There is just not enough Love in the world

I had been thinking about this for quite a few days, actually. It left me feeling rather sad and empty at times. But not lonely. After all, I still had my Samantha Utay’s shoulder to cry on. Although she would much prefer it if she could just lay her head on my chest for a bit. That is quite alright since I Love her very much indeed. But she Loves me more. This is something that I cannot get over. Why is it that there is just not enough Love in the world? I had been listening to the song.

You can listen to the song too if you like while I carry on blogging. After all these years, I finally get what my Aunty Cher had been wailing about. When did my fascination for her music really start, I had to wonder today. I always Loved I Got You Babe, no doubt about that. And then there was Believe years later. But it only dawned on me today. It was a past Love, actually, years ago. We were only together for a few months, but she introduced me to Mermaids in which Cher of course had her starring role.

And the movie’s theme song was of course The Shoop-shoop Song. It is how I met my Samantha Utay, It is one of the first things I noticed about her. She billed herself as a family-oriented person. Come Sunday, she’s going to tell me more about her family circumstances, why she does the things that she does, but boyo – is she in for a surprise; because I’ve already made up my mind about her. I’ve already made up my mind about us. I’ve already made an investment in our future.

A Good Catholic Girl from the Philippines, actually.

And it’s not material, let me tell you. Those of you who have known me over the years, who thought you knew me, might be wondering. Why would a man usually quite reserved about his private affairs, his Love life in particular, be so open and gregarious about it today? Yes, that much is still true. I would much rather keep quiet about my private life, my Love life in particular. When it happens. Ha-ha. What goes on behind closed doors is really not anyone’s business, that sort of thing.

But there is a reason why I go on like I do today. I must just admit that at times this is not always easy to do because still. I am a private man. We were talking about it just yesterday, actually. And although it was always in the back of my mind, I kind of knew this much about her anyways, it still blew me away. I was a tad excited showing her some of the sights in Cape Town. I was introducing her to what we would refer to as Cape Town’s pink village – Green Point – where the LGBTQ+ crowd would hang out.

I took her to an old haunt called Cafe Manhattan. It is a place of many memories for me. One or two intimate moments but most of them social. But she stopped me short halfway through my excitable tour and said this. “Listen here, Babe. I’m not really into that scene. I’m a rather conservative, decent transgendered woman, you know.” Words to that effect. And it blew me away still. I’m in Love with her family centeredness. I’m in Love with her reserved nature. As I have said before, it is like looking into a mirror at times.

Between you and me; I think Wonder Woman is Transgendered.

Now, given all that I have said, and given away in previous posts, why would I wish to expose at least part of our private lives to you all? Well, I have spoken to Samantha about this and she has my back. But she is also sick and tired. She is sick and tired of having to explain her reason for being. She is tired of having to explain to others that she was Born this Way. Henceforth she had decided to retire from being a gender rights activist. All she wants to do now is just settle down and have a normal life.

Little did my mom realize at the time that she was actually paying me a huge compliment when, out of sheer frustration, I guess, she declared to me that; Mark, you don’t lead a normal life. Ah, yes, that much is true. Why be normal? Life would be so boring if we were not able to surround ourselves with the Lady Gaga’s and Jokers of this world. But little did she realize. I yearn for that too. It was just a question of with who. Who knows, as Arthur Fleck would hesitate to suggest. But this looks good, actually.

I would much rather have a normal life with this woman. Samantha Utay Rueca. She has things in common with my mum. She is family-oriented. She Loves to cook and to feed. And let me tell you, she’s pretty good at that. Oh, and this will blow my mom away; she Loves her gardening. I have seen her garden. I have seen it, it is like an Eden. Now, ask anyone who knows my mom even remotely. Better still, ask my wise and Loving pop. This woman lives for her garden. Well, she lives for her grandkids too.

Samantha retreats to her garden for her peace and tranquility. I find solace in my books. But I Love sitting in her garden. Coffee, smokes, books, pen and paper. Complete. Life is complete. Well, almost because there is still work to be done. While Samantha retreats from being a gender rights activist, I step forward. I have to do this. And this is why I have chosen to make our secluded lives public. We are just so sick and tired of all the hate. It’s like Aunty Cher wailed; there’s just not enough Love in the world.

Handsome. Apparently.

In a different way, I feel the prejudice almost every single day. You sometimes wish you could just tell the offender to belt it already. But of course, it is never easy. I will be quite honest with you, I slip and fall at times, but as far as I am concerned, it is inexcusable. If there is prejudice in your heart, how can there be real Love. If it makes you uncomfortable, if it frustrates you at times, that there is someone out there who battles to cope with being different – physically challenged, gender challenged – then leave.

Nothing is going to change the fact that there are many more out there who are different from you, not so much that they choose to be different, they just are. It’s like the horror video showed; Born this Way. So, if someone is born this way, who are we to alter what God has done. After all, is it not He that created us this way? He chose us to be this way for good reason. It is like Jesus said when healing the blind man. So then, why did we agree to do this. Why did we choose to go public with our Love life.

My Beautiful Filipino Queen, actually.

We are doing this more for those who remain oppressed and hard done by. Our hearts and thoughts are with the kids. Young transgendered boys and girls, in particular, but gay and lesbian boys and girls too. And for that matter, black lives too. They matter. If you still don’t get it, well now, its on you. That there are those who choose to Love has never been doubted. All we seek to do is to show what is possible. Love matters more than anything else. It is what God wanted. He said it Himself.

I recite Psalm 91 pretty much everyday. In it it states that God will protect you if you Love Him. But for the time being; we Love you to the Moon and Back. Mwhah!

Thank You for Making America Great

Dear Mr. Trump

Thank you for keeping your election promise after defeating Democrat Senator Hilary Clinton in 2016.

Mr. Trump, four years later, the proof is in the Pudding as I always Love to say to my Dahling Samantha Utay. Because, yeah, America is great.

Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA

Bewildered readers, let me explain why I am thanking Mr. Trump for the first and last time. A gentleman in my neighborhood, Brooklyn – not Brooklyn, New York, not Brooklyn, Jo’burg, but a rundown little suburb on the outskirts of Cape Town which, quite frankly, I’m a proud member of – declared that the outcome of this historic election would be the end of democracy and the rise of socialism.

I beg to differ.

I actually grew up in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn, NYC

Not as a child, but as a man.

The anonymous gentleman did not, as far as I am concerned. Today, he proclaimed his comfort with living under a fascist regime. I asked him to picture 1930’s Germany which ushered in fifteen or so years of sheer horror. Quite a while back, I remarked to him that while he may well serve as a puppet in that imaginary regime, a slave even, I would more than likely be DEAD.

So too my Beloved Samantha Utay. Why? Well, we’re not Jewish, so it’s not that. We’re devout Catholics, actually, more specifically, followers of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Mr. Trump, Jesus has more followers than you, just thought I’d ought to let you know. Anyhow, Samantha and I would literally be dead because our lives as a transgender couple in Nazi Germany would not have been permitted.  

US President-elect Joe Biden

Mr. Trump, thanks to you, more people than at any time in America’s history went to the polls. Full credit to you too Mr. Trump because more people voted for you than in the previous election. And United States President-elect, Joe Biden, collected the MOST VOTES EVER for an incoming candidate. Roughly speaking, that’s one hundred and forty million citizens in total that actually voted. It’s phenomenal, Mr. Trump. Thanks again. To the erstwhile Brooklyn gentleman, well, this does not sound like socialism to me. This was Democracy in action.

It is at this point that I wish to express my thanks for the privilege of being able to enjoy the freedom of the press. For once, on this historic night, I read the online papers, The New York Times, The Guardian and the BBC newswires. Right through to the end. It’s not yet official at the time of writing, Mr. Trump, but basically, you’re FIRED! Always wanted to say that. Always hated The Apprentice. Prizes for guessing why, dear readers? Anyhow, it’s really down to the wire as far as both Houses go. The Republicans keep control of the Senate. And the Democrats are back in business in Congress.

Where some of the real work gets done. And work will be done, needs to be done, once you vacate that other house, the White House. Has Melania started packing? No? Oh well. Anyway, people may argue that these are houses divided. I say not. Its democracy in action. No one party has full control of either the Senate or Congress. And the President does not have full control of the country. President-elect Biden has offered to rule across America and represent all its diverse peoples, its interests, its needs.

US Vice-president-elect Kamala Harris as a child

That’s quite a challenge, I must say. But a wise father should do alright, I reckon. Joe Biden actually KNOWS WHAT HE’S DOING. He’s had years of experience. I honestly don’t think President Obama could have done any better without his counsel. And now he has this, the country as a whole has this. A nurturing, motherly voice of reason although I dare say that Vice-president-elect Kamala Harris’s promises to ‘defund’ the country’s law enforcement agencies remains questionable. But at least she stands for equality.

It is interesting to note that her Hindu mum raised her in sunny California before she went into the law and ultimately to the Senate. It is on our bucket list. If God allows this, we would like to spend time in San Francisco, a home from home to the Village People and all those who identify themselves as part of the LGBTQ+ family. Curiously too, Francisco is Samantha’s birth name. Or as she would prefer to say; her real name. I’d like to take Samantha to New York to show her the Stonewall memorial. And where the World Trade Center once stood. I’d like to take her to Auschwitz, Poland so that we may pay our respects to all those innocent lives that were lost during the Nazi Holocaust.  

Of course, I’d like to live with her in Paco, Manila someday too. But that’s a story for another day.

Stonewall Memorial

The New York Times’ editorial board reported directly after it was confirmed that Mr. Biden had amassed the electoral college votes that would pave the way for him to move to the White House, and for you, Mr. Trump to move out of it, that the ‘abyss of autocratic nationalism’ had come to an end. Mr. Trump, you once put it that your life is a gamble. You should know this, though, that you don’t gamble with other people’s lives, all two-hundred and twenty thousand of them. But I’d like to make a wager with my literary colleagues that your country will NOT LEAVE THE CLIMATE CHANGE ACCORD.

And it has already been confirmed that there is no such thing as clean coal.

Obamacare is back on the table and this time, I dare say, President-elect Biden will make sure it reaches the people that it was meant to assist. Basically, in a nutshell, the most marginalized. Re-reading Professor Kendi’s How to be an Antiracist, I was horrified to read this. I’m going to quote in full. It’s from his chapter on Sexuality.

Christopher Street, NYC

“All Black lives include those of poor transgender Black women, perhaps the most violated and oppressed of all the Black intersectional groups. The average US life expectancy of a transgender woman of color is thirty-five years. The racial violence they face; the transphobia they face as they seek to live freely is unfathomable.”

It sounds like a horror story straight out of a Nazi concentration camp. And this is America, people, a country of which we expected so much more. God, this is one passage that would send a chill down my dearest’s spine. But a motherly voice of reason does appear to prevail because Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris is an affirmative believer in equality, much in the same way that Janet Mock is. President-elect Biden has undertaken to sign off on all the outstanding equalizing reforms that President Obama spent his entire two terms building on.

Peaceful protest against Trump’s border wall threats

This, Mr. Trump, was something that you REFUSED to do. You denied that climate change (and global warming) was real. You denied that you were a racist while denying the rights of the oppressed, the Latino communities in particular. It’s all back on the table once grandfather Joe sets his behind into the grand old chair that you spent the last four years farting into. The New York Times affirms that ‘now the real work begins’. Mr. Trump, prior to making America great again, you left it ‘weaker, meaner, poorer, sicker’ and a lot more divided than it was when you took office.

It’s in our human nature, Mr. Trump, it’s actually what makes us stronger now, you see. It’s like the great Democrat President Franklin D Roosevelt once said; the only thing to fear is fear itself. America defeated the Nazis. And if they could do that, they can defeat COVID-19. I’ll wager with you, Mr. Trump, that come President-elect Biden’s inauguration speech, the virus will be on its way out. I confess that I’m a Believer in Divine Intervention. As our dear Madam Speaker tirelessly commandeers Julius Malema and his rabid red berets, time and time again, Mr. Trump, will you please leave the house.

Whitney Houston sings US National anthem

I’ll close off now but take my cue from my Samantha who never forgets to ask God to Bless her country, the Philippines after berating President Duterte et al by proclaiming;

May God Bless America.

When America Sneezes; the World Catches Cold

Well, it caught more than a cold this time round. Only the thing is, the USA bears the brunt of the vicious COVID-19 pandemic. After all, it languishes in first place for most coronavirus infections. And the most deaths. Two-hundred and twenty thousand and counting. All under the watch of one man who once labelled said virus as the kung-flu. He maintains that the US economy is picking up. Yes, GDP numbers were up this quarter.

But many millions more are out of work. Does all this sound familiar? Well, it would if you were an octogenarian. You might have harrowing recollections of the Great Depression, little knowing that the Spanish Flu was breathing down your neck. I was thinking about this today. Since that depressing era in America’s history, it occurred to me that come elections and Democrats were returned in greater numbers to Congress, and a Democrat was back in the White House, it would proceed to clean up the mess that the Republicans left behind.

“The only thing to fear is fear itself”

Democrat President Franklin D Roosevelt brought America back from the brink. And returned millions of American men and women back to work. Whilst Congress kept America out, Roosevelt conspired to create the Lend-Lease Act which would see to it that Churchill and his allies could fight on. After Pearl Harbour was bombed, the Americans crossed the Atlantic and proceeded to drive Hitler and his Nazis back from whence they came.

“The buck stops here”

Democrat President Harry S Truman was considered to be something of a greenhorn when he replaced the deceased Roosevelt. You could almost hear Churchill chuckle as he chewed his cigar and sipped his bourbon. You could hear Stalin wheeze as he choked the life out of millions. But no, Truman was a different kettle of fish. Regrettably, he ushered in what later came to be known as collateral damage.

Thousands of Japanese citizens lost their lives. But the war was won.

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”

Democrat President John F Kennedy went to the White House after defeating Republican challenger Richard Nixon (who was not a crook). He and his brother, Robert, set about emancipating the country’s minorities, endeavouring to shred all laws of segregation. He brought the country bank from the brink of nuclear annihilation. The American economy was recovering and more young men and women were going to school.

He showed leadership by acknowledging his errors of judgment after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Unfortunately, he was not allowed to live on to see Martin Luther King Jnr’s dream come true.

“It’s the economy, stupid”

Democrat President Bill Clinton will forever be remembered as the comeback kid for the way he won his election. And the way he was re-elected. But more importantly, he should be remembered for salvaging the US economy after Reagan’s years of excess.

“Change we can believe in”

It was high time. 9/11. And the economy became stupid. It was the Republican Bush years. Barack H Obama set about restoring the American economy after the Great Recession. And made strides in introducing yet more equalizing laws on behalf of the most marginalized. Indeed, there was even a transgendered woman serving in Obama’s cabinet. Climate reforms were on the table. And Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his initiatives to reduce the two super-power’s nuclear arms stockpiles.

Incidentally, during his two terms in office, President Obama had wise counsel. He had the ear and voice of Democrat Vice President Joe Biden. Today, the elder statesman has stepped forward to reverse the years of crass ineptitude and rudderless leadership of a carpet-bagger who once boasted that he would much rather turn rogue as a Republican. Malcolm X once declared “by any means necessary”.

You need not go that far. All you would need do is show up on November 3, 2020, this in the year of the virus and vote Democrat Joe Biden and his running-mate, Democrat Senator Kamala Harris, into the White House. And set the world back on its path towards world peace and economic recovery. And end COVID-19.