Watch Us Fly

For me what I'd like to say in today's post is both a bit humorous and also profoundly meaningful. Many years ago now, when I first began to sense that I was gay but didn't know how to accept myself, I also started to discover the music of some amazing "divas" who helped me find dignity and hope within at a a time when it wasn't easy to affirm either.

For many gay men, divas like Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand and many others all provide a sense of solace and comfort as examples we can identify with - people who'd often normally be rejected or marginalized by society but who find extraordinary dignity and strength somewhere deep inside, from which they rise up and overcome the forces that keep them down. And for me it's a bit humorous because without a doubt I'm no exception to this diva rule. As a young person I loved the music of Barbra and Judy and Liza I think precisely because it gave me a way to escape from my personal fears and sense that I too could learn to overcome self-hate and dejection some day.

One film that was particularly moving to me at that time was Yentl, Barbra Streisand's directorial debut and the story of a young Jewish woman in 19th-century Eastern Europe who disguises herself as a man in order to study theology, falls in love with one of her fellow students and ultimately finds peace with herself and hope for a bright future. The last song, "A Piece of Sky" is Yentl's song of triumph over her fears and the narrow attitudes that had kept her from realizing her dreams. Additionally, it's also the theme of one of the first essays I wrote as I learned to find my own voice as a writer. Although it took me many years to finally begin to come full circle and understand what this song really means, I am profoundly grateful to finally be experiencing something of the hope and freedom it speaks of - the gifts that are our birthright as beloved children of our Creator.

Therefore, with an appropriate dose of diva humor and healthy self-deprecation as well as profound and sincere gratitude to the God who continues to lead us out - from despair into hope, from darkness into light, from death into life - I dedicate this song to all the LGBT folk who are still "in" and afraid of what it might mean to live as who they really are. May God grant us all the grace to find true freedom, self-acceptance and peace, the capacity to realize we are loved and cherished exactly as we are and the courage we need to accept one of life's most profound truths - that deep within us and all around us have everything we need to overcome and be free, that each of us has the wings we need to truly fly.

With love and blessings,

Padre Chuck