Last night was Houston Pride. I marched in the parade with my church: Covenant Church (an Ecumenical Liberal Baptist Congregation). See link at end of the post. I've been to the parade every year since moving to Houston in 2004, but last night was the first time I was a part of the parade. I was surprised by the crowd's enthusiastic reception as we marched along with our modest float. Maybe it's because we were throwing out coozies and beads. I made a point of handing a coozie to the people who were drinking beer with no coozie. Seemed like the practical thing to do, right? Next year, I'm going to hand out cards with my name, picture and phone number to some of the guys standing along the route. Before the parade, my ex and I were discussing my recent dissatisfaction with my love life, and he said I need to release it to the universe. I'm not really sure what the hell that means. The way I see it, if you ain't playing the lottery, you ain't gonna win the jackpot. Pardon the digression.
Covenant has given more to me than any other church has - it's the first church I've visited where doubt is discussed openly and without judgment. Didn't Jesus say something like if you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, you could move a mountain? My interpretation of that is that no-one has faith the size of a mustard seed because last I checked, the mountains are right where they've always been. The first time I went to Covenant, I was with the aforementioned ex. We'd been dating a little over a week (kind of did the lesbian thing and I moved in with him during that first week), and he took me to church with him on the condition that he would visit the Episcopal church with me. Covenant's building is small and there are no pews - just bulky brown wooden chairs that were arranged in neat rows facing the altar which was placed in a corner at the front of the church. We sat on the outside end of one of the rows. I don't remember the content of the proclamation that day, but I do remember the choir - only the men were singing, and when it was time for the choir to do their big number, the men lined up on the two sides of the church and sang a song a Capella (I'll find the song and post it one of these days). I started crying as the men started singing and didn't stop until the service ended some 30 minutes later. And I'm talking one of those wet, sniffly cries that comes on when there isn't a tissue within ten miles. Although I don't recall the details of the service that day (other than the crying fit), what I do remember about the proclamation and the music and the church and the people and the service was how I felt. It's one of the few times in my life where I felt like I was right where I was supposed to be. I felt that way again last night as I walked the parade route with the float and the other members of Covenant who ranged in age from 5 to 85, all of whom were happy and feeling that they were exactly where they were supposed to be, too.
I was surprised how quickly the parade ended. In retrospect, the route was too short. I don't recall the last time I was cheered at - maybe graduation from law school? I kind of liked it. I liked the hooting and the hollering and the clapping and the big smiles and laughing, no doubt from seeing the word "Baptist" plastered in purple on a float in the gay pride parade. Or maybe it was the beads and the coozies and the beer. But you know, if one person decides to visit Covenant after seeing us last night, then the reason for the cheering really doesn't matter.
Well, I didn't intend for this post to be about church - I'm most definitely not a bible thumper - but there you have it. A friend of mine recently played me a song that she wrote, and she said she'd started out writing a happy Christmas tune. But what she played was a very sad song about breaking up with her boyfriend. Go figure.
http://www.covenanthouston.org/
