Queer Quests

We know how to live in a world without tuberculosis. But we choose not to live in that world.

We are powerful enough to light the world at night, to artificially refrigerate food, to leave Earth's atmosphere and orbit it from outer space. But we cannot save those we love from suffering. This is the story of human history as I understand it—the story of an organism that can do so much, but cannot do what it most wants.

Joy is a glimmer of love and forgiveness and wholeness that lifts us out of reality for a moment and gives us back to ourselves, anew.

It remains one of the great curiosities of American religious development that enslaved Africans and their descendents so readily embraced the faith of their oppressors, and then so adeptly reshaped it into a liberation theology.

The missionaries could only fulfill the calling of slave conversion with the acquiescence of white enslavers. But white trust could only be gained through the corruption of Christian values.

Despite their lengthy cohabitation, Christianity and slavery had always made for uncomfortable bedfellows. For all the scriptural references to slaveholding, for all the assurances of religion's sedative effects, the owners of America's chattel recognized that Christianity, left unchecked, could encourage a subversive egalitarianism.

It was the builders, not the takers, who changed the world.

In space, no one can hear you scream like a little girl.

I'm just going to sit in the acceleration couch and hope for the best.

Well, if I could have anything, it would be for the green-skinned yet beautiful Queen of Mars to rescue me so she can learn more about this Earth thing called "love-making."

I started the day with some nothin' tea. Nothin' tea is easy to make. First, get some hot water, then add nothin'.

I'll spend the rest of the evening enjoying a potato. And by "enjoying" I mean "hating so much I want to kill people."

As soon as the rover toppled, I curled up into a little ball and cowered. That's the kind of action hero I am.

Tomorrow night, I'll be in Giovanni Schiaparelli's favorite hole!

I can't wait until I have grandchildren. "When I was younger, I had to walk to the rim of a crater. Uphill! In an EVA suit! On Mars, ya little shit! Ya hear me! Mars!

This valley wasn't made by a river slowly carving it away. It was made by a mega-flood in a single day. It would have been a hell of a thing to see.