Big picture of same-sex marriage

The latest post in Big Picture blog covers the subject of the same-sex marriage.  Being a huge fan of the blog, I feel responsible to share these pictures too.  The pictures themselves are beautiful, irrelevant of what you think about the subject.  That’s just great photography.

Now on to the subject.  There are a few things that I want to make clear, and even if I said them before, I want to emphasize them once again.

  • I am not against gay marriage. If that’s your thing – knock yourself out.
  • I am against calling it marriage. Maybe it’s just me, but the word “marriage” has a very precise meaning.  The same way I don’t call people who live together and have children together married, unless they went through a specific process, I don’t want to call same-sex unions “marriages”.  Just find another word for it.  That’s all I’m asking, and I don’t think that’s too much.  You can enjoy all the same rights married people do.  Just don’t call it “marriage”. Because it’s not.
  • I consider the argument “Why do you care if it does not involve you?” stupid. Not dumb or silly, but stupid.  Gay marriage is not about me or you.  It is about the society in which we live.  And that does involve both me and you.  Asking why I care is similar to asking why I care about the Gulf oil spill or a tsunami in Asia.  Those things do not involve me, and do not directly affect my daily life.  But they have big impact on the society in which we live.  And that’s why I care.  Even if I can’t do much about it.

I think that’s all I wanted to say today.  But feel free to continue the discussion in the comments.

Day in brief

Sergey Larenkov : Now and Then

Sergey Larenkov seems to be spending quite a lot of time producing stunning images which combine photographs of the same place as it is now and as it used to be during the World War II.

If I saw something like this back when I was struggling through boredom of my history lessons, I think I would have done much better.  This stuff is awesome!

Thought of the day

Here is a quote from this New York Times article:

Beauty is not the goal of competitive sports, but high-level sports are a prime venue for the expression of human beauty. The relation is roughly that of courage to war.

Beautiful writing altogether.  Read for more, even if you are like me – not a tennis fan.