Filed by Trevor at 11:25 pm under Activism, Catholicism, Gay Agenda, Humanism, Love, Sex Ed
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This evening I attended Chicago Opera Vanguard’s second annual AIDS Quilt Songbook, which not only functions as a valuable fundraiser for outreach programs in the city, but is also a fantastic exhibition of local composers and performers. To boot, this year’s concert was held at Center on Halsted, which was an even more appropriate venue and didn’t require schlepping down to Hyde Park again. Bonus.
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Filed by Trevor at 12:05 am under Activism, Humanism, Shameless Plugs, Social Issues
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Rather than carry on the way I normally do and preface this entry with loads of backstory and ancillary details that relate in no way to anything else, I’ll be direct: in just over a month I will begin six months of training for the Chicago AIDS Marathon to be held on October 11th, and along the way I will also be participating in the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk. This is hugely out of character for me and I’m absolutely terrified, but paradoxically this is precisely why I have confidence this is the path I need to take.
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Filed by Bil at 9:53 pm under Fightin' Words, Humanism, Love
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We’ll start with the shoes.

I don’t really have that much to say about my shoes, other than it had been over a year since I had my own (functioning) pair of Converse All-Stars, but thanks to a Christmas miracle, I am once again strapped in canvas and rubber, burning down highways and ready to kick ass at a moment’s notice. Life is a thousand times better. These shoes will make 2008 SO much better. This pair especially, the first after a dark age in my life, will not only get me around, they will serve as a symbol that my spirit is running strong. When there is a roadblock, they will make a brief squeak on the floor and we’ll all just pick right up again, fast as before. In fact, these shoes will probably help me fly. Literally.

And speaking of Christmas miracles, several orphans in Chicago had a VERY merry Christmas this year thanks to my place of work and a little bit of war – penny wars, to be exact. Much of the credit of the success goes to my team, I might add.
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Filed by Stephen at 8:06 am under Humanism, Religion, The Arts
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Snowfall –
Blanket of silence and cold descending
On the world, destroying, preserving,
Beautiful and terrible.

In the darkness and drought
Of life and love that is Winter
We search for a flicker
Of Why in each other
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