Sadly, even my most pessimistic prediction of the reaction fell short of the reality.

Before I go into the analysis of my observations, I want to make one thing explicitly clear: I whole-heartedly oppose the idea of government sanctioning of same sex-marriage. However, I also whole-heartedly oppose the government sanctioning of opposite-sex marriage.

I will give all of you a moment or two to allow the red haze of rage to fade and to pull yourselves together.

Feel better? Probably not, but I shall continue anyway.

Despite my objection to government recognition of marriage, I do support the California ruling. My support of the ruling stems from a Constitutional basis rather than from personal bias. Laws regulating marriage are already on the books, but those existing laws discriminate against same-sex couples merely to pander to the prejudices of the majority. These laws are in direct violation of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution which guarantees that all citizens are equal under the eyes of the law.

As a strict Constitutionalist, I support the California Supreme Court’s ruling. I would be even more supporting of a ruling that would tell Uncle Sam to get out of marriage all together, but the likelihood of that is practically non-existent. There is revenue to be made in granting blessings on matrimonial unions, and the Government will not willingly part from that revenue.

More disturbing, though, is the reaction from those who oppose the ruling. It would be a gross understatement to call the reaction vitriolic. In fact, the reaction is such that even Fred Phelps would be jealous of the rhetoric.

Such a reaction has caused me to reevaluate my opinion of religionists, which is sad, really. I happen to know a few very decent people of Christian faith, but what I have seen over the last 24 hours combined with the experiences of my youth makes me wonder if they are decent people in spite of their religious beliefs rather than because of them.

Even more, if such all-consuming hatred towards others is as prevalent as what I have been witnessing, then perhaps it is time to reevaluate some decisions I have made in the past – decisions that I would rather not revisit because it would mean going back to living in a state of mind that I spent many years trying to shake off.

I am not going to go too much into the details of that mindset, but in a previous post, I had mentioned that I had survived affiliation with a couple of churches, and I was not speaking metaphorically. I would rather not go back to constantly looking over my shoulders and worrying from which direction the next attack would come.

My blogging is a way of expressing myself, but it seems that I fall flat in that regard in more ways that one.

The office in which I work keeps a TV tuned to CNN 24/7.  Needless to say, there’s a lot of nothing that gets said on CNN.  Sometimes, however, CNN will air a story that catches my eye.  In this instance, it was a story on Anderson Cooper 360 about a young cancer patient who uses his blog to chronicle his battle against the deadly disease.  The young man writes about his hopes, his fears, his experiences, and his life in a manner that lets his optimism shine through.

Reading through this young man’s blog served as a reminder that life is short, and that the simple pleasures of life are the ones we most often take for granted.  The most simple of these pleasures is the belief that we will live long enough to see our dreams come to fruition; dreams of life, of love, of friends, of family, and of a death that will come as we lie peacefully in bed after a long and fullfilling life.

Intellectually, we all know that death seldom comes after we have lived out our lives to the fullest.  Death often comes to us when we are not ready for it.  For some, death comes quickly, whether through accident, through sudden illness, or through an act of malice.  For others, it comes slowly, in a painfully drawn out illness which saps our strength and our vitality.  A rare few people greet death having squeezed every joy and every experience from this life.  Death comes when it will, and it doesn’t wait for us to fulfill our dreams.

Sometimes, though, we have time to prepare for the inevitable.  This is often true in the case of a lengthy illness, such as cancer.  Faced with imminent mortality, the little things we take for granted take on an entirely new significance.  Our favorite foods taste better, the air is sweeter, and we take note of the special importance of those we love and who love us in return.

Many of us get bogged down in the trivial aspects of life.  When we are so focused on the things of marginal importance, we begin to see life as a burden, and, in doing so, we fail to pay attention to the things that truly matter.

My sister passed away in April of 2006 after a short and brutal fight with metastasized breast cancer.  As her end came and went, I realized that the simple pleasures of talking to her would be the one thing I would miss the most.  I often wish that I could have talked her into keeping a journal of her tribulations.  Maybe through her words, someone else could have found the solace they needed in order to cope with ongoing troubles and life experiences.