I'm on my way to Dallas where I'll be coming out to my youngest brother. He's a Methodist pastor and quite a bit more conservative than I am. Wish me luck. Peace,
Okay. I did it. But not just my youngest brother. Both of my brothers. We all had dinner together at my brother Andy's in-laws. After dinner I asked them to go to Best Buy with me because I need new earbuds for my Motorokr S9-HD headphones (which I do). I brought my MacBook with me and we headed out. I asked them to stop at Starbucks because I needed to talk to them. We ordered coffee, sat down and I proceeded with my plan. I intended to bring up my blog about "How to Train your Dragon" and have them read it. i was going to tell them to read it all the way through without asking any questions before then. It was a great plan until I started up my laptop which immediately showed a dead battery. And of course I did not have the charger. So what to do. I sat there for a minute and it dawned on me that this was not a big deal. Their reaction, whatever it is, is their stuff and not mine. And if I had to drive back to Houston because I was no longer welcome at Mops and Pops' house, then so be it. So I said it. "I am gay." And I waited. And waited. And they continued to look at my like I had told them the sky was blue and they were waiting for something actually dramatic. It was absolutely no big deal to them. And then we talked. We talked about the breakup of my marriage. We talked about the impact on my daughter. We talked about my depression and the fact that they had been worried I was suicidal for the last 6 months. The bottom line - it was no big deal and it is one more layer peeled away in this journey of coming out. Thank all of you for your support since January. And i apologize for not being around more. The crap has been hitting the fan lately. The low point was a funeral for one of my parishioners last Saturday. He was 23 and died in his sleep from what appears to be an undiagnosed heart ailment. It really sucked and I think I said that in the funeral sermon. Anyway, deep peace be with you all.
I was going to say 'fingers crossed, hope it goes OK' & wish you well - but now I can say 'Congratulations!' Glad it was such a non event. (*hug*)
Congratulations I'm happy for you your brothers are supportive (*hug*) (*hug*) And I hope life is going to get better soon (*hug*)
Congrats, Mike. I'm sure your brothers are relieved to know that you're not suicidal, now that they know what's really been up. And don't worry about not being by that often, I haven't either. Everyone's life has stuff happen; I just went to my last surviving grandmothers' funeral on Monday so I know how that can be.
