from salvation?

foux de fa fa

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FUVagbFcSUU

hiatus

my last post was in madrid, the day after our engagement party at oasis madrid & so much has happened in the past month on hiatus. here's a rundown:

-left madrid for georgia
-in georgia for a week with my family (my brother flew in for the weekend, too!)
-in kentucky for a week with kelly's family
-kelly & i fly out of augusta--her to madrid & me to arkansas to visit my brother & his family
-back in augusta for two weeks
-fly to boston to spend the night with my recently former roommate
-drive up to middlebury from boston
-register for courses
-confirm courses

so here i am foux da fa fa in vermont. yes, that's right, folks, i'm studying french at middlebury college for the summer. i wasn't sure how different or similar it would be from my time in the spanish school, but it's just different enough to warrant a different experience, so i'm looking forward to it. a highlight of the week is working out in an air-conditioned collegiate gym and not having to wait to workout on farely new machines that have all the numbers on the weights (yes, in both lbs and kg). so, when i arranged the pic on the machine to the kilos that i know, it didn't seem like all that much, but then seeing the visual reminder that pounds are twice as much as kilograms, i was quite pleased with myself for lifting all that gargantuan amount of weight. ;)