Lesbians vs. the Religious Right...and Ultrarunning

The passing of astronaut Sally Ride last week, and her posthumous coming out as a gay woman, made me think again at how unimportant one's sexual orientation is.  What truly matters--as Dr. Martin Luther King said--is the content of one's character.

Anyway, I thought back back to an office setting where I once worked.  This was pre-headphones, and PCs were equipped only with a set of small speakers.

As you might imagine, in a cubicle situation you had to be very cognizant of your sound levels so as not to disturb your co-workers.

Anyway, I was listening to a k. d. lang CD on my PC, needing to play it loud enough to drown out the religious radio station sounds coming from the adjacent cubicle.  The irony of it all still brings a smile to my face.  It was a lesbian versus the religious right.....and, thankfully, the lesbian was winning.

However, I am reminded of one of Kurt Vonnegut's novels (maybe "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" ?), in which he offers the opinion that one cannot share an irony--it simply cannot be done.  Vonnegut maintained that attempts to share ironies only meet with quizzical glances and half-raised eyebrows.....

The connection to Ultrarunning?  The very conservative, super-religious owner of the radio was for a time one of my best running buddies, despite our differences in opinion on the matter of gays.  We all have our blind spots, myself included, and it's wrong to define a life by a single act or attitude.