One Thing Before I Go

There was a youth hostel in Venice Beach.
I went in and stayed for a while.
There were people, some peculiar,
With ideas and perspectives
Far removed from the insular,
safe, world I grew up in, miles
and thousands of miles away
Ideas out of reach for a kid
And for that matter it was good that I did
want nothing less than to learn what it all meant,
so they remained unsavory and out of reach,
(for this guy) for lack of better adjectives.
Years later I understood
Everything all on my own.
It's not hard to, people just
Don't want to be alone,
to remedy that they do what they must
even if it means hatred
from everyone so unjust

The profound sadness I felt when I understood
or thought I understood
(I'm stupid sometimes - not a big shocker)
through no investigation at all
caused me to change the way I think about the world.

As a person I wasn't very good,
when I was a younger man.
In fact
I was
a jerk.
Outed my best friend
because of stupidity and insecurity.
even though it was accidentally
reasoning with myself
that there was nothing scary about
sexual freedom
did
not
work

Some people generate human emotions just from their existence
so many lonely souls, tortured by lies
about morality, sexuality and guilt,
The ultimate downtrodden of all underdogs
Despised for weakness though they may not be weak,
Described as terrible things
Because they are different.
Those people moved me.

I vowed to stand up for them,
Then and forever,
At least with my voice,
or physically, though never
has that been necessary.
They looked like they needed some help
And almost twenty years later
My tiny role in changing the world
Looks like it may have helped.

Just to let the world know
That what's been said and done on these pages
In support of sexual freedom,
It all came from above, not below.
Surely even skeptics and atheists
Understand such distinctions of ideals:
It was not something flippant
or heavy, neither timid nor
overly aggressive; in God's kingdom
the small things count.

And though I believe atheists deserve a fair shake
If I lied and said there is no God in my awareness
Then I truly would be a lout.
That thing I
Can Not
Do.